Captain's Log November 23, 2008

My guess is that no one really reads these anymore because I am not very consistent at writing but for what it is worth thought I would share a few of my thoughts. These last six weeks have probably been the most fun and rewarding of the whole trip. A few of my takeaways…

By far the greatest thrill was swimming with the whales. You have to remember that even though you pay to swim with them there is no guarantee that you will get that close or even see one. The day started out rather chilly (relative for this area) overcast and rainy. If we did see them picture taking would not be very good. They don't want any more than 4 swimmers and a guide in the water at a time once we spot the whales. On our boat that meant there was to be 2 groups. Barbara and I got in
group 1 only by chance I swear. We see a whale and into the water we go. We are supposed to stay with the guide and make sure if the whale surfaces near us to avoid the tail section. That is pretty obvious when you see the tale of a whale up close. One flick of their tale would probably crush you. Not easy to stay up with our Tongan guide who swims with whales for a living. Also hard to keep up when you've got a camera in one hand and you're wearing fins that are about 2x too small. The guide
points down and about 80 ft below the surface you can see the white underbelly of an enormous whale however the mask makes everything look 30% bigger. They start to come up but moving away from us. We kick and swim as hard as we can to catch up to them but we are no match for the whales. They do surface but just long enough to put their tails high in the air and dive down again. They might stay down for 30 minutes or longer. It was a close encounter but really no photo ops. I guess at that point
I would have felt that I got my money's worth. I mean I was in the water swimming and a whale was also swimming very nearby. As advertised Swim with the Whales. Time for group 2. The boat moves into position and off they go. The whales were not interested in swimming with us. OK, this goes on all day group 1 has not been in the water but 1 time. The whales were enjoying staying on the bottom and only occasionally coming to the surface. It was now about 4pm time; to start heading home. Suddenly
one of the whales comes up about 50 yards from the boat. Group 1 is ready to go and into the water we go. It is raining and overcast but who cares I am again in the water with whales. I am trying very hard to stay up with our born to swim in the water Tongan guide. As we move into position the whales dive deep and we can do nothing except float on the surfacing waiting. About 20 minutes goes by the clouds clear, the sun comes out, and the sky is blue and suddenly the whales begin to surface.
I say suddenly, because this huge creature covers a great deal of ocean in a very short period of time. I get the camera ready and look down. Right below me the whale is heading straight for me. All I could think about is get a good picture and don't get hit by the tail. As she surfaced I could almost reach out and touch her. Once on the surface she turns on her back and then back on her stomach. She knows we are there and is very careful not to hit us. She looked me right in the eye and
said, "how ya doing?" I thought I would hyperventilate I was breathing so hard trying to stay with the guide, the whales and take pictures. We tried to stay with them but they were off to the bottom and we were in awe. Tonga is only one of 2 countries that allow humans to be in the water that close to whales. Wouldn't surprise me if it were banned there also in a few years. Whatever they decide I had my shot and something that I will never forget. Barbara and I were very lucky to have had
the opportunity. WOW, still gets to me, just thinking about it.

The sea giveth and we taketh, brings me to my second big take away. I finally catch a fish. Eat your heart out David Topolnicki. David always goes up to Canada in the spring to catch fish. He comes home with a car load of fish and all sorts of fish stories and pictures. I am jealous. Well after nearly 6,000 miles on the open ocean I can say I finally caught and landed a fish. It was about a 25lb Mahi Mahi, which these waters are full of. What a great thrill. I was getting pretty discouraged
with my fishing prowess. In fact Barb had to really get after me to put the line in the water this time. It was a beautiful sailing day I wasn't sure I wanted to ruin it by not catching another fish. Up to that point we had caught fish but were never successful in getting them aboard. Not this time. I was prepared and ready to bring up almost any size fish. I had decided to fish with 200 lb test line, just tied to the back of the boat no rod no reel. If I caught something there was no chance
it could break the line and swim off with another lure. It would be just me the fish and a line. Then the big fishing story here is when we left Tonga to sail to New Zealand. The Opua Cruising Club was hosting a rally for arriving yachts and one of the events there was a contest to see who could catch and land the biggest fish during the passage. I came in second with my next catch a 53 ½" long Mahi Mahi. First place went to a guy who caught an 8 foot black Marlin. I was very happy to have placed
I am now able to say we can live off the sea. We are becoming very self sufficient.

Last takeaway was our passage from Tonga to New Zealand. Historically this section of ocean can be very unpredictable weather-wise. Like everyone else we watched weather forecast and weather maps. We paid for a passage weather routing service and we discussed strategy with other cruisers. The big problem is that about every 5 to 7 days another front passes through and if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time you get hit. Proper planning and a lot of luck go a long way. We finally decided
to head out with a pretty good weather window. The first part of our passage was pretty benign. A good bit of it was light wind and we had to motor. After about 4 days we got word that we would probably get hit by a pretty bad squall with winds between 35-40 kts. We got the boat prepared for heavy weather and as predicted at almost the exact time they predicted the winds began to build. We lost our wind instruments a couple of months ago so we could not really tell how hard it was blowing but
it was more than we had ever seen in the past. As it continued to build we took all the sails in, pointed the boat to go with the wind , and left the main engine running at about 1000 RPMs to give us the ability to steer the boat on a straight course with the auto pilot on. Barbara and I retreated to the dry comfort of the main cabin of the boat and had the ride of a lifetime. The boat never went under 7kts and sometimes it was traveling much faster. We were headed west which just so happens
to be somewhat the direction we wanted to go. Didn't really matter we were at the mercy of the wind and waves. I looked outside at one point and saw our dinghy flying in the wind like it was a kite. I told Barbara there is no way our dinghy would make it till morning. One of the things you worry about in seas like this is that your boat will get going so fast down the back side of one wave that it will plow into the next wave and flip end over end. We never got going that fast. The storm hit
us around 11:30pm and at about 2 or 3 AM I estimated the winds to be in excess of 50 KTS. All we could do was ride the waves and wait for the storm to pass. By about 6 AM the wind and seas had relented a little but were still 30+ kits and the seas were still very high and seemingly coming at us from all directions. In our total amazement the dinghy had held on by 2 lines. The bad news here is that the seas were still so rough it would not be safe to go on deck to tie it down. I have to say it
was great to see sunlight the next morning. Even with the winds blowing at gale force we felt like we had seen the worst of it. As the front moved past us and we were able to talk to some of our fellow cruisers on our scheduled morning net it looked like we were the only boat to see the worst of the storm. Boats all around only had winds in the low 30's and the waves were manageable. After it was all said and done we were able to keep the dinghy but we lost 2 oars, a seat cushion and our American
flag. After the storm passed we were able to sail the boat at a very good speed toward New Zealand. No more motoring. The other positive here is that we were able to see what the boat could do under some very tough conditions. To me, it was very comforting to know that we are on such a seaworthy craft. All in all Destiny hardly blinked at what was thrown at her. Just the same Barbara and I hope to never have that experience again.

We have just spent a week and half in the Bay of Islands in NE New Zealand and are on our way to a marina in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty. We will leave the boat and fly home for 2 months and plan our next year's journey. We are still excited about our next port wherever that might be. It is hard to believe we have come this far. We have learned a lot and we know we have more to learn but we are not rookies any more. It will be great to come home and see family and friends but we also look
forward to next year and where the winds will blow us. "This is Destiny going back to 16".