Wednesday 20 October 2010

Picton Castle at anchor at Asanvari, Maewo, Vanuatu; Wednesday 20 October 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at 0800, went ashore on the 0900 skiff with a load of books that I helped drop off at the yacht club. I went with Dave, Dapper, DB, and Megan to the nearby waterfall. Dapper went exploring up the mountain, but the rest of us just went for a dip in the extra-refreshing water. Bracken, Ali, and Georgie came by, and also Nadja, Meredith, and Siri swam across the bay over to us. Bracken was saying that there'd be another Monomoy expedition if anybody was interested, as there had been one yesterday that filled up and now that everybody who wanted to go had gone, it was a first come first serve situation. I signed up, and returned to the ship at 1130 for lunch. Right after eating, we packed up for Monomoy sailing. We got underway and headed in a southwesterly direction to sea for a while, ripping along. Then we came about and tacked a few times to come to submarine rocks. We dropped the anchor and several went snorkeling. I went for a dip myself. After a while, some of the snorkelers got the go ahead to drift through the rocks and we'd pick them up on the other side. So they went for a bit and then we weighed anchor and sailed through the rocks and collected them. Then we sailed northerly towards a beach up the coast of Maewo that had black rocks. Some of us went snorkeling again, some swam to shore and explored a waterfall. I didn't really feel like hiking, but I did swim to shore to go pee. When I looked back at the Monomoy, the sun was glaring down on the water. I knew there were submerged rocks, but I didn't know where, and I was wondering how I'd swim back and dodge them. So after a moment of pondering, I just decided to swim. Sure enough I swam right into a rock within two yards. So I stood up, and then realized that I can look underwater (duh) and so I looked and saw it was the only rock anywhere and I'm an idiot. Got back in the Monomoy and the others gradually returned also, and we set on our windward beat back to the ship. After much tacking, we arrived at about 1830. Had some dinner and watched Date Night in the forepeak. I set up to sleep on the hatch and passed out.