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American Spirit II - Day 143; Tour of Niue, Rally Lunch, Hospital & a Second Day of Rock and Roll on the Mooring Ball; Tuesday, May 27, 2014



Up at 5:00 AM. No reason, just done sleeping for the night. Typed a log and some emails. Boat still rocking and rolling on the mooring ball.



Woke Joel at 7:00 AM as we had a tour today and had to get into the island. Breakfast was the usual: bacon, eggs and bread.



Departed the boat at 8:00 AM to go to the wharf. The water was choppy. At the wharf we lifted the dingy out of the water using the crane. In the process as I was standing on some concrete steps holding onto the dingy, a wave came in and before I knew it I was in water up to my waist. So I will have a full day of 'dingy butt.' Wet, salt water soaked, underwear. Not a pleasant way to start the day.



There were two vans holding 7 persons each for the Commodore half day tour. Our driver was Sue, wife of the Niue Yacht Club Commodore; and along with Joel were the crew of BriZo (Stuart and Pat) and Firefly (Paul and Susan). We stopped at three locations: Palcha Cave, Malakai and Limu Pools. At the Malakai location we went snorkeling in a small gorge where the top 5 foot layer of the water was fresh water and 75 degrees; and the lower layer of water was salt water and about 86 degrees. There were salt water fish swimming in the salt water layer under the fresh water layer. Very unusual. The ocean side of the gorge had a big boulder blocking our passage out to the ocean, and created the environment where the two different water layers could exist. Furthermore, when snorkeling down into the warm, salt water layer, there was a prism effect which distorted your viewing any objects underwater.



At around noon we were dropped off at the Matavai Resort, where the Rally had organized a buffet lunch for us. This resort was the premier resort on the island, with a swimming pool and overlooking the ocean at the top of a cliff. The buffet consisted of chicken, lamb, pasta and salad.



At about 2:00 PM the Commodore of the Niue Yacht Club, Keith, drove me to the hospital to get an infection on the back of my right calf looked at and taken care of. There are no clinics on Niue so going to the hospital was my only option. Once there I was advised that I had a staph infection and was given a prescription to remedy the situation. The infection was quite uncomfortable and the skin around the infected site was hot to the touch. When I asked the doctor how to keep infections like this in the future from getting out of hand, I inquired if applying an antibacterial ointment or cleaning the site with alcohol would be of benefit. He said no, that the best thing I could do was to wash the inflamed and/or newly infected site frequently with soap and water.



I then had the hospital call the NYC Commodore so I could get picked up from the hospital. The number called was a 4 digit number, as there is no cell phone service on Niue. But this call went to a cell phone. Not sure how these calls work. After that I met up with Joel at the Niue Yacht Club, where many of the rally crew were at. Basically a one room yacht club. Very small.



On the way back to the boat Joel and I stopped at an Indian restaurant, had dinner and then made our way to the wharf. Using the crane we put the dingy back into the water, and then made our way to our mooring ball in fairly rough conditions. The mooring field is on the west side of the island. Since the trade winds blow from the east, there are usually no waves or minimal waves. For the 2nd day in a row we have winds from the west, so all the boats except the catamaran's are bouncing and rocking and rolling a lot. Like yesterday and all of last night, we're rocking up to 20 degrees port and starboard every few minutes.



We watched 4 episodes of the HBO series The Pacific. A series about World War II in the Pacific.



Joel went to bed at 10:00 PM; and I followed him by 11:45 PM.



340 Days until home.



Brian Fox


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