Blue Blazer around the World

We are anchored in Daniel's bay, Nuku Hiva. Joel and Richard went snorkeling. They say they saw coral and colorful fish. All I see is Daniel's hut and green, shrubby cliffs. It rains every 30 minutes for 5 minutes. I'm positive though, yesterday I passed the other boat here. They were blasting Jimmy Buffet and clad in Tommy Bahama. I could be on that boat. Meanwhile I donned my blue blazer for Mahi Mahi dinner.

My feelings have changed after I caught a barracuda (and tried to bring it on the dingy unknowingly). That was after we hiked to the 3rd highest waterfall in the world. It feels like being at the end of the world, and in a way it is.

Most of each day is devoted to maintaining the boat. My project is a fuel system tear down of the dinghy's outboard. Bad mixture in the carburetor and I can't get it right. So nerve-wracking to work over water. Drop a screw and it's gone, drop a carburetor it's gone even quicker. The anchor winch is acting up, cleaning must be done, lines replaced, barnacles scraped, diesel engine oil changed, it never ends. Capt. Joel is clearly preoccupied by things un-fixed. Still we are leaving the bay to explore others on the island.

Alobar has been re-fueled. It took 5 hours. The “fuel dock” is intended for the thrice monthly supply freighter, of poor design and is supposedly set to be razed. Unfortunately it is the only place to get fuel on the island. In the dinghy we came to the corner of the dock 5 feet from the stern of the freighter ship. The dock is an industrial space for unloading cargo. 15 feet of solid concrete rises up to the platform. Under it is open; the swell of the ocean fills this void in short intervals. The compression of the water in this void against the dock causes an a powerful, heavy spray of sea water 20 feet out. It does so with a hiss only the ocean could muster and small ironic rainbows catch the mist.

Our small craft floats at this pressure point. Drenched and continually sprayed I tie the painter line on a 20 foot ancient, rusted ladder. The greatest concern is being sucked under the dock and sunk or worse yet crushed. I climb to the platform with some line and hoist up 5 Jerrycans. After being Filled 100 yards away, with a strong knot the heavy containers are lowered back down. An hour later we went back to fill 5 more, in the rain. It was the most surreal experience of the trip.