On Saturday, Shigeo and I wanted to walk south to the airport when Puna came with the community pick up truck towards us. His son Vano was sitting on a bench at the cargo area, a small one axle trailer connected. He was doing airport shuttle service and invited us to join him.

We took the invitation. He explained us that he has to pick up some people and their luggage to bring them to the airport; among them also his daughter Takaia. It’s a service where people will get picked up at or brought to their homes incl their luggage or what just needs to be transported to and from the airport. That’s easily possible in a community like Omoka.

Puna drove the truck slowly matching the road condition. But there was also no need to drive faster. All is easy going but not undetermined. The big difference to money countries.

The flight, Puna explained, was a chartered one as there are no scheduled flights at all. Only chartered or emergency flights.

This time it was necessary to have a chartered flight because 3 engineers needed to come to get the diesel generator of the island up and running again. Via remote diagnostic and the information from the island technician they knew what spare parts are needed and the work to be done.

As the airplane was coming to Penrhyn and had to return, the return flight was then used to get people and freight from the island to Rarotonga. To fill a 10-seater plane is not that difficult.

The airport is a 2.1 km long, former 2nd WW airstrip of the US air force. It’s surface is said it’s not good for bigger planes with around 20 seats. For such planes the surface needs to be sealed. This also is one of Puna’s projects. Another one is to establish vegetable farming. It’s not that easy to grow vegetables on coral islands because there is no topsoil.

Back to the airport.

There is concrete place covered with a roof to provide rain and sun protection for people while waiting for the airplane. A few benches inside to enable people to sit down. The “departure hall” of Penrhyn airport. It’s all what is needed. There was also a little shack near by to store things needed for the air traffic.

There are even aluminum fuel tanks for the airplanes. The containers, I estimate, have a volume of a bit less than 2000 l each. Presumably they are brought by the supply boat, which comes every 3 – 4 month but sometimes it takes 5 – 6 month. I don’t know how many liters the plane refills for the return flight but it could become a bit narrow when the supply boat is delayed. On the other side, these islanders know what they need and manage their things; especially with Puna who collects and analyzes numbers instead of feelings.

Interesting is the fuel pump. A 1-cylinder, 2-stroke engine, by hand started like a small outboard engine, drives the pump. However, the fuel is passed through a filter before going into the tank of the air plane.

The plane, Rarotonga Air uses these days, has turbo-prop twin-engines.

After quite some people – about 30 – 40 – gathered in the “departure hall”. Among them the priest of the Ziona church. He then initiated the signing of a hymn, which was followed by sermon of him. I assume it was all for a safe flight. (It reminds me a bit to my departure to Osaka back in October 1982, when a group of my former students came along and sang a song Marianne composed a song especially for that event.)

Puna, as his back was not fully recovered, kept sitting in his car. I went back to him and we talked about projects he is working on or he plans to run. Among them wind energy.

He told me that someone had a wind converter and it worked nice for a few years until state parts were needed. Spare parts are needed and the most important ones must be on the island. I also have spare part kit for my SuperWind 350 on board. Nothing needed so far, but available when needed. I offered Puna to contact the German SuperWind manufacturer because I remembered a wind converter model, which could be an ideal fitting to Penrhyn.

Side note 1: A few days after my conversation with Puna I contacted SuperWind and explained also the need for an adjusted spare parts stock at the island. They company reacted positive. Now it’s up to Puna and SuperWind to make the best out it. I keep fingers crossed.

Side note 2: In 2nd thought I realized that this wind converter is ideal for all the other islands in the South Pacific. They all “hang” in the SE trade wind, which blows on average around 13 KN and when the wind gets stronger they adjust rotor blade pitch and produce a very high current fit wind speeds to above 40 KN. All these islands don’t have big budgets for big wind converter but a network of reasonably sized wind converters. Start with one or a few and add when the budget is available. E.g. savings of diesel fuel will make money available to get more wind converters to increase the savings.

Back to Puna and me in his car.

When the airplane arrived, he asked me to understand but he has to do some things. He then drove with his truck and the one axle trailer next to the airplane to deliver the luggage of the departing passengers but when i returned he transported all the arriving luggage and freight. Beside loading and unloading the airplane the most seen activity at that moment in time was hugging and kissing. It was nice to watch these warm and intensive moments between people.

On the way back from the airport into the village, Shigeo and I rode on the bench of the cargo area together with Vano. It was interesting to listen to his questions about our countries and their big cities. I could hear his thirst for information and maybe also his quest for experiencing these countries and cities. I also had it very strong when I was young. However, it also was difficult to give Vano the best answer possible. He lives now in paradise from our point of view. We are aware of the paradise-problems and the problems of living in metropolises. To put this in good answer for Vano was for me very difficult; I just tried my best.

Then we reached the place where the engineers had their accommodation. It was just the house of a family and they got there a place to sleep. We later learned that they got their meal from the best known cook of Omoka: Kristine. (See: Alex and Kristine – catching up again; 240930_03)

We gave Vano a hand with unloading of the luggage and stepped off ourselves shortly thereafter.

What an interesting time we had during which we also gained a good inside into matters of the island and it’s wonderful people. Thank you Puna and Vano and all the others.

He successfully pecked boozer wind-ow and got him shoveling wind over to us. Enough for the wind theft the monkey with the tin tool to keep it busy somewhere SW of us and we still have 6 – 8 KN TWS for us.

While I prepared the bread dough for autolyzing, MaRe started sailing again. So we are making again 2.8 KN on the direct route to Kiritimati.

In the E, the sky was tainted in a beautiful orange-red. Like sunsets, the sunrises are magic moments at sea, which one can enjoy at land. When the sun sets in the W we will have again freshly baked sourdough bread on board.

During the day I’ll do my best to finish another throw-back narration about Penrhyn Island.

Mr Wind-ow drank too much. Mr Lin-ux found him sleeping under a tree on one of the Tuamotus islands. My old friend, the monkey with the tin tool, just showed his “pretty” face on PRT giving me his “beautiful” smirk. What a beautiful situation we are in!

With an wind vane angle of around 70 deg STB im try to keep the sails up because the wind changes “only” between N and E. Therefore, I have hope that Mr Lin-ux pecks sleeping boozer wind-ow strong enough that he wakes up and starts shoveling wind over to us.

… is something MaRe is not doing yesterday, last night, and most likely not doing all day long today.

Wind forecast is below 10 KN and the wind is still coming too much from N.

However, it seems that the forecasted change in wind direction comes. MaRe’s track on the chat plotter gets bend a bit more N. What we want is that the wind turns at least to real E so we can sail E of N.

To give some figures. MaRe sails with the auto pilot in wind vane mode at a set AWA of 50 deg. Currently our COG is roughly 325 deg because the wind comes from 15 deg (325 deg + 50 deg = 375 deg = 360 deg + 15 deg).

To reach Kiritimati from where we are now, we need to sail a course of 008 deg therefore we need a wind from 58 deg. (In this calculation wind and current drift are neglected.)

Additionally, if we can increase the AWA from currently 50 deg to 70 – 90 deg, MaRe will run much faster. Therefore a wind coming straight E would be highly appreciated.

So far something about our current sailing and wind situation, and what we want to have. Now it’s up to you to keep fingers crossed that we get the right wind! We are thanking you in anticipation.

As I was tired from a bit of lack of sleep last night, I took a nap. My dream helped to turn wind coming a bit more from E. It was the wind-change-dream. I can imagine that you would like to know that dream to help you to change wind directions to more preferred one. However, the secret of such dreams is their secret…

The lagoon of Penrhyn Islands is s nice place for various types of sharks.

Where MaRe was at anchor she had always s group of 4 – 6 smaller black tip sharks around her.

It was interesting to watch them when Shigeo threw uneatable pieces of tuna over board. The first shark which arrived, looked carefully at the piece of tuna before it ate it.

Only the next pieces were eaten faster.

Sharks are not the all immediately eating beasts as they are often to normally described.

Still, I didn’t want to fall in the water with a group of sharks around me. The people of the neighbor boat had a swim.

When we set sails, I saw that the lowest batton was out of the tensioner. Thus, I quickly changed to reef 2 instead of reef 1. This allowed me to have a look at the tensioner while we were sailing.

I found that the cover plate was missing and a part of the remaining tensioner broke. I was pretty “happy” because the sail is just – almost on the day – used for only 3 years. Another repair needed. My conclusion: never ever a sail from Doyle Austria, former Doyle Raudaschl.

We can continue like that and if I’m lucky I can repair it in Kirimati. At least I got an idea on how to do it. I will see.

As for sailing, we are currently about 45 deg of the course to the W because the wind is coming from the absolute wrong direction. NNE is were we want to go. Forecast of this morning says wind will turn E after weakening during the night Let’s see how it develops.

Alex was the one who gave us a warm welcome at the fund raising event when we arrived and where looking what’s goin on and where we possibly could sit.

On the way from the shop to the northern end of the village we saw him sitting in front of a house about 150 m away from MaRe. Shigeo and I talked several times about this house and it’s design while sitting in the cockpit.

Now we see Alex is the owner and builder of this nice house.

He is not only building it, but he is also teaching his grandsons how to do various works. He trains them to get the necessary skills for their future life. On this very day, they built a 3-step concrete outside stair.

Alex showed us around in his house and explained not only what he did already but also what he plans to do in next steps.

Somewhere at a suitable point Shigeo asked where we possibly could get eggs, fruits, and vegetables. Typical for Alex, he said “Go to my wife and asked her for papaya, onions etc.”

We went to his home, and his wife and the daughter, who is their 11th child, gave us a warm welcome. They knew us from the event. It was actually his daughter who sold me the delicious lunchbox meal I bought at the event. It contained an excellent breadfruit salad, which tasted very much like a potato salad.

We were immediately invited to sit down and the daughter brought us 2 cool drinking coconuts. Gosh, these coconuts are so delicious. She also showed me how to remove the thick husk of the coconut quickly. One only needs the right tool and technique.

We talked about the event on Wednesday and that I forgot to buy bread, thus I had to bake this morning. It turned out that Kristine baked the bread sold at the event. This was interesting for me and we started talking about baking bread. It started with baking bread for her big family and now she is baking for the village. I wondered about the size of the oven she has. Alestine was asked to show me the oven. I was surprised on one side, but understood it immediately on the other side.

The oven is based on Polynesian cooking tradition where food is wrapped in banana leafs and put in a hole in the ground where there was fire before. Then all is covered and after a certain time the food is ready to eat and delicious. I hope that during stays in other Polynesian islands I can see and taste this cooking style.

Back to Kristine’s oven. It is a about 40 – 50 cm deep maybe 120 cm wide and 160 cm long, rectangular hole in the ground but built of concrete. The floor is covered with stones. Fire is made on the stones and they accumulate and store the heat. Once the fire had burned down, only ashes are left, and the stones have enough heat, a plate with bread in forms are placed on a grid just above the hot stones. The hole is then closed with corrugated sheet iron. To preserve the heat inside, old blankets are put over the corrugated sheet iron. That’s all. It functions well. Fire wood is plenty around from palm leaves and coconuts husks. Recycling a natural product. CO2 neutral.

We got a big slice of her bread with butter to taste. It was simply very delicious!

Kristine then told us the story of her life. How she felt in love with Alex and has with him 11 children. The youngest, Alestine sitting with us. All the others are gone to Australia and New Zealand. They all have good positions and if I’m not wrong, all are married and have children in these countries. Accidentally the daughter, who is nurse in NZ, was on the island on this very day because she had to accompany a patient on an emergency flight.

When one listens to Kristine’s stories and looks at Alestine one gets a feeling for the family harmony she and Alex created. Simply admirable!

We talked about many more things, which I don’t recall anymore but it was a very interesting time talking to Kristine and Alestine.

Alestine wants to go to Rarotonga to find work their. Although I understood that Kristine supports Alestine in her decision to go to Rarotonga and being not around every day at home, I felt a kind of sadness when the talk is about Alestine’s understandable plans. It’s quiet an emotional thing raising a “football team” and seeing the “last player” leaving the island as well.

Then Alex and the 3 grandsons came back from work. It’s seems he talked about the papaya and onions. At the end we left with very delicious and valuable presents. A big pumpkin, a papaya, a salad, and a few onions. At that moment we were with empty hands but I remembered that I have freshly baked bread on board. Thus, I promised I’ll come back again in about half an hour and bring one of my breads. We did so and had also some chocolates from Japan for the little boy, Alexander, a grandson, who also lives with them.

Today, in the morning of our departure, I had again freshly baked bread and Shigeo also made some cookies, so we decided to bring them a bread and the cookies as a farewell present. While we talked, Alestine bright some cinnamon rolls made by Kristine. The recipe is a secret. They taste so good that I works love too have the recipe.

At the end we got the best possible farewell present from Kristine: A big and warm farewell hug.

… and heading N to Kirimati Island about 700 NM north of Penrhyn . In few minutes we will put up the main with reef 1, the genoa and the small jib.

As for the wind, it’s direction it’s not the best. I will see if we can go with AWA of 50 deg on STB and don’t have a too bumpy sailing. This AWA leads more to W than I want, but with wind vane steering we turn into the right direction as soon as the wind changes. Tracking and sailing in the other direction is worse.

It’s about 0430. I woke up and can’t sleep.

In 2 h I have to get up to bake bread. When done, we will take one for Alex and his family because they asked us to come on Monday before departure to get a breadfruit. The breadfruit will be our staple food for the next days and the freshly baked bread a token from us to say thank you.

In the next days my narrations will be as always actual but in between I’ll have a few catching ups about the great time we had here on Penrhyn Islands with all the wonderful people we met. It’s emotionally not easy to leave.

Writing narrations about my experience in Omoka, the Western side village of Penrhyn, took me quite some time to make sure I got all, which I wanted to write about in the right way. Sometimes it was not that easy to express the impressions I got.

At about 1030 we will lift the hook go carefully through the horseshoe shaped canal to the pass and then out and back into the open Pacific to head north to Kirimati Island. Kirimati is about 700 NM north of Penrhyn.

When going through the canal I hope the big US motor catamaran does not block the canal. The crew is by police order out under confinement on board at long as they stay in the lagoon. Without asking and without permission they tried to install antenna system on a motus (islet) and did not follow some other arrival requirements. Also in terms of seamanship they behaved strange. They moved our tender in another corner of the little harbor with the unprotected side against the sharp edged stones of the wall to get their tender in the place where mine was before and tied their line on top of mine.

We saw that rain water is collected all over; no rain trop is wasted.

We also learned that there are private tanks and community tanks. The water of all public buildings goes into community tanks and if needed, water will be provided from community tanks to private tanks.

One day we were waiting for Puna to return after lunch to his office to inform him that we will stay one day longer, when we learned that he will not come back this day due to back injury.

We were sitting outside of Puna’s office with the financial officer. A great place to sit in the shade and have a nice breeze from the lagoon giving us a good chill while talking.

We talked about the island, it’s people, and our next sailing destination, when he offered us to have a glass of water or a cup of cold coffee. As we had walked already for quite a while, we were very happy to take this offer. He asked us to follow him into a little kitchen. Giving each of us a cup, he pointed to a water dispenser. A plastic bottle for about 10 l water was on top of the dispenser. I thought they need to get all drinking water in these plastics bottles and started talking about this. I first did not believe the answer. The water in the plastic bottle is filled in from the water tap, the water from the tap comes from the rain water tank outside. And it is delicious and it is clean. Between the tank and the water tap there is only a mechanical filter. (Based on my experience with my water maker I assume it’s a 5 micron filter.)

Why can they do it?

The answer is extremely simple: No air pollution! For thousands of miles until the South American continent there is nothing, which can pollute the air except for the smoke stags of sea going vessels. Although they are real very bad air polluters, they don’t effect the quality of an off of the beaten tracks islands like Penrhyn.

Being here on this remote islands, drinking very delicious rain water, I see even more clearly how badly the politicians perform in the rich countries where every voter wants to have the own over-powered car. A sad story, beside the wonderful story of rain water as drinking water.