BUILD UPDATE + Life Right Now...Sailing Vessel Delos Ep. 519

Oh, here's another one.

Ah!

After 11 days, 1,400 nautical miles, 15-foot seas, and one of the rolliest passages of our lives.

Brutal.

The swells are huge. We had finally reached our latest and greatest destination.

We made it.

Land ho.

Land ho. We're actually really close. The kingdom of Tonga. It's been over 10 years since I first set foot in this little island nation. And the experience this time around has been, well, a little bit different,

but in the best way possible. This is us, we're cruising again.

Yay!

Yay for cruising!

Yay for cruising. Yay for cruising.

Hey guys, so.

Good morning.

We're just about to set off to explore some of the anchorages here in Tonga. I've heard that there's over 40 anchorages here in Bavau.

I think there's more, I think there's like

40 numbered anchorages.

Oh really? There's so many though. And I think there's more. I think there's like 40 numbered anchorages. Oh, really?

There's so many though.

And I think we've got to start with number seven, which is Port Moral.

Yeah. Which seems pretty cool.

Hi!

Hi.

My tongue is cold. Do you want to fail?

Yeah, that's our lives.

Your daddy was here 15 years ago. That's three of your lifetimes ago. He was here seeing some of these same places on the very same boat. And now I'm excited to show you a few of the things that I remember, no matter how hazy those memories are. But first a little walk down memory lane

from a blog I wrote last time Delos was in these waters, way back in 2011. It seems in that point, our life mostly consisted of trying to finish our bilge full of Heineken mini kegs that we bought in Tahiti. So we mostly drank mini kegs.

We had some barbecues on the beach while drinking mini kegs. We went out to eat, probably went home, drank more mini kegs, and then we drank beer while wearing masks. We partied a little bit more, went to a Faka Lady show at Tonga Bob's.

We drank even more mini kegs. We partied yet a little bit more. And then when we had enough empty mini kegs, we made costumes and built a floating raft. Then I did some boat projects to round things out as you do, got naked on the beach, and that's pretty much life was like pre-kid.

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Okay, now let's go explore Tonga.

Onwards to the next thing that I wanted to mention

is that a lot of you guys have been asking, how is the Delos 2.0 build going when we're not there? So we've been away for a couple of weeks now.

It's going pretty good. I know.

We've got some awesome pictures of the progress

that Dan has made.

Yes, and I am quite, I have FOMO for sure.

I do too. There's so many amazing things happening.

I know.

So right now the team is working a lot on the interior liners. And the biggest question that we've been having is, how come you haven't insulated the boat yet? The reason why we haven't done that yet is because of the interior wall system we're using. It's all done with removable panels and fast mounts.

And fast mounts allow you to take the entire panel off. And so one of the stipulations that I had was that we don't want parts of the hole to be closed off. I want to be able to get access to everything at any time for any reason. And so all the panels need to be removable. And so what Dan is actually doing is he's taking aluminum straight pieces of track and it is going alongside

the inside of the hole. The fast mounts are attached to that and then the panels go on to the fast mounts. And so all of that is actually being welded to the frames and to the hull. And that's the reason why we haven't done the insulation yet is because once you do the insulation, no more welding, obviously.

And so all that welding will be done, the panels will be placed, everything will be nice and neat. And then when we're ready to do the upholstery for the trimmer to do that, all the panels come off. They get sent to the upholstery shop. They get covered with the foam back vinyl,

made all nice and all that. And then we'll put the insulation in and then put the panels back. So that's kind of the order of operations

and why we've chosen to do it that way.

Cool.

But other than that. I want to show some pictures. You want to show some pictures? Yeah. Put up some pictures. What do you want to show pictures of? Maybe the steps that are going on the outside. Yes. Maybe the sweet new hatches that have been cut

and fit in place. Maybe the love seat and maybe the steps in the forward cockpit.

What else?

Mama. I want to have my camera with the snorkel.

Well, the boss has spoken. Looks like it's time to stop talking and start snorkeling. Thanks for all the hard work, Stradbroke team. And we'll see you in Oz mates.

Okay, sunscreen it up. And we're getting ready it's always chaos when we when we try to leave it's like so many things going on we're trying to not get our stuff together Sierra is always like so much going on so but we have our sunscreen on and we are gonna go and see if we can explore a few things around the anchorage here, just getting out a little bit.

It's actually really nice to be anchored. Finally, we're in like a cruisey spot, so let's see.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Beautiful, huh? You know what? I think this is, this is the first place that me and Brady tried to kill ourselves kiteboarding. Oh, really? Yeah, I looked at it on an old blog. Yuku Islands, we tried to set it up right here.

We knew nothing what we were doing

and Brady got drug way out that way. The lines all wrapped around him and I had to go it up right here. We knew nothing what we were doing. And Brady got dragged way out that way. The lines all wrapped around him

and I had to go out and save him.

Here we go.

Here we go.

There you go.

Look.

Oh, nice.

Sierra is as big of a shell finder as I am. She loves shells. So do I.

She's just like you. Are you a shell aficionado? How are you finding Tonga?

It's nice. Yeah. I really like it. It's so nice that it's protected. People speak English. So it's like a lot easier. Very friendly. Very friendly.

We didn't spend a lot of time in the town.

Mom and dad, someone did live in the cell.

How do you know?

Because I put my ear by it and then I hear the ocean.

Do you?

Can I hear it?

So yeah, we just decided to come out and explore. There's a pretty cool cave around the corner. I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired.

I'm tired.

I'm tired.

I'm tired. Whoa, okay. Off to the next spot.

What do you see, Sierra?

Fruit bats!

So many.

Fruit bats.

Right there.

I see them.

Look at them.

They seem a little bit different than the ones in Australia. They have like a lighter head, or maybe, I don't know. I don't know if it's different kinds, but.

Exactly. Fruit bats and Tonga, and those around Cairns, Australia, are different species, each adapted to their own region. So if you spot fruit bats and Tonga, you're looking at Pacific flying foxes, also called Petrobopus Tongaenus.

Yep, you heard it right, Tong-anus. Or is that Tonganus? Either way, you decide. In contrast, those large spectacled bats commuting over Cairns are Petropapus conspicillatus. The spectacled flying fox.

Distinctly different appearance, habitat, and conservation status.

I think we found a cave.

Here we go.

Hey, mama.

Whoa, look at the wall.

Look at that.

Look, people dived on it.

Did they?

See? See all the water? Yeah.

Swallow's Cave is one of the most epic spots to check out in Vava'u. It's a massive sea cave carved by eons of rain and weather right into the limestone cliffs on the Northern tip of Capa Island. And you can only get there by boat.

What makes it so cool is how deep the cave is. The water deepens from around 15 feet at the entrance down to 60 feet in the main chamber. It's also crazy clear. On a sunny day, light beams shine right through the entrance and light up the inside like an underwater cathedral.

You'll usually find schools of tiny fish swirling around and sometimes bigger predators hanging out just outside in the shadows.

But it's really cool when you look up, just see like all the writings on the wall and stuff.

It's pretty crazy. Do you see like all the writings on the wall and stuff? It's pretty crazy.

It's also a fun free dive and the acoustics inside are wild. Every splash echoes right off the walls, right along with Sierra's screams. It's quick to explore and totally worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it.

It's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it.

It's worth it. and I have this or we have decided I have not decided this we have decided that it's time Sierra is big enough to swim off the boat by herself with our under our supervision so we're ready to get rid of the nets yes going she she's

so big now and she's very cautious anyway. So goodbye nets. We don't need you anymore. Look at that little dolphin.

Hey dolphin.

You want to come up on this side?

You want to come up the back?

One, two, three.

Oh, there you go.

Okay. Let me see a big jump, please.

Oh no. Holy shit.

She's got him, she's got him.

What a boss.

Oh shoot.

Uh oh, okay.

Let me get on my fence. As parents, it's wild how fast our kids grow. One minute they're tiny, the next they're doing big kid stuff. Taking the net off might seem small, but for us, it's a very proud parent moment.

We can't wait to see what steps she takes next.

So Sierra got one. You got one, right Sierra? And who got the other one?

Daddy-o.

I jumped in makey makey!

I know, you might have to blur. Are you gonna jump in with daddy? No, you're both in anyways.

Okay!

Didn't take me too long to get the netting off. It feels different. Like the boat is... It's more open. Yeah it feels more open for sure. It just yeah it feels good. It was it held up actually really good like we've had it on there for how many years? Five. Five years out in the Sun like the boys put it on in the Bahamas I remember it took forever it took like a whole day for three people but they did a really good job so it held up good but

I think it's time and yeah that let's feel a little bit more fresh Oh no.

The cup is stuck.

Where is he?

Oh, come on.

Why is life so difficult?

Where's our little friend? Come on. Why is life so difficult?

Where's our little friend?

He's gone.

Oh, he's in there.

Oh my God.

Oh no way.

That guy, I wonder how he's been on board since French Polynesia, because I saw him on passage.

Yeah. And now he's just running around since French Polynesia because I saw him on passage. Yeah.

And now he's just running around our boat. What do you think?

Him is our pet.

That's true. What do you think?

You saw me the other night too.

He's very cute. He's actually way more, usually they stay in the cockpit, but this guy is like all over the place.

He's out and about. Hey, I can get out of there, buddy. We're cooking pancakes.

Or you can stay in there.

He's like, what the heck?

Where am I?

Dad, what the heck is a bad word?

Oh, sorry. You're right.

So we're having banana pancakes this morning.

Mama, I want to get some dad from Gold Wizard.

I don't think he eats banana pancakes, love.

Why?

Why? Why?

All right, well, we've tried to move the boat today and we're trying to go to this anchorage that's one further out east. And in order to do it, we have to get through this little pass through the shallows.

And there's supposed to be a couple of markers that show up on the chart for the area, but we're not seeing those markers. It's not making me feel comfortable about it. So Kaz is going to circle the boat around.

Yeah.

As he loved doing. And I'm going to go out in the dinghy and see if I can, I'll just take the depth sounder and see if I can find the way through. We should just be off here to port, right? You can kind of see the shallows.

Yeah, I mean either there or there.

Yeah, so we're-

But it's like, we're supposed to go. I mean, I think we're supposed to go either that way

or this way.

Yeah.

But it's like, it's a ball misseseera I think? No, I don't- I'll go check it out. Hey, me and Sierra are on the case. We've got our phone, we've got our radio. We've got our depth sounder for Balmeseera.

16 feet.

Okay, I think we found a good place.

The least depth I saw was 19 feet by 16.

That's 20.

We'll go back to Delos. We'll just have Kaz follow me in the dinghy and we'll show her the way out, okay?

Show mom the way.

All right, hold on.

You ready? Hold on.

Here we go. Here we go.

Here we go.

Here we go. Yeah, Delos has a 2.2 meter deep keel so she's pretty deep and we have that big kind of block at the bottom so it's it can get really stuck if it gets stuck so it's better to be safe than sorry. It's actually a little easier to see now without the netting on the rail. So that's good. Yeah, so I actually think that was the shallowest. So this was about four. Sorry, Brian, I have no idea what you said.

Oh, it's hard to film while I can drive at the same time. Yeah, I think we're clear of the shallow shallows. It's like eight here, eight, nine. So Brian is going to come back.

Okay. We got through that one. What's the least depth you saw?

Four.

Four meters? Okay. And it looks's the least depth you saw? Four. Four meters?

Okay. And it looks like the charts are pretty accurate. Yeah. All just all the markers are gone.

Yeah, it's just like hard to know. I didn't feel like those other charts really marked

like lined up.

So sketchy.

So.

But this, this one was accurate. Went right through there and the depth matched with what I was seeing. So now we got to go up here and then we have one more to get through, but it's less crazy. And then we anchor like up here.

So, okay.

Thank you.

Good job.

How was Sierra? Yes. She was a handful.

She really wanted to help me up on the dinghy.

I know it's really hard.

Yeah. wanted to help me up on the dinghy. I know it's really hard. Yeah, but it's like when the waves are that big, like it can really pull you. And I think that it would have just pulled her over. So she's very upset with us right now. That's the way it is sometimes. So that's what the forward scan looks like.

Shows the bottom contour pretty good. So if I just go slow up into the wind, if I see something, I can just back off and we float away from it. Is this a good course?

Yeah.

This is the way point that people have. Looks like it's a shallower spot there and there.

So I would say that-

Yeah, there's supposed to be a one meter spot over here somewhere.

Yeah, like a little bit more to the port.

Okay.

Okay, just follow me. Probably go slow, maybe two, three knots, just to keep enough speed so you have control of the rudder. And that little two meter spot you see on the chart, we're going to keep that to starboard, okay?

Hi Sierra!

Are you gonna help me? The anchorage is right in this little pocket here. You can see it maybe better on here.

Right in there. And of course it maybe better on here. Right in there.

And of course it's starting to rain.

Ah!

Yeah!

This place looks sweet though. I'm in neutral Kaz. I'm a popper in reverse. You can drop. I'm just slightly in reverse and let the chain out real slow. So we don't dump a huge pile at the bottom.

We start to go back a little bit, then I'll put out more. Is it not as clear as the other place? All right, so I'm just back in now and you can see our speed is gonna slowly go down and down and down until the chain tightens up. And then when it sets, we should stop. Five, four, three, two.

So we're pretty much stopped now. Give a little bit more throttle. And if we don't move then we're set. There's 1700. Should bring the bow around. The chain will stretch out. 0.4. As soon as it starts to go down, I know we're good. 0.3. Yeah, 0.2. Okay. We're solid. That's it. We're set.

Nice job, Kaz.

Ta-da!

Well, we've decided to explore our new anchorage today. Apparently there is a little hike on this island over here. If we can find it. It's kind of hard to find we heard, but it goes from that beach right there and we can hike across the island. We can go see the waves on the other side. What do you think kiddo? No. We're gonna... No. I don't want to. You don't want to see the waves or you don't want to hike? I do want to hike but I don't want to see the waves. Okay. Well, we'll see how that goes.

Sierra, what's the weather like today?

Windy today.

Windy today. Okay. And we brought a lunch. We have a little picnic lunch. So we're going to go on an adventure. Are you ready?

Yep.

Okay, Nugsenker's away. Nice. There we go.

You guys ready to go?

Ready.

All ready to go.

What do you think Sierra? Does this look like the trail?

Yes.

Let's go before the mosquitoes get us.

Okay. Let's go before the mosquitoes get us. Okay.

Because sometimes it was a 60, 80 foot high, sometimes like a 10 foot. Pretty.

Come on Nugs, look at that.

Dad look, there's some trash down there. I see that.

It's fishing floats. Nugs, look at that. Dad, look, there's some trash down there.

I see that.

It's fishing floats.

Yeah.

I think that was the trail.

Pretty short.

Pretty short, but at least we get to get out, get some fresh air, stretch our legs. We have a lunch. Should we eat lunch? Family quality time. These little moments we get to spend together

doing simple things are the ones that I enjoy the most. Just to pack lunch with my two favorite humans.

Sierra made it down, huh?

Whoa, good one, you're like a goat.

You're like a Sierra the mountain goat. Let me see those moves, kid.

Yes.

What do you have over there?

Oh, is that an old raft?

Yeah. Old raft.

And an old surfboard.

Part of a surfboard.

I hope there's not a raft that somebody actually like.

What are all these bottles here for?

Some sort of a survey marker.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

Seems like the trail is continuing.

Yeah.

I don't know if it goes that way.

Probably. That was a nice walk though.

It's nice to just be kind of like exploring a little bit again. We haven't done it in quite a while. Done any hikes and exploring. Just bringing some food and just seeing what we can find. So it feels real good. And it's nice to have slowed down a little bit

after coming back and so much boat work and then just getting into the groove of Delos, so to speak. So yeah, it's been good. And it's super nice day today. So that always helps with some sunshine.

Pretty cool plants around.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

What are you going to do with your bottle? Mask!

Well, look what I did.

I hung our marker for people.

Oh, nice!

A good deed for the day is done.

But what if, Mom, we didn't hang that one up?

You know what I think we should do, Sierra? We should hang it in here somewhere.

Yeah.

So people can like... They see that one and then they get confused and then they can see this one.

Do you think that's a good spot?

Perfect!

Good job! Let's go home. You wanna go home? Mom, I wanna bring the stick.

That's a great stick, bring it home.

To keep following our adventures here in Tonga, you'll have to wait until next week, when we find out just how many boat projects are waiting for us, now that we're back in the cruising rhythm. Even with some rough weather rolling in.

Love that she just went for it.

Just up here getting a few thumbnails as you do.

You want to do Sierra? What is on your highest on your list of doing?

Where did you go?

He got just in front of the frame. It's the horizon, of frame. That's the reason why a bunch of pictures go up now. But we'll also... Um...

God, I lost my train of thought.

Sorry.

Oh, you can hear it.

You see it?

That's amazing.

Ha ha ha.

Ahhhh. Ahhhh.

Ahhhh. Ahhhh. That's amazing ♪