On our 2nd day at anchor in front of Omoka village, Penrhyn Island, we started walking from the little harbor along the main street in southern direction. This because the only shop in the village is there. A friendly lady told us where it is.
“You know”, I said to Shigeo, “today everybody knows us from yesterday’s event, but we don’t know everybody”.
Whenever a motorcycle passed us, there was a friendly greeting. The same when we met people without motorcycles.

Apropos “motorcycle”. 50 cm3, 4-stroke motorcycles is the main transportation means. It carries 2 people and if needed a trailer will be attached to transport more people or goods.

Transportation of people becomes especially important when it is about going with a bunch of kids for swimming, a bit further down south where there is a very shallow looking long sandy beach. But before they reach the beach, there’s a stop at the little shop and kids get sweets, which are still on stock since the last supply ship was here. (Supply ships come normally every 3 – 4 months; sometimes it can become 5 – 6 month.)

The traffic is slow. The motorcycle riders are balancing skillfully goods. I saw a young man with two about 5m long poles or tubes on one of his shoulders riding a motorcycle. At one point I got the thought that the traffic reflects the harmony between the people in their daily life with each other.

What is obvious are the well maintained properties, which I have seen all over the Polynesian islands I could visit so far. It seems to be a strong part of the Polynesian culture. Quiet some other places I have visited before arriving in Polynesia could or better should take this example to clean their living environment. This also is valid for the money-rich countries in the world.

When we reached the house with the shop, we learned from the ladies with the kids buying sweets before going swimming, that this is the house with the shop. No sign or something similar indicates the shop.

To reach the shop we needed to almost once around the house. The shop had only sweets and food one run out when the supply ship is delayed. As I expected no eggs and vegetable and fruits. I bought a can of cocoa powder which I can use for my chocolate chips cookies.

We then walked back to were we started and wanted to continue to the northern part of the village. However, we got stuck just at the shore of MaRe’s anchor spot. The reason was Alex, who welcomed us warmly the night before at the fund raising event. We started talking….

Part 2

A conversation with Kaia was started and Shigeo talked with Cano who was sitting across the table of him. I enjoyed my conversation with Kaia, only my hearing problems disturbed me due to the normal background noise.

A lady gave a speech about donations for the school. Not knowing the island’s customs, I asked Kaia to please help me and Shigeo with making a donation. She helped and we could just give her the money. However, she came back to us to get our names for proper recording of the donation.

For the donation, each of us got a drinking coconut. Very delicious! Then I recognized that this is a party without the junk drink of the world: Coca Cola! How wonderful! Everybody was drinking coconuts. When empty, there was always someone with a bigger knife using the not sharp edge of the knife to make a crack around the coconut. A twist and the coconut was open in two halves. I saw that Puna removed the coconut flesh with his thumb. It really works well. But I made the mistake that I tried to get pieces. That was the moment when Cano stepped in and showed me that I have to separate all the flesh as one piece because it then can be eaten very easily. I’m very thankful to Cano to show me that excellent way to eat the flesh of a drinking coconut.

Then the main part of the evening started: a Polynesian dancing competition.

At one side of the stage there was the band of 6 drummers. Most of the drums I have not seen before in the French part of Polynesian. (Next day I learned that they are made from a tree of one of the motus (islets) of the atoll.)

The rhythm and sound they drummed out of their instruments was incredible. This music has pace, power, and drive, which is felt immediately. It goes under the skin. Real unplugged music. Authentic.

For a dancing competition one not only needs band but also judges. Puna was one of four. Sitting quite separate from each other to not be influenced. A lady collected the results after each performance.

A big metal bowl, almost a meter in diameter, was placed in front of the stage and I was wondering why.

Then the first dancing couple appeared on stage. I might be wrong about their age, but they appeared to be around 12 years. They wore traditional costumes and got a very warm welcome. The boy with strong and lound voice made a verbal introduction. It sounded very rough and tough. Unfortunately I don’t speak Polynesian to understand his words. Then the drummers let the sound and rhythm out of their instruments and the boy made movements to invite the girl to dance with him. The dance they performed was for me a strong contrast to the verbal introduction of the by the boy. It was, as if he slipped into another role because there was a harmony and softness between the male and female dancer. Soft and gentle movements showing care for each other.

When the female dancer performed a special swinging of her hips, the audiences bursted out in cries of admiration and cheers, close to breaking my ears. Again it was something, which went under my skin, straight forward. To me this swinging of the hips seems to be a pretty difficult movement. It seems to be a combination of fast steps and hip movement. The skirt of the female dancers is designed to emphasize the appearance of the swinging hips.

Towards the end of each performance people went – partially dancing to the Polynesian rhythmns – to the big metal bowl in front of the stage to put money in. Valuation of the performance and donations for the school.

If I recall it right, there were 7 performances in traditional costumes. Then there was an intermission during which the drummers left their places. Audio equipment was ready to be used. It was also during the intermission that a young girl tapped my shoulder and gave me a chocolate muffin with regards from people in another corner. I turned around and saw Tuku, the health inspector, who was at MaRe in the afternoon and was one of the people, who invited us to this event. It was the best chocolate muffin I had in my life. (Next day, when we met again on the main street he told me that his daughter baked this excellent muffin.)

Then the music came from the audio system and a dancing couples performed a dance in “non-traditional costumes”.(I’m using this word because I don’t have a better one.) Again if I recall it right, there were also 7 performances and if I’m not wrong, the dancers were the same as before. Just different costumes and different dancing styles. One music piece I recognized as “Dancing Queen” (The real title is mostly likely different, but I’m not an expert of pop music.) Like described above the audience cheered the dancers fully hearted with the maximum of their voices. What a power and enthusiasm!

While watching the performances I started admiring the dancers, musician food and other sellers from another perspective. The village has only about 120 invitations. Thus, I estimate that some 30 – 40 % of the population put an tremendous effort in this found raising event for their local school. Community feeling and responsibility for the community are the drivers. Coming myself from a small village, I only can draw my hat in admiration for all who were involved.

As it was a competition, there must be an announcement of the winners. Two winning couples were announced. If the event would have been in closed hall the screaming of the audience after each announcement, blew the roof. It was not possible to put more enthusiasm and emotions into this heart warming screaming. A community put all their efforts, enthusiasm, and emotions in the preparation, realization, and execution of this event. Simply incredible!

I feel privileged for being given the chance to experience all this.

Every event has its end. But there was not only a “going home now”, but wonderful closing. A group of people starting to sing a song in Polynesian language. I could recognize that there were parts song by men but being interwoven with parts of the female voices. I didn’t understand a single word, just enjoyed the voices I could hear. It appeared to me a very emotional song because I saw a lady singer wiping off some tears. (Accidentally, I learned today that the song was a hymn.)

As the community is also strongly driven by their religion, a prayer was the final, formal end of the event.

Shigeo and I said thank you and good night to the people we met today for the first time. I was filled with very happy feelings and thought that it was worth to have sailed all these thousands of nautical miles from from Europe to this small island with its heart warming community.

I only missed my OBM that night.

At the end of the event I told these words to Kaia and Puna.

It started all with the health and custom inspection. I don’t recall who was the first of these two gentlemen who invited us to the fund raising event for the local school starting at 1600.

We still had to wait for the gentleman for bio-security but decided already to go and see this event.

When bio-security was finished we re-anchored MaRe to get a bit more space to the shore. When this was done with pulling the anchor in the sand even twice with 1800 -2000 RPM, I felt safe to leave MaRe alone and we went ashore.

The little harbor with about 1 m of depth, is an excellent dinghy dock with quiet water and wind protection.

We knew approximately where the building is and walked along the deserted main road. No asphalt, no concrete on the road, just a natural road, comfortably to walk on. That the road was deserted gave me the feeling that almost all villagers are at this event.

When we reached the place and carefully approached it, 2 – 3 people waves at us to come in. One approached us and introduced himself as Alex and welcome us for the event.

We looked at the food stand just beside him. I decide to take a lunch box. Shigeo saw another food stand and bought something there. Standing there with our lunch boxes and thinking where we could possibly sit down, when Alex and a few more offered us to sit down at their table. When we sat down, Puna introduced himself. Puna, is the gentleman with whom I communicated about our arrival at Penrhyn. Thus, suddenly the friendly email-gentleman got a very friendly face and I was happy to meet him finally in person.

The food, rice, fried pieces of chicken and red meat was good. But the salad drew my attention. It was mixture of a green and something else salad. I tried to find out what it is. Potato or breadfruit? “Breadfruit* was the answer I got. Not knowing it at this evening, I was lucky to meet the lady who made it the next day.

A very young man holding a 2 – 3 old girl on his lap introduced himself. A young lady, standing in the background and drinking a coconut came also closer and we got the question “Why did you come to Penrhyn?” I smiled and told her the story about meeting Nora and Ralf on a hike on Mo’orea where they told me about Penrhyn and my decision to sail via Penrhyn to Kirimati Island.

When the very young man and the lady heard “Nora and Ralf”, they were delighted and they told me that they were guides for them during they stay in Penrhyn. What a fortunate coincidence!

So far part 01

During the last 20 NM to the WPTs west is Penrhyn, we suddenly saw the island out of maybe 8 NM distance. We could a few islets all of the same height and rounded corners seen from our position.

A bit back, I raised the question what is the highest point of the island. Now I give the answer. The top of the palm trees. The island as such is only 1.5 – 2 m above sea level.

Back to the time at sea.

The wind was stable and we made good progress. I changed the auto pilot from Wind Vane Mode into Track Mode, in which it steers MaRe exactly to the entered WPT but very stable wind directions are needed.

Knowing it will be beyond 2100 h and the moon will still be behind the horizon, I didn’t want to go to the anchorage of SY Barbarella although I knew the coordinates of their anchorage. I simply did not feel safe.

Therefore, I decided to heave-to and drift abeam with the wind and additionally with the current away from the atoll. We slept without our normal watches. Only I put an alarm for 2 h later to check the position and situation. After all was fine I went back and slept again until 0600. With this daylight we changed sails and went as high as possible into the wind to reach the entrance of the pass. We needed 2 tacks to make it close enough to the pass to get the sails down and prepare for the entrance.

After the first tack a nimbus cloud made a bit fun of me. First the wind changed in the right direction and I was very happy, but when the cloud was leaving us, it left us with strong wind and direction change of 45 deg in the wrong one. I was very “happy”.

Finally we made it into the entrance. It was not marked but I was told that the Navioncs maps are good for here. Thus I plotted in advance the horse shoe shaped route to Gorgeous Bay, just in front of the village Omoka the main village of Penrhyn. The other, smaller village is on the eastern side of the atoll.

The passage through the pass and the horse shoe shaped canal was not easy.
15- 20 KN of wind, changing directions very frequently and most likely some currents on top, was challenge. Finally I made it to Gorgeous Bay. Anchor dropped and pulled into the sand at about 11 – 12 m. MaRe was secured and we were waiting for entrance clearance party to come on board.

MaRe is safe at anchor! 55 m of chain out at 11 – 12 m; water anchor pulled in with 1800 RPM and holds.

We are waiting for the inbound clearance crew.

1720. Sun is already on the declining side. Sunset will be at 1826. ETA at anchorage between 2100 – 2200.
Every time after 1900 will be the same. We will depend on natural light.

Worst case, we can’t anchor, we then will heave to and drift slowly westward and sail back in the morning.

Currently our question is who sees when land at first.

What is the highest point of the island? 5 m? 10 m?

Before reaching the island we will have dinner, which Shigeo already prepares.

Let’s see how things develop.

At just after 0700, when Shigeo came out of his cabin, we changed the main sail from reef 2 into reef 1. The maneuver was just done when the wind increased.

I trimmed the sails for a broad reach course when the wind became unstable. It weakend and changed frequently directions over a range of +- 30 deg around 90 deg STB.

When we started discussing the weather forecast, an “amagumo” (Japanese for a rain cloud and the word sounds nice to me.) came from STB pretty quickly, dumped part of its “nimbus-content”, also called “rain” on us. The amagumo was friendly because it brought wind and I saw my favorite sea surface. However, with all the merits an amagumo has, it leaves a “Kartoffelacker” sea behind it with no wind. Sails flap. MaRe is bounced around by the waves. Not pleasant.

However, a short while later we got a nice wind and MaRe was running to her delight. Peaks of just above 8 KN STW.

Later on the wind went down to the forward speed of 8 – 12 KN TWS. Occasionally it went up again to 18 – 19 KN, which gives an excellent speed. Nevertheless, we soon understood that we have you spent a night out side the lagoon on the eastern side of Penrhyn Island. I also informed the officials of Penrhyn Island about our updated arrival situation.

I’m also lucky because I got from SY Barbarella the coordinates of their anchor spot about 3 weeks ago.

Current ETA is about 2100 – 2200 at this location. Wind is forecasted to 10 KN or below. The moon is still bright. Thus, it should be possible to drop the hook in the lee of the atoll where Ralf & Nora did it resently and have a good night’s sleep.

Let’s see what comes up next!

I’m standing outside of the cockpit and watch the sky and the sea.

Above me a 1/4-sky. Only a quarter of the sky is covered with clouds. Beautiful cumulus clouds not yet really grey at their bottom side. Light and fluffy they are hanging at sky being nicely illuminated by the light of a halfmoon. It is the moonlight, which let’s them appear so light and fluffy.

Because the moon is only half as bright as a full moon, there are bright stars to seem. Orion is more or less just above me. The Southern Cross is not to be seen because we are only 9 deg south of the equator. However, the moon river appears special on the sea surface. Many small wavelets reflect the light of the moon down to where in standing at the railing.

Turning around towards the mast, I see the sails are efficiently shaped, and propel MaRe forward. These sails sent MaRe already half around the world.

Although it’s night, the sky appears not black and dark but tinted with a light blue.

While checking the instruments and making a log book entry, dawn started at the eastern edge. A bit of red light colors the sky; soon the sun rises for a new day.

… were Shigeo’s words when I woke up and greeted him at the end of his watch which is begining of mine.

“All is normal” means we are running without changes since I went to sleep after our dinner.

Looking at the instruments, I can see that there’s no change at all.

We are going with an AWA of 110 deg along the course line towards
Penrhyn at a STW of around 3.5 KN, which translate into a SOG of around 5 KN. Perfect. Every 25 min a gentle melody reminds to my task to check with radar that there’s nothing around us; no rain pouring clouds and no ships. All is normal.

Now he sleeps and I’m sitting at the navigation desk writing this narration, and fighting with sleep. I’m disappointed that all cookies are eaten and I first have to bake new ones. The monkey with the tin tool steals not only the wind, but also eats my board naked of

Where does Shigeo store/hide the MaRe tiramisu???

On the last days we had between 1200 – 1500 always a no wind at all situation for about an hour.

The same happened today.

After sailing with a nice speed in the morning, the wind went down and we pulled the gennaker up to get more speed out of the wind. Roughly half of the TWS can be turned into STW with the 123 m2 Big Blue.

Genoa furled, main sail down, boom stabilized, gennaker sheets prepared, pulling up the gennaker and attaching tack line, sheets and halyard, and pulling up the gennaker takes about 15 – 20 min. (Never measured only feeling.)

Once the gennaker was up and I started to trim it, the wind was down to below 4 KN TWS. This is basically a no wind situation which came pretty fast. I waited for 10 more minutes to see if the wind comes back. It didn’t do me this favor. Then we put the gennaker down and MaRe drifted. Unfortunately, the current in today’s position was not really in favor for us but it also didn’t push us back like it did once when we sailed from Panama to the Gambiers.

Shigeo started cooking. A curry with the last portion for two of the big wahoo we caught the other day.

The moment we sat down to eat, the wind came back powerful. We closed a the cockpit behind us to protect us and the food from the wind.

Immediately after the delicious lunch, I pulled out the genoa, the most suitable sail for a strong winds from S directions when need to head N to NW. We made pretty good speed for maybe an hour, then the wind slowed down again to 10 KN and less.

Right now we have only 7 – 8 KN and it seems the wind is turning towards E, which is his normal wind direction.
Once the AWA comes to 110 deg STB, we will set the main with reef 3, MaRe’s night gown.

Weather forecast indicates that we get late in the evening/night winds around 15 KN. Also did this wind reef 1 would be enough, reef 2 is for safety reasons. We do have a bunch of numbers clouds E of us and we need to consider they bring rain and a lot of wind. So I follow my old motto “Fail to prepare, is prepare to fail!”