To explain the story of how Mark and I met, and how we came to sail the South Pacific on SV Compass Rosey, I have to go back a little. I was a sail baby for 2 years, age 1 and 2. My parents split shortly after but I treasured these photos of my parents adventures on their boat.
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| Yep that's me! |
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| Mum and I somewhere in the Pacific. And posing on the boom |
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| My Dad |
I wanted to experience that again, and this time remember it. I felt a strong connection to the ocean and it was on my bucket list to go sailing again. Through a crewing website, I found a position on a small sailboat, I was to be the third crew member and help out with watches and cooking. I had no experience, really, but it didn't matter. I flew into Nuie, an 'island country' I had never heard of before with the intention of sailing back to Australia with the boat. Nuie is named the rock of Polysnesia, and this made sense once I started exploring the craggy limestone coastline, full of caves and rock pools. Otherwise it is a sleepy little place, hardly any cars on the single road that circles the island.
NUIE
After 3 days at anchor, and a growing sense that this may not be the most suitable boat for me, I started wondering whether I should jump off before the engine was fixed.
Fatefully I met John and Sue at the cruisers lounge in Alofi. A couple from Sonoma County, California, they had sailed their boat SV Wizard from Mexico to Nuie and had the intention of continuing onto Australia or New Zealand. They called this sail, the 'coconut milk run'. They suggested I join them and I gratefully accepted the offer. I moved onto SV Wizard that very day. With John and Sue, we hired a car and circled the island in a few hours, visiting the sites.
NUIE
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| The main road, central area |
After 3 days at anchor, and a growing sense that this may not be the most suitable boat for me, I started wondering whether I should jump off before the engine was fixed.
Fatefully I met John and Sue at the cruisers lounge in Alofi. A couple from Sonoma County, California, they had sailed their boat SV Wizard from Mexico to Nuie and had the intention of continuing onto Australia or New Zealand. They called this sail, the 'coconut milk run'. They suggested I join them and I gratefully accepted the offer. I moved onto SV Wizard that very day. With John and Sue, we hired a car and circled the island in a few hours, visiting the sites.
They also introduced me to Mark, explaining that Mark had crewed for them. Mark was now delivering a boat, SV Compass Rosey to Australia. He was losing his crew in Tonga and he suggested I could join him too. We spent the next day riding a motorbike around, walking through the rainforest and exploring the hidden caves and coastline.
With a suitable weather window, Captain John made the call to sail to Tonga. Mark and I agreed we would try and catch up again in Fiji.
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| John teaching me how to tie a bowline |
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| Dolphins escorting us on our way out of Nuie |
TONGA
After a 5 day passage we arrived in Tonga. It wasn't long before Mark sailed in too, and his crew left the boat as planned. Mark convinced me to sail with him on SV Compass Rosey. It was a hard decision to make, leaving John and Sue, who had saved me from disaster and been so kind to me. But I just couldn't resist the idea of sailing with Mark, a young traveler that had left the nest and taken a giant leap. I was grateful to have met Mark and felt like things were falling into place for me. Marks cousin, Jamie was flying in from Colorado to visit. Suddenly Mark had another 2 crew!
Jamey sailed with us for 2 weeks before returning home. After that Mark and I continued sailing SV Compass Rosey, just the two of us, from Tonga to Fiji to New Caledonia to Australia. The trip took 3 months.
Mark wrote all about it on his blog: http://sail7seas.tumblr.com/ if you are interested in reading about our sail through the South Pacific.
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