SetSail.com - the serious cruising sailor's website

June 3, 2005
by Al & Beth Liggett

Hello Again!


	Indian Ocean sunrise (2002).

This morning we've been out on the reef for a low tide walk. The tides are really low early in the morning these days, with very little wind, so no surface ruffle to interfere with spotting interesting creatures and getting photographs. This is the third time we have been out here at Salomon, walking a different reef each time. I think the first one was the best – long, wide, flat reef on the east side of Boddam Island. It was a good combination of shallow tide pools and dry coral groups, with easy walking right out to the surf line.

We have seen several different types of starfish, crabs, and sea urchins. Most of these are familiar from past forays on the reefs. The reef has plenty of broken coral rubble, but also live corals as well, and I think that the variety of corals are better here in Salomon than over in Peros. There are not as many eels slithering around the rocks and tide pools, however. We watched an eel stalk a crab over the rocks, finally cornering it long enough to make a fast strike and get it! I tell you, that crab was devoured in seconds. In another pool we saw an eel with the back end of a smaller eel sticking out of its mouth. Prodding made the bigger eel upchuck the swallowed one, but it didn't look too lively as it moved away. I suspect it became some other creature's dinner very shortly.

There was a turtle trapped in one of the tide pools. It had its head stuck up under a coral ledge. Al pulled it free so we could photograph it. This was a medium-sized turtle, and it was having difficulty moving around in the pool; it kept bottoming out! Al put it back near the coral ledge so it could "hide" once more. The incoming tide would soon set it free again.

The set of low tides was caused by this month's full moon. It seems to be a tradition to have full moon parties ashore. There were about 16 boats in the anchorage at Boddam. We all brought potluck dishes to share for dinner. By now everybody's lockers are showing the strain of having been away from the shops for several months. But you'd be surprised at the delicious – and inventive – dishes that arrived at the table. I made a corned beef version of the old tuna/noodle casserole standby. Figured corned beef would be a change from what I knew would be plenty of other plates with fresh fish as main ingredient. I think there should be a companion volume to "The Joy of Cooking" cookbook titled "The Challenge of Improvising"!

Wouldn't you know, the day was grey with spitting rain – just enough to keep hatches closed, not enough to fill buckets and tanks. Our full moon was shrouded in layers of clouds and only appeared as a glowing blob in the scudding mists. Shoulda had the party the next night; it was one of the most extraordinary moon rises we have seen in ages. This HUGE orange moon rose right out of the sea, just the tiniest wisps of cloud showing across its face. It seemed to hang there on the horizon, smiling at all of us perched on rails and foredecks, ooohing and ahhhing and admiring its magnificence. Then it got on with its business of brightening the night sky.

Al took advantage of the extra high tides to go fishing out over the reef in the dinghy. At high tide there is no surf line on the reef between Boddam and I. Anglaise, and he went across very easily. The first day he had no luck; before coming in he tried bottom fishing, but quickly lost his hook to the coral bottom. The next day he went out again. He tied the end of the fishing line (the usual rig we troll with at sea) to the dinghy anchor. It was a good thing – he hooked up with a wahoo! He said the line and then the anchor went out of the boat in seconds! This anchor line is secured to the stern of the dinghy. The wahoo didn't stop the forward motion, but slowed the speed and skewed the dinghy around – which was scary. At this point Al didn't know if he would be able to get the fish up to the dinghy, let alone get it inside! He put on his shoes – wahoo have lots of sharp teeth - and got out the hammer. It took a long time to get the wahoo up to the dinghy, but he said it was surprisingly easy then to get it on board. He lost no time in whacking it on the head to kill it. This was a 4-foot 9-inch, 30-pound wahoo! Everybody's been catching these big guys lately, so it's hard to give fish away. Our freezer is full, we've had about 3 straight days of fish meals, and I've dried a bunch too. Al is not allowed to go over the reef for fish anymore!

Life in the Back of Beyond has not been without problems. I guess I only think about writing about them when they directly affect us. But things happen to other people and other boats out here too. We just all try to cope as best we can and lend a helping hand if possible. We had the problems with the freezer and the bolt on the engine bracket. (all OK, still going strong). A whole bunch of other boats have had generator or alternator problems, wind generator problems, auto pilot problems, fridge and freezer problems, battery problems, computer problems, radio problems. For the most part, these breakdowns have been sorted out and fixed, or at least jury-rigged until the boat can get proper service for the item in question. Of course, some boats seem to be in a perpetual state of falling apart.

There have been some health matters and accidents in the community too. Fingers and toes seem to take a regular beating, with cuts and bruises mostly. Al had that run-in with the fish hook in his toe. Joannie and her family were out reef walking and a small shark (3 ft?) came directly at her and bit her on the foot, right through the reef shoes, leaving slashes across 3 of her toes; butterfly bandages did the trick and she healed quite nicely, but the wound kept her out of the water a long time. Regina got her hand slammed in the wind generator one dark and stormy night: no cuts thank goodness, but tremendous bruising and possibly a cracked bone. Elizabeth fell into a boat hole and cracked her shin; there is still a lump as big as an egg there. Valerie was sitting in the camp at a birthday party for her young son and a coconut fell directly on top of her head! She is OK, but imagine if it had hit one of the children! Then a Thai girl got sick with high fevers - eventually diagnosed as malaria contracted before they left Thailand - luckily, one of the boats had a doctor on board and some appropriate medication. But on the whole, the crews remain a pretty healthy lot – sometimes more so than their boats!

Boats are starting to leave, mostly those heading west to Seychelles or Mauritius. The morning radio schedules are busy with position reports, weather conditions, and guesses about what can be expected. Basically, nobody knows. The weather has been a mish mash of one good day, one light wind day, one rainy day, etc. Might as well be throwing darts to come up with a forecast; would be as much use as the weather maps and satellite images. We are content to hang around Salomon for another 3 weeks or so before heading back to Thailand/Malaysia.

Cheers to all, Al and Beth.