We are back in the USA and enjoying time visiting friends and family. We have had such wonderful experiences and they continue as we get to spend time with loved ones. Including our new loved one Cutter!
Eric has taken a job with NortekUSA, a US branch of a Norwegian company that produces oceanographic equipment. He will be representing them along the US east coast. Angela is planning to head back to graduate school for a math PhD. As of yet, we don't have a real address. We are working on that. For now, we are homeless and boatless and thankful that we have family that love us enough to let us stay with them while we decide.
Born 10 March, our new little boy Cutter is a wonderful addition to the family! He is now 10.4 pounds and quite a handful! We love him! See photos of their new puppy http://www.ourdotcom.com/Cutter/index.htm.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 2:40 PM
Subject: Rouser arrives in New Zealand
Hi All,
Rouser sailed safely into Opua, New Zealand at 9:00 PM last night. We had a perfect 8.5 day passage from Tonga which included total calms, strong winds, and perfect sailing under a full moon and clear skies. We caught two big tuna! It was the text-book perfect passage. We arrived in Opua, the Bay of Islands, at sunset. The colors were amazing and the land smelled sweet from earth and flowers; actually, anything smelled good compared to us!
Hope you are all doing really well!
Eric & Angela
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric & Angela Siegel" svrouser@hotmail.com
Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 4:25 PM
Subject: New news from Niue!
Hello from Niue! We just updated our website a bit with photos from the Society Islands, Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and Niue! We are currently in Alofi, Niue, one little island in the middle of the Pacific that makes up the world’s smallest nation.
We haven’t updated the text on our website, but we hope to do that in Tonga... you don't realize how *fast* those cable internet connections are until you leave them behind! Check it out.
Hope all is well!
Angela (& Eric)
----- Original Message -----
From: Eric & Angela Siegel
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 1:11 PM
Subject: Website update
Ia orana!! Greetings from Tahiti!
We are currently anchored at the quay in Papeete. We have finally updated our website. We haven’t been able to get online anywhere else in French Polynesia. Papeete, however, is a thriving metropolis and we have found a few cyber cafes at our disposal, though all are quite slow!
As the bytes have crawled past, we have been trying to update the website. It’s all there now but for some reason doesn’t work when you put the www in front of the address, weird!!!
If you want to see what kind of trouble we’ve been getting into lately,
check out:
http://ourdotcom.com/index.htm
If you go to http://www.ourdotcom.com/index.htm it will not work out for now. We are trying to fix that. Pages exist there, but they are not the updated ones. [It worked for me. Ed.]
We hope that this email finds you happy and healthy!!!
Love,
Angela & Eric
----- Original Message -----
From: Rouser
To: Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 10:08 PM
Subject: 24 May 2003 - Bound for the Tuamotus
24 May 2003, Saturday
Ka oha! We are sad to be leaving the beautiful Marquesas, but are happy to report that we are on to the Tuamotus. Our time in the Marquesas was absolutely wonderful, more than we had expected by far! The people were amazingly friendly, especially given our language barrier; French and Marquesan are spoken here almost exclusively and our French is poo beaucoup. We have not e-mailed much due to the amazingly high cliffs and spires surrounding the anchorages; we just haven’t been able to get out on the ham radio ... the one super thing about being back out at sea: great propagation!
The trip to the Tuamotus is about 500 miles. We left from the island of Ua Pou and are headed for the atoll named Makemo, or maybe Kauehi, we haven’t decided, in the Tuamotus. We were delayed for almost a week, “stuck” in the Marquesas, due to bad weather down in the Tuamotus. They were experiencing big winds and seas, which we decided to avoid! We had a great time while waiting it out and were able to do some hikes that we would not have otherwise been able to do.
I don’t think we have e-mailed since Fatu Hiva, so here are some quick highlights from the other islands:
Tahuata:
Beautiful white sand beaches and iceberg blue water. Behind the beach in
one anchorage was a billion lemon trees. We went ashore and braved the
mosquitos and no-see-ums, with bug spray, to gather lemons. We filled a
large bag and have been enjoying fresh squeezed lemonade ever since. YUM!!!
It is SO good in hot weather. Eric dove for fresh scallops. The shells
were the size of his hands. They were very tasty with a delicate, buttery
flavor.
Ua Pou (Haka Hau):
Fun village of 1000 people. Quite large. Went on some great hikes up out
of the valley. Went ashore very early each morning for fresh baguettes made
on the island. Found a place that served fresh ice cream; sometimes we
miss a freezer! It’s been 4 years now, but it still is fun!
Nuku Hiva (Daniel’s Bay):
This is the bay that the TV show Survivor was filmed in. It is
spectacularly beautiful and the entrance overlaps itself so that you are
completely protected from swell and most winds once inside. We met the
infamous Daniel, born 1927. He has log books from back to the mid-1970’s
that cruisers have signed and left photos in. We looked for Rouser’s first
time around but couldn’t find their sign-in. There was a 900 foot high
waterfall about a 2 hour walk from the bay. We made the hike and swam in
the cool waters. It was superb. The waterfall came straight down through a
rock opening, so it was impossible to see the whole waterfall when you were
at it, but from 1/2 a mile away, it was an amazing sight. This was the only
place that we got bitten by no-see-ums while on shore. The bites are SO
itchy!!! For days! The little bugs are so small but can do a lot of
damage. We only were on shore that once without bug spray, but paid the
price with bites all over so that we each looked as if we had chicken pox.
We almost resorted to duct-taping pot holders onto our hands so that we
wouldn’t scratch them ... it was SO tempting!!!
Nuku Hiva (Taiohae):
Went in to a 4am farmers market with lots of fresh produce. Food in general
is really expensive here. We’re still eating Mexican food and plan to
through at least Tahiti to save $. But the produce was somewhat reasonable.
That is, everything except cabbage of all things, which cost about $5-6 per
head!!! Ouch! Lettuce, on the other hand, was MUCH cheaper. We were able
to buy lettuce for the first time since California, no such luck in Mexico,
just very cheap cabbage which is ironic. We have been enjoying salads like
crazy. The first salad for six months with fresh tomatoes, green peppers
and scallions just about brought tears to my eyes, it was SO good!!! :(
Ua Pou (Haka Hetau):
While waiting for a weather window, we ventured back south to the other side
of Ua Pou. In the 200-person village of Haka Hetau, we met some really nice
people. About 6 men were in the process of training to be first aid
certified, there is no hospital/Dr’s office there, and to be tour guides to
lead people around the island. They needed English-speaking volunteers, so
we went with other friends of ours from the boat Merlin’s Magic. We took a
jeep to the other side of the island and hiked with them the 10 miles across
the island back into the village. The next day, we went on another hike
with them past an archeological site and to a beautiful waterfall with most
of the kids from the village of Haka Hetau. It was so awesome! They did
not expect money for the trips as they felt we were helping them, so
Merlin’s Magic and us put together a pretty nice First Aid kit from the
items we have on the boat, we both have pretty serious medical kits aboard,
that they can carry with them and use in an emergency now that they are the
go-to men.
Nous vous aimons!
Ang & Eric
Heading for Makemo atoll in the Tuamotus
This afternoon at 23:45 GMT, 2:15pm local,
left the village of Haka Hetau, Ua Pou, Marquesas:
Lat: 09-21.45’ S
Lon: 140-06.30’ W
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 12:44 AM
Subject: 16 April - Anchored in Hiva Oa, Marquesas!!!
16 April 2003, Wednesday
This morning, just before sunrise, Angela spotted a small dark spot on the horizon in the moonlight. Due to her superior vision, she was the first to yell “Land Ho!” — okay, yes, it’s me, Ang, writing! But I MUST obviously have the better eyesight!!! :)
Once the sun rose, islands in all directions presented themselves, just where we would expect them to be! As we moved closer, it was great to see the texture and features appear! The islands rose mightily out of the sea with jagged cliffs and lush jungle forests. It was a spectacular sight to see!
As we rounded the island of Hiva Oa, the majesty of it all continued to amaze us. We entered the anchorage with huge smiles on our faces! We were finally anchored at 2345 GMT, 2:15 pm local time, and snug in the middle of Tahuku Bay. The cliffs on one side of the anchorage rise straight up to above 3000 feet. Everywhere we look is covered with vibrant green foliage. The sensory overload of the new colors and smells, after just over 27 days with only blue and Eric, respectively, is dramatic.
We have not yet been ashore. We are looking forward to exploring tomorrow getting more than 3 hours of sleep in a row, not necessarily in that order!! We’re happy to be here and are left with great memories of the successful and safe journey behind us.
Love to all!
Ang & Eric
16 April @ 23:45 GMT
09-48.2’ S 139-01.9’ W
wind: who cares / seas: calm in here
2998 nm total - ALL of the way there!
Total... 27 days 7 hours 45 minutes sailing!
Wahoo! We’ve crossed the equator! We’re officially shellbacks! All hands, both of us, were on deck early this morning to celebrate! We crossed at 130-54.70’ N at 12:29:40 GMT. This is the first time in its history that our GPS has ever displayed a position in the Southern Hemisphere!
We are now about 800 nautical miles from our waypoint in the Marquesas.
Current position:
11 April @ 12:29:40 GMT
Lat: 00.00 N/S
Lon: 130.91’ W
Love to all!
Ang & Eric
We’ve already been around Pt. Conception and experienced little winds. In fact, at the time we wished we had a lighter sail! RARE for that area. I haven’t updated my website for a while, but we are now in San Diego. We also saw a ton of marine life between Pt. Conception, San Diego and all the islands. We stopped to dive at Santa Cruz, San Miguel and Catalina islands on our way south. We’ll be heading for Mexico in about a week.
WAHOO!
The Baja Haha had already left by the time we got here, but I’m sure it was crazy beforehand, so I’m okay with the fact that we missed that excitement. We have met SO many amazing people, it is hard to even count. Most people we’ve met are planning a trip similar to yours, or just planning to stay in Mexico indefinitely. We’re hoping to head for the South Pacific this spring. So far we know of a few other boats going that route, but not as many as we would have thought. I’m sure we’ll run into more in Mexico.
We hit a nasty storm off of Cape Blanco, Oregon. Several boats were hove-to around us, we’ve now met them all down in San Fran, and anther 2 had their storm anchors out. We don’t have a wind gage, so I can’t make an accurate prediction of wind speed, but another boat within 5 miles of us clocked a steady 57 knots WHILE going downwind. It was pretty rowdy and predicted to stick around for a long while, which made us hesitant to hove-to and just sit in that stationary weather system. Ugh. We had converted our Tartan 37 to a cutter rig while in Olympia and had our tiny little storm staysail up on the inner headstay with the running backs up to support the mast. No main. With that little sail, we were hauling along at 9-11 knots, fast for our boat! But the boat felt in control still so we decided to move while we could. We would broach at times and dip the stanchions completely under, but we never got to the spreaders or anything, so all was well. Good fun to start the trip off!
The boat handled amazingly well and we were very happy! A few of the others in that same storm are now selling their boats, which is really sad. I figure it was better to experience early on so that now we know how we can expect the boat to handle. Better than finding it does poorly while half way to the Marquesas!!! :(
Angela Siegel, Rouser
Ahoy Friends,
Happy New Year! Angela and I hope you are all doing really well so far in
2003.
We are docked in beautiful, but polluted, Puerto Vallarta Marina. We have been having a wonderful trip so far, and can’t believe that we left Washington only about 5 months ago. We have met a lot of interesting people along the way, including some other younger sailors with similar interests and destinations. We have been very delinquent in updateing our website because we have simply been having too much fun. Angela recently put in a lot of work and brought it mostly up to date. Please check it out when you get a chance, see below. I think it reflects the adventures of our trip more than this single email could.
We think of all of you often, and want to you visit whenever you can. We will be between PV and Zihuatanejo until mid-March. Then, when the weather looks right...we will depart for the big jump...Mexico to the south Pacific!
With hopes for a safe and rewarding new year,
Eric and Angela, Rouser
We can be reached at: SVRouser@hotmail.com. We will have additional contact info on website: ourdotcom.com.