Stuck

The Tuamotus Diaries #30, Day 64 – July 31^st 2016

Makemo doesn’t seem to want us to go.

Since Friday we have been waiting for a weather window to leave Makemo towards Fakarava. But, instead of a window, it’s a “weather brick wall” of sorts that we have been seeing since.

A cold front approached us at the end of last week, and I thought it would be our opportunity to leave. A couple times before, when cold fronts passed above us here, the weather got settled afterwards with a spell of many cold, dry days of fair winds. Idyllic conditions for an overnight passage in between the atolls.

Not this time though. Since Friday all we’ve had has been brisk, gusty winds and rain. LOTS of it. I was hoping that conditions would start to improve today – Sunday – but instead we woke up to a gloomy morning. Even the waters surrounding us, which have normally kept their clear blue attitude even in the worst of times, is of a murky green tone today.

The deck is soaking wet most of the time, and so is the cockpit, and we are thus confined to the cabin. The air inside is damp and warm, for we are forced to keep all portholes and hatches closed, and we are using candles to help improve the ambiance.

Without much to do, reading has been of order. The kids buried out a large collection of Brazilian cartoons that they had read nearly a year ago, and started reading ‘em all over again. Adriana has been nourishing her Yoga and Meditation skillset, whereas I finally started a great book with a compilation of epic stories about the sea – I have been keeping this one carefully since departure from Mexico, and decided it was now the time to get started with it.

When not reading, we play cards or dedicate ourselves to culinary. Special delicacies have been coming out of the galley, and my waistline has already started to show off the impacts of it.

Reading, Eating and Playing Cards isn’t a bad routine, but Raquel’s birthday is approaching and we would like to be in Fakarava already for it (or at least not in a passage). And perhaps an even harder deadline is that fact that my sister-in-law arrives to Fakarava in a week from now. That all adds a bit of suspense to the plot.

I keep on downloading weather forecasts, but they have been of plain literary nature only, without much attachment to the reality around us.

So we wait, and look to the west at times, hoping for a large expanse of blue sky to envelope us and give us the lead to go.