HOW TO SURVIVE SIX WEEKS AT SEA WITH FOUR CHILDREN

Nina Kiff

(Nina wrote from aboard the Kiff family's Nicholson 45 Wetherly in New Zealand. Her letter mentioned their 1991 Atlantic crossing and cruise to Panama, setting the scene for her article about their onward passage from Panama to the Marquesas. From there Wetherly called at the Tuamotus, Society Islands, Rarotonga, Beveridge Reef, Niue, Tonga and Fiji before reaching Opua in New Zealand, where Nina praised the helpfulness of George and Dorothy Bateman, OCC Port Officers for the Bay of Islands.)

If anyone had told me before leaving Panama for the Marquesas that it would be a six week passage my heart would have sunk. The prospect of such a long time at sea with our four children, Sarah (13), Richard (11), Rebecca (10) and Tom (6) would have seemed daunting. Would they get bored? How on earth would we keep them occupied for all that time? What about fresh stores such as fruit and vegetables? Surely we would get on each other's nerves living in such a small space? These are some of the many questions that would have sprung to mind.

We transited the Panama Canal on 10th-11th April 1992, and then spent a few days anchored off the Balboa Yacht Club taking on stores and preparing for the long trip ahead. The list was endless -- filling gas bottles, making sure we had all the charts we needed, checking torches for batteries, replacing the sturdy builders' bucket which was now at the bottom of the Panama Canal, etc, etc. Sarah wrote lists of all the food we had on board -- 180 lbs flour, 25 lbs rice, 30 dried meals, 40 tins meat, 80 tins canned vegetables, 70 pints dried milk, 10 lbs coffee and so on. We knew we had a long passage ahead and that food in the Marquesas would be expensive, so we stocked up as much as we could. Then came all the fresh produce -- two sacks of oranges, one sack of grapefruit, seven enormous pineapples, a stem of bananas and a sack each of potatoes, onions and carrots. And so it went on. Where were we going to stow it all? The children were put to work washing and checking -- we didn't want cockroaches and other bugs on board and had already seen what creepy crawlies hide in a stem of bananas.

Finally, with water and fuel tanks full, we headed out to spend a few days at the islands of Toboga and Las Perlas in the Gulf of Panama. The sea was flat and the wind virtually non-existent, so we reluctantly motored part of way to the islands. There we enjoyed several peaceful anchorages all to ourselves, a pleasant change from the noise and bustle of Panama. Finally realised that we could stay no longer and set sail for the Marquesas. Our next port of call would be Atuona on Hiva Oa, more than 4000 miles away.

With the wind still light and variable we slowly drifted out of sight of land, but soon settled back into the life at sea and night time watch routine. We divided the night into four watches, 2000-2200, 2200-0130, 0130-0500 and 0500-0700. Tony and I took the middle two, whilst Sarah and Richard took one each at either end of the night. What a difference it makes only having to get up once during the night! The children seemed to quite enjoy their watches, probably because they had their personal stereos and could listen to all the tapes I didn't like. Hot chocolate and a streusel bar* were another incentive. Hilda the Hydrovane behaved well so sailing was very peaceful and we sighted only one yacht, two container ships and two fishing fleets on the entire passage. During the first two weeks we had several nights when we were becalmed, so rather than have the continuous slatting of sails we took them all down, put up our anchor light and went to bed. If this was to be the pattern for the next 4000 miles it was going to take a long time to get to Hiva Oa but the days passed surprisingly quickly.

Every morning was spent doing school work. Diaries came first. Each day the children found something to write about -- dolphins swimming alongside, tired swallows who came and landed for a rest, hair washing and showering in the rain, sifting weevils out of the noodles, making teddy a pair of shorts, teeth falling out, the day we found some bad eggs, seeing a waterspout, cutting hair -- there was always something. One day Tom wrote: `Dad was in a bad mood because there was no wind'. The trip was memorable for the lack of wind. We only carry 100 gallons of diesel so motoring any great distance was out of the question, and we also needed to keep some fuel in reserve for charging the batteries and running the desalinator. Anyway, where does one motor to in such a vast ocean with so many miles to go?

School work usually continued with maths and English. We had some textbooks from England and did our best to keep on top of the maths. Other subjects were also tackled, including a general background to the history and geography of the Pacific islands we would be visiting, the crops they grow, some of their customs, and the origins of volcanoes and atolls. We looked at ocean currents, weather patterns and time zones, and how they would affect us. The fish we caught gave us the opportunity to dissect their gills and eyes, and to look at their different fins and how they are used when swimming. Every fish we caught was carefully weighed, measured and recorded, the largest being a 1.5 metre Wahoo which made excellent eating. We had learnt that a drop of whisky or other alcohol down the throat kills a fish without the messy business of knocking it out with a winch handle.

The sighting of whales and dolphins was always exciting and sent the children dashing up onto the foredeck and then back down below to try to identify them from the books. The waterspout had to be drawn and then they looked in the encyclopedia to find out why they happen. A booby decided to sit on our pulpit for most of one day and seemed quite content to stay there while Sarah drew it. We took dead torch batteries apart to find out how they worked. There were endless possibilities for learning.

The afternoons were spent at less academic things. We had brought along bags of odd scraps of material, wool, sewing threads, stuffing, balsa wood, felt, paint, coloured paper, card, glue etc, and these were soon got out of the lockers and strewn about the cockpit. We had seen so many wonderfully colourful fish while snorkelling in Bonaire that the children decided to sew and stuff their favourite fish. (Rebecca actually made one and a half -- she made two left sides of a Queen Angelfish so she had to make another, but the spare side has made a very good mat). Then they each made something out of balsa wood. The boys made boats and the girls made boxes. Sarah's was rather like a treasure chest with a rounded lid, and she stuck balsa wood dolphins on the sides.

Lego was something else we were glad to have on board. Over the years we've collected quite an amount, kept in a large drawstring bag. For those cruising families with young Lego fanatics aboard, I have found that the best way of trying to keep it under control is to cut out a 1.5 metre diameter circle of strong material and put a drawstring round the edge. This then doubles as a Lego mat when opened out and as a storage bag.

We also had our fair share of rain. Who'd have thought that we'd be wearing oilskins in torrential rain so near the Equator? The mainsail proved an excellent raincatcher and I was kept busy finding plastic food boxes and saucepans for the children to fill. The watertanks could hold no more and the cockpit was full of containers of all shapes and sizes. Give children water and they'll be entertained for hours -- Rebecca and Tom spent a very wet and happy hour sitting opposite each other in the cockpit, dressed in their waterproofs, with a mug and a straw blowing water at each other.

The most worrying part of the trip was probably the thunderstorm we got caught in. We'd been watching rain squalls and lightning all day and had managed to avoid them, but late in the afternoon our luck ran out. The black clouds closed in and we had torrential rain, thunder and lightning, though at least there was hardly any wind so there were no big seas. "Will we get struck by lightning?" the children kept asking as they watched the flashes outside. With quite a lot of forked lighting around we discussed unplugging the aerials. "Hurry up, Dad, before we get hit" -- they were obviously getting concerned. Tony disconnected the aerials from the VHF and Loran, and hung our short length of dinghy anchor chain over the side from one of the shrouds in the hope that, should we be struck, the current would follow that route. It did help to allay some of the children's fears, as we spent a rather sleepless night listening to the rain and thunder and hoping all would be well. The only thing that did happen was that we had Saint Elmo's fire. It's rather alarming to see the top of the mast glowing in the dark but we came to no harm.

When the weather improved and the sun came out they often tied our No.4 genoa to the guard wires and made a bath to cool off in. Tony and I just had to stop them overfilling it. I don't think they were fully aware of the extra weight they were bringing on board with all the buckets of seawater.

We had quite a few special occasions on that long passage. The boys had their birthdays, we crossed 90W and then 120°W, marking a quarter and then a third of the way on our circumnavigation, and of course we crossed the Equator. This occurred at 2241 on 29th April and unfortunately no one was really awake enough to meet King Neptune. In fact the children were all in bed and wanted to be woken so they could watch the GPS change from a North to a South position. Rebecca decided to stay in bed. Next day she wrote in her diary, "I was the first one to cross the Equator because I stayed in bed and was further forward".

The two birthdays were spent having a day of fun and games. Rebecca and Sarah organised these -- a treasure hunt, Kim's game, picking up popcorn with a straw, how many beads in a jar -- and we all got certificates and prizes which they had made. And of course we had birthday cakes with the appropriate number of candles. As we passed the different stages of our trip we marked them with something special to eat and drink. Everyone took a turn at cooking, and even Tom became quite a good chef making tasty concoctions from the various tins he found. He was also very good at making fresh bread rolls for breakfast.

We have an SSB on board which proved to be a great morale booster. Whilst cruising the Caribbean we had met many yachts, most of whom were now heading back across the Atlantic as we continued westward, but before saying goodbye to our friends on Deception we had arranged twice-weekly schedules and these we eagerly looked forward to. The children enjoyed talking to Graham and Jean, telling them what they were doing and how they were coping. We managed to keep in touch throughout the six weeks of the passage, and they told us they had reached the Azores safely as we arrived in Atuona. After that the time difference and bad propagation got the better of us and we lost contact. We also spoke to other yachts going the same way as us. Some of them we never met, but we were able to compare weather conditions and exchange positions and it was comforting to feel that someone knew roughly where we were.

Finally, after 41 days at sea, we sighted Hiva Oa -- an exciting moment. The Marquesan islands are wild, rugged, sparsely populated and have few lights. We knew we would not make the little harbour at Atuona in daylight so reluctantly decided to heave-to for the night and wait until next morning. Our last night at sea saw more wind than we'd had during the previous six weeks and was probably the longest and most uncomfortable night of the entire trip.

It was a great moment when we stepped ashore next day after all the time at sea. We all complained of aching legs, but had arrived safely after what may turn out to be the longest sea passage any of us will do.

Streusel bars (great for night watches!)

6 oz dried fruit 2 ripe bananas

1/4 pint orange juice 8 oz brown sugar

1 tspn cinnamon 6 oz butter or margarine

pinch nutmeg 6 oz white or wholemeal flour

2 tspn ginger 6 oz porridge oats

1. Combine dried fruit, orange juice and spices and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in chopped bananas.

2. Beat together sugar and butter/margarine, then add flour and oats.

3. Put 3/4 of mixture into a tin.

4. Bake in a medium to hot oven for 15 minutes.

5. Spread the fruit mixure over the top, followed by the rest of the oat mixture.

6. Return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.

7. Cut before it cools.

* See end of article for recipe