Brazen Bird Breaks Boredom at Sea
Marquesas, French Polynesia, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, John and Lisa
Caruso and their guest crew, Bob Custer, would have welcomed any
diversion aboard their sloop, Andiamo.
Crashing waves had turned most of their paperbacks into soggy bricks,
and they had long since abandoned hopes of reeling in "The Big One"
with their fishing tackle. When a small bird landed on deck one
afternoon, the crew greeted the visitor with some fascination; when
another bird landed on Bob's head a few days later, they practically
begged it to stay for tea.
Lisa describes the incident:
"[The
bird] just sat there getting comfortable in Bob's hair while Bob kept
on reading. Finally, Bob let us know what was going on and we got the
camera, after which the bird flew away for a while. Then John wanted to
see if this bird was truly cruiser-friendly, [so he] sat in the same
spot as Bob. Sure enough, the bird returned and found John's head with
hat comfortable, too. [The bird] was traveling with a partner that
wasn't as comfortable with cruisers. After several tries to land on
some remote spot, [the second bird] wouldn't join in on the fun, so
they both took off. It broke up the boredom and lifted everyone
spirits."
The full, unedited text of the Carusos' email update follows:
We
picked up Bob Custer, our crew, in Papeete, Tahiti, for the return trip
to points northeast. We were attempting to sail back to the Marquesas
and wait for a weather window to leave from Nuku Hiva as it was the
island closest to Mexico, thus the shortest passage back.
We
planned a route that would take our crew member to our favorite places
as he has never been to the South Pacific, before returning to the
Americas. Lisa decided that she could try the return passage, so didn't
fly back to meet us, but tagged along for the trip. We left Tahiti a
couple of days after picking up Bob which was around the 2nd week in
Oct.
Our
first stop was the island of Moorea as it was one of the most beautiful
places we saw in the Society's and it was close though not in the right
direction toward the Tuamotus. We spent a couple of days exploring by
dinghy but at that time of the year there seemed to be more rain and
heavy clouds hiding the mountains.
From
there we headed out to the Tuamotus aiming for the, Toau atoll, which
has mooring balls. We had met the family living there and knew they
would welcome our return. While there we were treated to some very
special events. We were met as we entered the pass and helped with the
mooring ball, then we were invited to come in.
They
cooked up lobster and sent it out to the boat for our dinner as they
knew we were too tired to socialize. We were there only 3 days but got
to snorkel the fish pens, which held several varieties of fish from all
over the island, they took the guys out to the pearl baskets as Bob had
never seen a pearl farm, and then, opened up a catch of oysters to
check on their crop. It was so interesting to see how each oyster
produced something different. While out there they spotted some Manta
Rays so on the return John and Bob jumped out of the boat to swim with
the rays. Every night we got to play Boules which is similar Bocci
Ball. The whole family came out for the game as it was exciting to
have new players. Bob was very proficient at it and they were very
pleased to be his partner. John also, was able to uphold his own,
giving them a challenge. It was Lisa's first time and showed that she
has some potential. We walked the reef and watched as their dog caught
and killed, a Black tipped reef shark. When we returned, the boar got
loose so we watch as the dog corralled the boar, which was very
exciting as this pig out weighted us all (together) and the dog, a
Rotweiler mix, brought the pig squealing from the bushes, back to the
compound, nipping at it's shank, then hung on to the ear while the pig
was retied. The highlight was when it came time to say good-bye, they
went out to the fish pen and brought back half a dozen parrot fish and
filleted them for us to take on the 5 day journey back to Nuku Hiva.
It was very hard to leave the next day but knew that there was more
surprises to come for Bob.
We
bashed back up to the Marquesas and it was a 6 day trip, burying to bow
into the waves as we went. It was probably the toughest part of the
whole trip, looking back.
We
arrived at Baie Taiohae expecting to see this main anchorage empty due
to the late time of the season, but to our surprise there were several
boats there and we were greeted by another cruiser who had just come
across and his shipmate had returned to South America for a couple of
weeks, so he was hanging out and welcomed new cruisers to hang out
with. We had several boat parties together and got to meet other
cruisers at these get togethers. It was interesting to hear that
people had just arrived and were staying there getting ready to move
on, not worried about the hurricane season that was starting down
there. We spent 3 days, hiking around to get a picture of the boats at
anchor, getting the propane tank filled, and some last minute fresh
supplies before heading to the other side to wait for a weather
window. When we got to the other side we were the only boat there and
as this bay, called Baie Anaho, is considered the most beautiful bay in
all the Marquesas we stayed a couple of days. While John did a boat
project, Lisa and Bob did some shelling and exploring. We had fun
exploring and collecting but were anxious to get going, so the next day
we headed over to Baie Atiheu, where there is a small village to see if
we could get our last baguette of French bread. They didn't have any,
but we did get a dozen apples that were a real treat, for the return.
It was the first time we had seen them and they were so sweet. They
must have been in season. It was interesting how different the fresh
supplies were at this time of the year compared to the fall when we
were there last. There were very little greens and the fruits seemed
sparse or not ripe. We picked the wild pommelmouse which is a large
grapefruit but it wasn't sweet like before. The bananas didn't seem to
be as abundant either.
We
took off the next day and began to "jump" back across, with blue skies
and a warm breeze from the S.W. It looked good and our hopes were
high. We wanted to get as far East as we could before we had to turn
and head North to go around the high. We knew we couldn't get dock
space in Hawaii so planned to turn and head for San Francisco as soon
as we could. Lisa seemed to be o.k. with the sea sickness with the
help of sturgeron which we got in Mexico. She was actually able to
cook special meals and do some clean-up, but Bob did most of the dish
washing. Having the 3rd person made a huge difference. The days seem
to melt together and as we kept going we were able to make some good
Easterly direction. It looked like maybe we might be able to go to San
Diego and maybe even sail back down to Cabo San Lucas. It was hot and
humid and we lost several lures trying to catch that "big one" but
alas, no luck. Bob was ever hopeful and put the rod out daily, after
all what else is there to do? From time to time, waves would splash
over the cockpit dousing one of us, usually reading a book, rendering
it difficult to keep the pages together for the next person to read.
Needless to say we had to toss several out when we arrived. It was
VERY warm and humid down below, making sleep difficult at times and
cooking was miserable, but we maintained a schedule that allowed each
of us to sleep a full 6 hours at night, except John who got to sleep
extra in the morning, (until we connected with the SSB net in the
morning waking up). After days and days of endless waves and blue sky,
we found out that there might be a chance that we could, in fact, sail
directly to Mexico! We were elated! That was the first time our
spirits had lifted to break the boredom. Then Bob said, "I always
wanted to do this and now that I have, I don't want to do it again!"
We all chuckled! Our first sign of getting close was to see birds. We
had been having trouble keeping up with the batteries and found out
when we got back and were cleaning, that several large birds had
hitched a ride on the upper solar panels and left us a present that had
rendered the panel useless. We started to get a weather report that
said there was a late season hurricane forming off the coast of Central
America. We weren't worried as we were several hundred miles away but
one still has to be alert. We decided to tack and head N.W. moving
away a little, as many times these late ones will die out. The course
was not very comfortable and got us moving further away from Mexico.
Then the hurricane began heading N.W. very slowly. We started hearing
reports from friends in La Paz that it might we headed our way.
To
keep our minds off the danger and have some fun, we had a visitor. Out
of the blue came and small bird that looked as though it had been
flying for days. It hopped around the stern davits looking for the
best possible place to sleep out of the wind. Finally, choosing a spot
behind one of davit masts it fell asleep. In the morning it woke up
refreshed and took off for parts unknown. A couple of days later while
Bob was reading in the cockpit, waiting for dinner to be ready, a
Sparrow flew in and landed on his head.
He
just sat there getting comfortable in Bob's hair while Bob kept on
reading. Finally, Bob let us know what was going on and we got the
camera, after which the bird flew away for a while. Then John wanted
to see if this bird was truly cruiser friendly and sat in the same spot
as Bob. Sure enough the bird returned and found John's head with hat,
comfortable too. It was actually traveling with a partner who wasn't as
comfortable with cruiser's and after several tries to land on some
remote spot, wouldn't join in on the fun, so they both took off. It
broke up the boredom and lifted everyone spirits.
We
finally got word that Sergio, the hurricane, was staying put off the
coast of Acapulco and that 2 lows were with it. It seemed to be
drawing the winds from the North down to it, giving us a perfect close
reach to Cabo! Now, having said that one must know that this was not
the easy, perfect ride! We were burying the bow in the waves, bring
copious amounts of salt water over the cabin top, which managed to find
it's way into an, otherwise, dry boat. We were hot, tired, sweaty,
bored, wet, and now sleeping on wet beds. There was no laundry out
there and we just had to wear the same clothes as one could not use the
laundry lines outside. Every other wave came over the cockpit
drenching everything in it's way.
After
28 days at sea we made it to Cabo! We had to fuel up as we were very
low and there was a "Norther" coming that would make our trip up to La
Paz (yes we were going back where we started) even more miserable. We
had a 48 hr. window. We were able to get on our way in an hour
including fueling up! We did manage to fine tortillas at the little
store at the fuel dock so we had tacos for dinner. We arrived the next
day and entered the channel to La Paz at sunset. A friend kindly made
a reservation for us and was waiting to help us in the slip when we
arrived. It was the first marina since we left La Paz, 9 months ago.
We were surprised to see that we sailed (and motored) the same track we
came down on! What a trip!
