How Remote Are We?

We've now been sailing for 4 full days, far out at sea. Very far out. We are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the largest ocean in the world. It feels extremely remote. Since we left Rapa Nui, the most remote island in the world, we have seen nothing but blue ocean in all directions, as far as the eye can see. Horizon to horizon. Not a single boat or plane. No birds. Nothing.

Exactly how far out are we? We are 1050 km from Rapa Nui and 1050 km from the next closest island, Pitcairn. Exactly midway between two of the most remote islands in the world.

Then today an interesting thing happened -- The International Space Station (ISS) passed directly overhead.  Why is this interesting?  Because it was only 400 km above us as it passed us by. That means the closest other human beings to us at the time were the astronauts on the ISS!

Passing the Time

We've now been sailing at sea for 8 full days. We are still 2 days away from the first stop at Pitcairn Island. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the work schedule did not allow for too much free time. But there would still be some free time. Here are some of the things you could do onboard between work shifts:

• Take a nap! In most cases if there was free time you would be better off using the time to catch up on sleep as it was difficult to get enough sleep with the work shifts.

• Read a book.  The ship's library had many good books to browse.

• Stargazing. On clear nights the stars were amazing! I took the opportunity to teach the crew and the other passengers about astronomy and the objects visible in the night sky. Some of the objects we observed:
• Large and Small Magellanic Cloud
• Andromeda galaxy
• Globular clusters (M7 and M8)
• Meteors
• Satellites
• Jupiter

• Attend a lecture. The scientists onboard occasionally gave presentations that you could attend.

Lecture on Pacific seabirds

• Give a lecture. I gave 2 presentations myself: one on my experiences traveling to the South Pole, and one on my Astrophotography work.

• Assist a scientist: You could sign up for an observing session to assist a scientist in their field research. One scientist needed help in spotting and identifying bird species and the other needed help in surveying ocean debris.

• Catch up on email. Thanks to Starlink!

• Fishing. We caught 4 large fish (mostly Tuna) while sailing. This resulted in the best dinners onboard!

Life On Board

This is no luxury cruise.  All the passengers are required to work and be part of the crew. We have to work 8 hours a day, broken up as two 4-hour shifts, 12 hours apart. So there were 3 shifts named Red, White, and Blue, after the colors on the Dutch flag:

Red:        12am to 4am and 12pm to 4pm

White:     4am to 8am and 4pm to 8pm

Blue:        8am to 12pm and 8pm to 12am

Meal times were fixed:  breakfast 07:30, lunch 13:30, dinner 19:30

The schedule made things very rigorous. The Blue shift was the best one because you could actually get some decent sleep time.  White was much worse and Red was the worst of all!  With those shifts your sleep time was broken up into few hour segments, unless you skipped meals which I ended up doing a number of times. Sleep is more important than food!  In addition we could also spend some time assisting the scientists on board. I did a few sessions of bird watching for the ornithologist, and debris watching to assist the other scientist doing a survey of ocean debris. With this schedule there was hardly time for other things, like blogging!

A shift would involve taking a turn at the helm steering the ship, pulling on the ropes to hoist or lower a sail, or other miscellaneous tasks. There were many sails on the ship (10 sails and a total of 900 square meters of sail area!) so there was much "heaving" and ho-ing" of the myriad ropes. The sails were extremely heavy so it sometimes took 3 or 4 people pulling on a single rope.  All ropes had to be pulled by hand; there were no motorized winches. 

Current GPS location. Our maximum speed achieved under sail was 9.7 knotts.

These videos below may give you an idea of what the seas are like.

Here are some of the meals we had on board:

The Invincible Chilean Armada

Photos and Video credit: Esa Piispanen

 We spent the first night still anchored offshore of Rapa Nui. Wet actually lifted anchor and set sail this morning.  But we didn't get very far.  Within moments of setting off we were pulled over by the cops! A police cruiser from the Chilean Armada (Navy) came racing after us with sirens blaring and made aggressive zigzag moves to cut us off. Then they pulled alongside of us and demanded that we stop. We yelled back (in Spanish) that we are a sailing ship and we cannot stop. The best we can do is slow down.

What was this all about? It turns out that Tom, our official photographer was capturing drone footage of the ship as we were departing. He sent the drone from the ship all the way to Anakena beach and back again, where there is an Ahu[1] with Moai, and is part of the Easter Island National Park area. Therefore it requires a specific permit to fly a drone. Tom did have a permit to fly a drone, but unfortunately the permit had technically expired the day before. Someone had seen the drone, reported it to a National Park official. They checked the permits and found that it had expired.  So they called the Armada, which came chasing after us!

They demanded to see the footage captured by the drone, so Tom stepped onto the Armada boat with his laptop and played the video for them.  The video showed that it contained footage of the moai.  At this point we didn't know what they were going to do.  Would they arrest Tom and take him back to the island?  Demand that he pay a high penalty fee?

In the end they simply confiscated the memory card containing the footage, and then let us continue on our way.

[1] Ahu is the platform upon which moai are mounted

Boarding the Oosterschelde

 Today is the day to board the ship! I and the other passengers assembled on the docks near the restaurant La Kaleta. The waters around the island are too rough and treacherous for the ship itself to dock here, so it was anchored some distance offshore, and we were shuttled to the ship in groups of three in a small zodiac.  

The Oosterschelde is fairly comfortable compared to other boats I've been on. It's got hot showers, its own water desalinator to make drinking water from sea water, and a bi-level salon for meals and relaxing. I did not expect to have internet but someone brought a Starlink so we did!

Beautiful Moai

I had taken numerous Moai photos on previous visits to the island so instead this time I will post these beautiful photos from a brilliant Rapa Nui photographer and friend Pathy.

Credit for all photos/videos below goes to Pathy Hucke Atan:

You can find more of her fantastic photography on her instagram: @rapa_nui_magic_visual

Please give her a follow!

An Umu for the Ages

Much like I did the last time I was here, I threw a big umu[1] for all my friends on Rapa Nui. I purchased everything needed for the umu; meat, fish, veggies, drinks, ice cream, tablecloths, plates, utensils, LED string lights, car battery (don't ask!), etc. The meat consisted of: an entire lamb (!), a whole side of beef ribs, a bunch of chicken, and a whole large tuna. Main veggie was camote (sweet potato) and onions, tomatoes, cilantro, lettuce etc, for a salad. It was held at my friend Jhonny's house in Te Hoe Manu. We dug a pit in the ground and put in some burning coals. On top of that was placed the meat and camote, and covered it up. We let it cook for about 4 hours. 

In the meantime, the guests started arriving.  About 30 people in all came!  Many I knew from before, others I just met at the party. It served as my farewell party as I would be boarding the ship the next day, as well as a chance to reconnect with my friends. It was so much fun!

When the food was ready we took it out of the pit. Jhonny said a few words and so did I. Then we sat down to eat.  The meat was oh, so tender!  The fish was served raw, as ceviche. The salad and veggies were great too, and we did not skip ice cream for dessert.  Everything was so delicious and everyone raved about it! 

But the most delicious thing of all was spending time with friends!

[1] Umu is the Polynesian word for a big feast, called a curanto in Spanish or a luau in Hawaiian.

Rapa Nui - Island of Mystery and Magic

 I'm back in Rapa Nui!  This is my fourth time on the island, and it feels very familiar!

The first thing you see when stepping off the plane is the "Iorana" sign. Iorana means "welcome" in the Rapa Nui language.

Towel art

There are many deep mysteries about this island and its original inhabitants, many of them surrounding the construction of the many large moai statues:

Moai with the tall ship Oosterschelde in background on the left 

Why were they built?  How were these multi-ton statues moved many miles without any machinery? Why were they all found knocked down at one point? What were the people like who built them? What eventually happened to them?

These mysteries are what initially attracted me to this island. I believe I have now solved all of these mysteries. But I will only reveal the answers if you buy me a beer and ask me in person.

Having been here many times, I have made many friends here among the locals and it is they who are the main attraction for me now on the island.

The Darwin 200 Project

I am here in Chile because I will be participating in the Darwin 200 Project. This is an ambitious, global project to recreate Charles Darwin's famous voyages around the world in the HMS Beagle. Darwin's voyages revolutionized the sciences and changed the world.  This project is called Darwin 200 because it will involve up to 200 young scientists, up to 200 countries, and it's (close to) the 200th anniversary of Darwin's original voyages. This new voyage will take place on the Dutch ship Ooosteschelde:

It's a three-masted topsail schooner built in 1917 (!). It's 50 meters long and has sleeping berths for up to 24 passengers. Much more info about the ship can be found by clicking on the link above.

The entire round-the-world voyage is broken up into 32 legs, and the participants can join for one or more legs, I will be joining for Leg 17 - Easter Island to Mangareva in French Polynesia. This is a scientific expedition and I will be assisting the biologists onboard with their field research.

In the next post I will discuss Easter Island, probably the most mysterious island in the world.

I have been planning this voyage for more than 2 years and it will finally come to fruition in a few more days. For now I will end this post with one of my favorite poem with a nautical theme:

"Sea-Fever” by John Masefield (1902)  

 

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, 

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, 

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

 

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide 

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; 

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying 

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

 

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover, 

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

Note: during the voyage there will likely be no internet access but I will continue to write daily blogs posts on my laptop and these will all be posted once I reach Mangareva or Tahiti.

Back in the "Santiago" again!

I'm back in Santiago (Chile) again, a city I've been to many times before. I like the city, and by now it feels very familiar. I'm only here for one night before flying to Rapa Nui[1], an island I have also been to many times before. There I will board a sailing ship as part of the Darwin 200 Project, a very ambitious project to recreate Darwin's famous voyages on the HMS Beagle. I will discuss this project in detail in a separate blog post.

It’s cool here, 58F as it’s winter here in the Southern Hemisphere.

The first thing I did upon arriving in Santiago is attempt to make a reservation at my favorite steak restaurant here, but to my great disappointment I discovered it had closed down! So I searched and found another steak restaurant called Oporto. I ordered the "Filete con mantequilla de trufa quemada en el momento" which means "Filet (of steak) with butter from burnt truffle in the moment". What does "in the moment" mean" It means the last part is done at the table using a blowtorch to melt the butter from the truffles!

[1] More commonly known as Easter Island, or Isla de Pascua in Spanish. Rapa Nui is the Polynesian name and this is the name I prefer to use. A law was recently passed in Chile to make this the official name now.