Update of the Log
http://www.oosterschelde.nl/en/2013/11/landing-op-de-chatham-eilanden/
From the log of the Oosterchelde as it sails on toward Cape Horn
8 November 2013
Written by Wieger Homan:
“Early morning, after seeing the lights of Chatham Island on our port side all through the night, finally the contours of the main island become visible. Green rolling hills, white beaches and steep cliffs.
A beautiful day, sunny with a calm sea. Slowly taking away sail until with a thunder the anchor drops around 10 o’clock.
Around the bay there are a few houses visible up the hill. Lower at the waterfront there is a fish factory and buildings that later on turn out to be a hotel and a shop. There is also a wooden pier that is too small for us. Under the blue sky we drink a toast to our safe passage.
Together with Jimbo and Werner we are the first three to go ashore with the dinghy. The first contacts with the local people are friendly. Big strong man leaning against their enormous 4 wheel drives. Anything can be arranged, a tour around the island, full day and half day, crayfish dinner, internet, whalebone, a flight back for David.
We get a hike to the hotel/bar/restaurant, 500 meter down the road. We meet the only police officer of the island, who shows us his station and the courtroom. In one of his two police cars he drives us to the health centre 400 meters further, where we can use the internet. First impression, all very friendly people. Not many tourists get here. There is an airstrip and we see a two-propeller engine airplane take off.
When after lunch the rest of the ‘Oosterschelde’ sailors get ashore, the local shop gets ransacked. Chocolate, t-shirts, sweaters, postcards, everything flies over the counter. In the meantime we enjoyed the fish-and-chips, blue cod, chips and beer.
The crayfish dinner is a disappointment. We wash it down with a lot of wine and some more fish and chips. The bar at night gets crowded with fishermen and farmers in various state of intoxication. Big bottles of beer disappear in their impressive bodies. Some of us say goodbye, others stay a bit longer while they can. It feels a bit unstable, but there is land under our feet. The ‘Tecla’ arrives in the afternoon and the ‘Europa’ anchors around 10 o’clock at night.
Early morning the next day most of us go ashore for a full day tour of the island. Lorraine and Kelvin introduced us to the history and the Maori people overpowered culture of the Moriori, a peaceful people that lived here originally. The whole tour of this beautiful island was centered on the decline of this proud and peaceful people. When the Maori invaded the island in 1853 with 900 men, the 2000 Moriori after ample considerations decided to not give any resistance and stay peaceful. As a consequence almost all of them got killed or taken into slavery.
The tour of the island was great. Pearl-white beaches surrounded by clear blue seas. Many scrapped cars, sheep, centuries old woodcarvings in trees, sea lions and all this explained by our excellent Moriori guide Lorraine.”
11 November 2013
The stop at Chatham Islands was a pleasant surprise, nice to have an unexpected stop in our big crossing, especially one with such warm welcome. Early morning a fishing boat came by to give us a crate full of lobster. We held open ship for all the school children of the island, while our voyage crew were on a tour of the island.
After one and a half day on the island we continued our journey to Cape Horn. We left together with ‘Tecla’ on Friday morning on the 8th and ‘Europa’ left the evening before. We had a beautiful sail along the coast and rocky islands. We had left just before ‘Tecla’ and she was gaining on us, but after trimming all the sails we slowly but surely left ‘Tecla’ behind.
In the afternoon we changed the date. Chatham keeps the date of New Zealand, while they actually are on the other side of the dateline. Also their time zone is peculiar: NZ time +45 minutes, very confusing.
That night we had little wind, but in the morning the wind came back and ever since we have been speeding along, doing 8 to 10 knots. Our last 24-hour distance was 203 Nautical Miles!
On Sundays the voyage crew have an appointment to talk to each other on the HF radio. The entire communication lasted more than 30 minutes. Sandy and Chris represented ‘Europa’, of ‘Tecla’ we do not know. Kaatje, Olav and Leo represented ‘Oosterschelde’. At first only with ‘Europa’ a connection could be made, and later on ‘Tecla’ joined in, but her report had to be relayed by ‘Europa.’
Nov. 13, noon ship’s time, ‘Oosterschelde’ reports:
We mentioned our early arrival at the Chatham Islands and the police officer coming alongside in his kayak. Quite a few of us enjoyed the day’s tour around the island. We then talked about Pitt Island and the Pyramid, which, because of the great hole on the side where we passed it, looked more like the nose of a giant, which was the impression on ‘Europa’ as well. That rock is the only place where the Chatham Island Mollymawk (also named Chatham albatross) is breeding. We saw quite few of these beautiful birds.
During the dogwatch, a petrel came a board and the bird flew away during the day watch and followed the ship for a while, before disappearing forever. We were doing 10 knots in fine weather, but have encountered dense fog at times during he last couple of days, as well as a bit of a drizzle.
Workshops are held every day about longitudes and parallels as well as the weather with beautiful drawings on the deck by Woody, made more pleasant by freshly baked cookies and popcorn. Saturday is cleaning day and we all got clean bed linens.
‘Europa’ told us the following:
They had learned from the locals on Chatham Island, that the person who died just before our arrival and who was buried on Wednesday, had been informed about the imminent arrival of the three Dutch Ships. His name in English means `Three ships`. His name in Moriori is: Clifford Kaipulle Whaitiri. Everybody, including the subject person, saw the appearance of the three Dutch ships as a very good omen.
On board of ‘Europa’ there will be eight anniversaries, and as it happened, a certain Steve had his anniversary the day before crossing the International dateline, so he had to celebrate it twice. One chocolate birthday cake was presented to him. At 08.00 am ‘Europa’ passed the Pyramid rock. Albatrosses, petrels but also a couple of sperm whales as well as pilot whales have been seen. On the second out after passing Pyramid rock, a New Zealand trawler came along to take pictures. ‘Europa’ has encountered showers and her speed was a bit less than ours. Workshops are held about celestial navigation and nuclear power.
We learned from the ‘Tecla’:
A barracuda fish was caught, but put back to sea and they have a started a photo competition about the most beautiful picture of an albatross.