Kioa to Rotuma, Nov 27, 2015 Written from Majuro July, 2016 David and Janet The phone rang early in the morning. "I'm coming with you." It was Kailopa. He had spent a greater part of the night wrestling with the proposal and=20 consulting his family. They were cautious and protective but in the end relented=20 in the face of Kailopa's plea.=20 We met on the beach where he heaved his suitcase in the dinghy along with a=20 broad smile. He could not stop grinning at this turn of events. He hoped to step=20 ashore in Funafuti and surprise his grandson. *** Ten hours out from Kioa. Destination Rotuma, Fiji's northernmost island. 260=20 miles to go. Wind 19 knots and steady from the east. We had to tack a bit as the=20 wind was directly on the stern. The swell and sea state were not too bad. Nov 29 1600 to 2000 watch. David and I are doing four-hour watches, and Kailopa is=20 sharing some of our time. After Rotuma he may progress to his own watch. Bring=20 it on. I long for six hour sleeps. I had initial misgivings about taking on someone we hardly knew as crew, but=20 Kailopa has been wonderful company, generous with stories of his people, a=20 teacher of his language and fishing methods. Tonight, he says, we will try for=20 barracuda. He sits patiently on deck, endlessly watching the sea and sky. A=20 stillness and connection with his environment that I admire but cannot emulate.=20 He explained how he can tell the tide from the movement of the moon. The tide=20 drops with the rising moon and rises with the setting moon. When directly=20 overhead it's low tide. He was the first to notice a fish on the line and to sight=20 Rotuma on the horizon. Today we passed the afternoon comparing Maori and=20 Samoan vocabulary and found a lot of similarities. He taught us some basic=20 phrases to use on our visit. *** 0300 Janet Will I ever get used to being woken in the middle of the night? I couldn't get to=20 sleep at 8pm at the end of my evening watch. By the time David woke me at=20 midnight I was virtually unconscious. Fortunately Kailopa was on deck and I=20 dozed through the first hour and a half of my watch. Fortunately no squalls to deal with. I downloaded some weather through the single sideband radio and the Sailmail=20 modem. We had to watch out for hurricanes from then on. We were in the season=20 but not yet out of the zone. The weather behaved differently in that area, north of=20 Fiji, and I had to draw data from new and different sources. I was getting Hawaii=20 weatherfaxes, the New Zealand ones didn't go far enough north. I downloaded a=20 large grib area to include the Solomon Islands just to check, that area being a=20 breeding ground for cyclones.=20 0900 100 miles to go to Rotuma. Perfect sailing conditions - blue sky, half metre swell,=20 12-15 knot breeze. Very tired though. Sometimes life at sea for me becomes all=20 about getting enough sleep. On passage I get lethargic, so things like doing dishes=20 takes a lot of motivation (I know it normally does anyway, but much more at=20 sea.) Yesterday I bagged up the dirty dishes for each meal and put them in the=20 'garage' (a crawl space for access to the starboard side of the engine).=20 Several times a day I wash myself down with a wet flannel to try and keep the=20 stickiness at bay. Tomorrow, tomorrow! Swim, shower, full night's sleep. *** Kailopa spotted Rotuma in the last of the evening sun. Arriving at land is intense=20 and we were on full alert. We hove-to offshore for the night before landing,=20 wanting to go into the anchorage in daylight. We often heave-to in really big sea=20 and wind conditions, and usually the movement of the boat is immediately=20 calmer, but this time it was more uncomfortable. David woke me at 11pm after=20 three hours sleep, and reminded me of the set up. Tiller lashed to port side to point us=20 50 degrees off the wind, and the main set on the port side too. Each force=20 balances the other thus holding the boat more or less in one place. The boat=20 moves about a knot forward and a knot sideways. We were only four miles off=20 the island and it took me a while to feel confident that our drift was away from=20 the island, after we started off drifting half a mile towards it.=20 Three weary hours later I woke Kailopa for his first solo watch. I showed him=20 how to fill in the log book; time, latitude, longitude, bearing, boat speed, wind=20 speed and direction, barometer reading, and miles to go, which we do hourly=20 then explained the hove-to set up. Yay! Five hours, five hours shut eye. But no,=20 after four hours I was shaken awake and came into the cockpit to see the island=20 nearby, Kailopa on the tiller and a whale spouting ahead. So, so tired but thrilled=20 too. Motoring into the anchorage, we steered a slalom course through the coral=20 bombies, David up the mast directing us away from danger. Then we dropped=20 anchor in five metres of water, surrounded by reef, wharf and ship. What would=20 this new land bring?=20