We sailed Quest again today! What a day! Today being the first Saturday of the month we had to have an organizational meeting but once that was over we dragged the heavy old quest down to the water and out they went. The rest of the gang had to go out to run errands so Wakana and I stayed at the site to watch the gear and work on language lessons. She is doing very well and I have only just begun my Japanese lessons.

Once everyone returned it was time to go back out. This time Wakana, Larry and I joined the Puluwatan crew. There were 7 of us on the boat. They had brought a snack of fresh fish, sashimi at its rawest, and a cooler of beer. I had a bottle of water. We paddled out of the harbor and then set the sail. Once we got moving we shot along bailing all the while. It wasn't that Quest was leaking. With 7 of us aboard we were too much of a load. And with the sweep of the water and the slop coming over the gunnels we needed to keep up with the bailing. Sailing an outrigger is very much a balancing act. The pressure of the wind on the sails wants to lift the tam (pontoon) out of the water. The position of the crew and correct handling of the main sheet keeps the boat on an even keel.

As we left the harbor Laurenti was at the rudder. This is a long flat oar with a natural crook at the steering end. It is tied to the boat only by its upper end and then is braced forward against a stop built into the gunnel. The steersman keeps his foot on it to hold it in place but it is only used as needed. These boats tend to steer themselves and the steersman only needs to push him around if a stray wave pushes him off course.

Laurenti is a very quiet man but once we got moving he opened up. Life at the helm was a laugh a minute for him and he chattered away in Puluwatese as he steered and drank.

And they all drank, very heavily. The dead soldiers piled up in the bottom of the boat as they laughed and chatted and enjoyed a day on the ocean. Ken, Brandon, and Mark talked about trips they'd made to Pikelot to hunt turtles. They tried to pick out the various hotels they worked for. I tried to get someone to sing a Puluwatese song and Mark explained that they usually sang one to ask permission of the water spirits to enter the water. He said they hadn't done that today. We stared at him in mock horror. "You mean we are out here without permission?" Everyone laughed.

Sailing in an outrigger is an intense experience. On a European/Western style sailboat everything makes sense to me. I understand the forces working on the boat and I can sail her fairly well as long as I don't have to perform any actual feat of seamanship. But here we needed to watch the tam to make sure it didn't sink or fly. We had to feel the movement of the canoe and control the sheet. We had to watch our own movements because that might upset a delicate balance. Wakana was on the ep-ep, a platform that extended out the opposite side of the boat from the outrigger. It is not actually fastened to the boat. It is just jammed in place. I sat on the other end of the ep-ep, over the center of the hull. Gordon rode on the outrigger. And the rest of the guys were fore and aft, running the boat and passing fresh beers around as they drained the cooler.

I haven't accurately described the rig of the Quest. There is a mast set up in the center of the boat. It rests in a socket carved in a piece just outside of the gunnel over the outrigger. It sits in a socket because it needs to move fore and aft. The sail is rigged along two spars in the form of a Vee with lovely curves along both arms of the Vee. One of the arms of the Vee is hoisted to the head of the mast and the point of the Vee is lashed to the bow. The other arm of the Vee flies free and is controlled by the main sheet.

We were out for about 2 hours, running north along hotel row. We got most of the way to Two Lovers Point when we decided to turn around. This is accomplished by untying the point of the Vee from the bow, raking the mast in the other direction, and passing the point of the Vee aft and tying it down at the other end which is now the bow. The rudder is passed to the other end and the man in that end becomes the steersman.

After we returned to the harbor we unrigged the boat and straining mightily, we got her back in place. We covered her up and called it a day. And it was a day, exciting, warm, happy, and fun.