Evald and "Big Andreas"
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Tue 11 Jun 2013 16:37
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In this bay we are about 10 boats at anchor, half
of them are French, one Canadian, one Check (z?), two Norwegians, and
us.
Yesterday we had sushi for lunch on Felice
(Norwegian), it was marvelous. Absolutely great! Fresh caught tuna just from
outside this bay. The kids where playing along and the adults could sit for
hours and talk.
Before that I have started to clean the hull, and
it is really a mess. After leaving Felice we where to go to a small beach with
the dinghies since the other Norwegian boat "Blue Marble" was going to arrange a
BBQ on a goat they bought for a bottle of rum.
"Blue Marble" is a catamaran bought in ST
Martinique by 10 young adults, and they intend to sail her to Australia and sell
her. The idea is to have a great trip and get the money back. They say they get
along well and the whole idea started at a reunion that some of the "kids"
parents had after a world around sailing trip in the 70s. So just to clear
things, a big Norwegian sailing ship (70-80feet) takes off in the 70s with a big
group of people. Some of them have kids and they are of course brought along on
this trip. When the group gathered for a reunion from the sailing trip a couple
of years ago, their kids are now almost 30 and they start to talk about making a
sailing trip themselves? Hope it is clear now...
Well we do not eat meat so we brought fresh made
homous and fresh baked bread. Ellinor and I where extremely curious about
two of the people on board Blue Marble. "Big Andreas" and Evald, are probably
around 30 years old, and Evald had been sailing around the world on this
big sailing ship with his parents in the age of 6-9. Andreas had been on the
same boat as a four year old for a year only. Of course we had
to ask Evald what he thought the trip as a child had affected his
life. He said that it is hard to know what was him as a person and what he got
from the trip. But he said that the trip had always been a great event i his
life. He thinks that the trip taught him that nothing is impossible to
accomplish (- I'm here now sailing!). The hardest part he thinks was coming back
to school, he was unprepared to the cruelty among kids. He was not trained for
it and he was a little bit special coming home from a trip like that. He cannot
remember places they went to, but he remembers crabs and other details that are
typical kids interests. He told us also when they went ashore here on Fatu Hiva
and walked further inland that suddenly he was hit with a memory of smell. He
could recognise the smell of fruit that is yeast. Since here is so much fruit on
all the trees there is a lot that just falls and in the sun "get's
processed".
Andreas the other guy, we had not much chance to
talk to him (he was playing guitar and singing with the kids). But we heard from
his syster that also is with them on this trip, that she has heard about the
sailing trip since she was born, and she was born after they got
home.
Today the hard work on the hull continues and
Ellinor cleans the interior with vinegar and water (all to keep the salt
out)
Trying to describe this anchorage is like trying to
describe a scene out of a science fiction movie. The lava is thrown around like
a crazy giant artist trying to make sculptures out of it. Half a head there, a
giant pillar here, a huge ball, smack! A deep valley, or a crest depending on
the light. Then imagine that on all this formations it is GROWING, and GROWING!
A lot of rain and the heat makes everything just GROWING everywhere. Trees are
coming out of vertical walls that you would think could not hold anything,
between the trees it is green, and between the green it is light green and above
it it is deep green and so on. Then you have waterfalls just coming out like
that, and if you walk ashore there is water pouring just about everywhere and
you have trees above you almost al the time.
This place where we have anchored has a very small
church and maybe 20 houses. The only way they can get here is by boat or they
have a dirt road to a "bigger" village, that even has a bakery (they say). In
this little village they have a small "store" that has about 150 items. The most
important a can of WD40. Most of the business is made with trading according to
other boats, we haven't got so far yet.
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