Life in the Anchorage at Funafuti, Tuvalu November 2015 (posted from Majuro Jan 2017) Position 31.491s 179 11.376e *** Nov 18 "Doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere fast," I said to David, after my morning weather analysis. The viable weather window we had anticipated for the coming weekend had evaporated, and light north-east winds and calms prevailed. "So we stay longer," said David, sipping his coffee and playing cards on his laptop. I felt uncomfortable still being in the hurricane zone, albeit at the outer limits of it. However we couldn't just motor for a week to get to Kiribati. The anchorage had emptied out as most yachts had sailed to the other end of the lagoon for a few days, but we had locals coming to visit so we stayed put. Then three more boats arrived including, Menkar who we'd met at Rotuma, Free Spirit and Clara Catherine. Clara Catherine had a guitar, mandolin, bones, and piano accordion. We immediately booked a music making session. We were nine boats in the fleet and our community was flourishing. We shared dinghy rides; I learnt more about weather from Deanne; the doctor in the fleet has been helping one of the group with an infected foot; I was writing a letter to customs for a boat that couldn't get back in time; some of us women went foraging for food together; and one volunteered her son to climb palm trees and get drinking coconuts for us. *** David - email to a friend As I write there is a large vessel parked off the town busy pumping the lagoon seabed onto the foreshore with the plan of reclaiming several hundred metres of shallow sea to add to their small landmass. Already there is a sizeable beach where on Tuesday was a rocky shoreline. They have previously pumped miles of sand onto a large strip of land further along the atoll, raising this by about a metre, and upon which is planned new housing. There are significant water storage facilities at every dwelling and, fortuitous for us, a glut of rain at present. We found, when searching for laundry facilities, that one could hire a washing machine as one might a power tool but no one was willing to let their water be used on a commercial basis. Not much use for us yachties who have all resorted to hand washing in the gallons that have been falling. A week-long conference among the leadership of these islands, recently concluded, was focused on sustainable development - solar power, water management, prevention of erosion. This week opens a two-week long Trades Fair presenting the wares of the private commercial sector here. It's hard to know who is regarded as the audience for this fair. Surely not us transient yachties or the few other visitors. Are there businesses unknown to the residents? Still, it speaks of effort for the future, of hope, optimism. And perhaps more money given than they know what to do with. Last night we had a sumptuous Mexican dinner among three of the yachts. One being the music one with a piano accordion and sundry rhythm instruments we made some promising music. Dinner the evening before put on by Kailopa and his friend Timoani. *** Nov 19. 0700 Janet journal entry What a bloody awful night. First I got too drunk on Margaritas at the Mexican dinner (fun though). Then we were up at 0230 shipping the dinghy because of squalls. Are you getting the idea that the sailing life is not always conducive to good sleep? 1900 Oooh, I don't like this. The wind has come up, clocking up to 25 knots, from the wrong direction, and we are on a lee shore (land downwind of us). We are bucking up and down over the short steep waves that are hitting us head on. There is seven miles of fetch (unfettered distance) across the lagoon for them to build up. We are planning to move to the other side of the lagoon tomorrow and settle in to a sheltered (relatively) spot to see out a low arriving at the end of this week. I wish we'd moved earlier today but its too dark to go now. I'm sitting at the chart table monitoring the GPS and the depth sounder to check if we are dragging at all. Earlier today we'd been safely dug in to a spot, confident our anchor was holding, but at about 5pm the guys working on the sand dredging came and told us we had to move, they wanted to dig up our nice safe bit of seabed. We reanchored further along the beach but were really uncomfortable about how close to shore we were, so in the dusk we anchored again, a bit further out. We may not get a full night's sleep tonight. Whenever we start the engine we check the engine water intake basket to make sure the water is flowing in freely and doing its job of cooling the engine. When we were about to move and reanchor the second time, we needed to do it quickly. I checked the basket, and there was a large piece of something that looked like white plastic in it. Bloody hell, I hoped it wouldn't block the water intake. The engine would overheat very quickly and that's the last thing we needed on the lee shore. "There's a boat moving out there," David called from the cockpit. Peering into the falling light we figured it was Menkar, the French yacht. "They are anchoring right ahead of us, right on top of our anchor," David muttered, and swore at them. "Looks like we'll be on anchor watch tonight " I said. I check our position again on the GPS and record the figures. Still in the same place. Good, but I feel a bit queasy, from the rocking and the stress. *** November 20 Janet journal entry Kailopa and his brother-in-law came for lunch today. First time on a mono-hull for Temoani. I commented on how many people are overweight here and Kailopa said that one reason was because there was so much money here. One major source is leases i.e. government buildings on leasehold land, and another is money given to the country from Australia, New Zealand, China and many other countries because of global warming. "People are eating a lot and not doing anything," Kailopa said, lamenting that even kids don't climb the coconut trees in the morning anymore. When he was young the boys would fetch 60 coconuts from the trees, and lop the tops off ready for drinking for the day. "Now they drink Coke and Fanta and tea," he continued. *** November 21 Janet We woke at 3.30am to found ourselves facing a nor-wester, on a lee shore, again. I got on Sailmail and did weather gribs and forecast for an hour then never really got back to sleep. I reviewed our options. We could stay here or move around the lagoon grabbing the meager amount of shelter the low lying islands and reef provide. Or, check out and go north to Kiribati and get ahead of the low that we were trying to avoid but right now there was very little wind to sail with. We had filled up with diesel but we didn't know how good the supplies were in Kiribati. Or, we could leave the following week and catch the edge of the low but that meant sailing 20-30 knots and rough seas. And of course that could all change with the next forecast. We opted to stay in Tuvalu and just as well we did. =20 =20 =20