Saturday 28 August 2010

Picton Castle alongside at Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands; Saturday 28 August 2010 בס"ד

Thursday morning started for me at 0600, when I woke up for galley. Donald was already in there making batter and I asked him if he was making breakfast, to which he replied, “No boy, you cookin now.” So he handed over to me his pancake batter and I got to work making about 200 banana pancakes. Dapper gave me the radio because a few people had gone out in the skiff to go fishing, so not only was I galley but also radio watch while Adrienne checked chafe gear, did wakeups, filled out the log, and set up for breakfast. I went over to Telecom for a bit and used the internet, and met up with some people. Went back to the ship to meet up with Dave to go out biking, but I was late and he had left already. I helped Shawn get the massive speaker from our neighboring ship, the Infinity. It was my first time aboard, but other bros had partied there the other night when I was on watch. After, I went to go shopping. I stopped at this one stop and picked up some gifts for my Palmerston and Puka Puka homestays (ie; lotions, cookies, etc). While I was checking out, a huge crash came down from this room towards the back, and I heard a woman groan. I ran over and saw that a huge shelfing unit mounted to the wall had torn out and collapsed on top of her. It was in a craft-making office, so all of her glass jars full of beads and buttons and shells had broken and made a warzone out of the room. I helped get the unit off of her, with the cashier and the store owner. She was alright, just very rattled and concerned about her computer underneath the heap. It could have been much worse, as the shelves were quite heavy wood and filled with glass things. When I checked out, the store owner offered me candy to reward me for my assistance, but when she left I put it back. No need to reward me for being a good Samaritan, just doing what anybody else should do. I picked up a nice tropical shirt, a calculator, and a cool Cook Islands trucker hat for myself at the next shops, then went over to Telecom to meet up with Julie and Pania. We then took off and hung out on the shore under some palms off of the Maitai Boiler (all that remains of the shipwreck that is now a part of the shoreline by Trader Jack's). We had a liter bottle of Cook's Lager, and passed it around and exchanged stories. After we finished it, we headed over to the Cook's Lager brewery down the road, and bought plastic bottles on the cheap. They refill any container there and serve out their brew in soda bottles. Went back to our spot, chilled out, and went back to the ship so that the ladies could ready themselves for the Vaka party aboard later that evening. I ran into Dapper Dan, Dave, Davey, and Liam, and we went to get in on an all-you-can-eat pizza for $20 deal. We got there but the deal didn't start until 1830, and it was 1745 or so, so we just ordered a large pizza each for $18 a pop (New Zealand dollars, btw) and drank beers. Also drinking there were most of the Infinity crew, and they joined us for a bit. Then we went back to the ship, drank some two-liters of Cook's in the forepeak, and went up midships for a wild dance party that went on all night.

Friday morning at 0900 I walked with Liam to go do the Cross Island Path, a hiking trail that goes through the mountains north to south. We had been walking a short way down the road when Dapper pulled up on a scooter with Megan on the back, who wanted to join us. She did, and we began the hike that would take us about three and a half hours or so. On the trail, which was rugged enough to be a challenge but light enough so that most can do it, I went barefoot, since sandals were less than ideal. We went through some neat jungle, and at one point we went to Te Rua Manga, aka “The Needle,” which is a massive rock part on top of the mountain that summits at 413m. We climbed around the base using ropes that were shackled to bolts in the rockface, but didn't ascend it because the rope that went straight up was too high to reach and even if I managed to climb up to it, the climb down would be too dodgy as I only had a 1m-wide rock path along the cliffside to land on. So we went along and eventually made it to the south end, which had an awesome waterfall pool, called Papua or “Wigmore's Waterfall,” that provided a refreshing swim. Walked out to the south road and started walking anticlockwise (one road around the island means you either go clockwise or anticlockwise, as the buses are labeled). Hitched two rides to get us back to the ship. Then I did a massive beerrun for the forepeak and refilled 12 liters of Cook's Lager. Returned, then caught a ride with Dapper to the bookstore next to the Post Office. Bought two books, one called, “From Kauri Trees to Sunlit Seas,” by Don Silk and another that is, “NCEA Level 3: Physics,” which is a New Zealand study guide book for their high schoolers. By the time I made it to Telecom, it was too late to call the USA, which I wanted to do, so I wrote some emails and Facebooked quickly and headed back to the ship. Met up with Dapper again as he was going out to eat, and joined him at Trader Jack's for a salmon burger (first salmon on the voyage, because Vassos is deathly allergic). Returned to the ship, and got ready for a government and maritime reception, which included some of the island's most famous Polynesian dancers doing an awesome show on the hatch. Met a Kiwi who was interested in climbing the highest peak with us Sunday morning, then got a headache so I left to go back to Telecom. I found out that videos load pretty fast, so I put a ton on Facebook until about midnight and returned for bed. Shabbat Shalom.

Saturday I had the watch, and so after a deckwash and domestics, Siri, Brad and I painted the black and white trim lines along the top of our forward topsides under the focslehead until lunch while tours went through. After lunch, we split into two groups to go for a ride on the Vaka MaruMaru Atua, which is down in Muri Lagoon on the east side. I went with the first group, and the Mate drove us down in the back of a flatbed pickup. We took the tender out, and once aboard checked out the ship. It's like two huge canoes with a deck across them acting like a catamaran-type hull, and it has two triangular sails. I filled their gas can, and we motored out of the lagoon and began sailing through the channel. Then we set sail, and I tended the starboard fore sheet, which was cool to participate in even though it took a second. We went out for a bit, but lack of winds took us not very far and we motored back when it started to rain. Got soaked, but dried out on the truck ride back where we swapped groups. I then stood on the focslehead giving tours of the foredeck to tourists for our open house, and concluded at 1700. I stood deckwatch at 2000, and saw some guys in a flatbed scoping out our dockside cargo, and stared them down with Dan until they took off. I wrote a sticky note in the log, adjusted some chafe gear, and did my log and shipcheck. After watch, chilled in the forepeak exchanging travel stories with Dapper, who has been to a ton of places and done some crazy stuff. Bedtime.