Another recent thread asked global cruisers their thoughts having actually set out and gone cruising. Rather than muck up that thread with my meanderings, I thought I'd start afresh.
For twenty years I have cruised the
South Pacific, and to some extent, the
North Pacific, as well as
Asia. I've boated Hawai'i,
Tonga,
Fiji,
Cook Islands Vanuatu, FP, Tuvalu,
Marshall Islands,
Palau, FSM, and Solomon Islands.
Note I said "boated". In fact, I have sailed many of those archipelagos- but never between them. Instead, I
cruise with Air
Fiji, the former Continental, ANZ, and regional airlines. I love sailing. I do some circuit
racing, but I prefer transporting and longer hauls. But I have absolutely no interest in sailing for 28 days between
Galapagos and Tuamotos- I think I'd go insane. There's a reason my
boat is near bristol condition, because I
work on it even during 2-3 hour
sails; even if I needed to complete a
refit, I'd still run out of
work over 28 days- and if I didn't I'd still go insane.
But I've always loved the Pacific, decades before I actually made it there. I ate up the
history and the stories. My grandfather was on Guadalcanal; I don't think my father could find it on a map. Once upon a time all Americans knew of Guadalcanal, yet today I'm sure not a
single teacher in the local
school district could find it on an unlabeled map. Munda- ha, forget about it. Nobody has even heard of the place.
Once upon a time, there were 8000 Americans on Tongatabu. And seven aircraft carriers in Ulithi. Again, forgotten.
Wife and I are in the process of replacing our beloved
boat I've owned for 23 years with something larger we can live on and
cruise the
Great Lakes. In the off season, she's introduced me to local attractions within a few hours drive that I'd never gotten around to visiting because I was on Ha'apai, or Kolombangara, Magnetic Island, or
fishing off Arno. I'm sure she'd love to leave the
dock and sail the world. But I'm really not interested in sailing the SoPac- because to my eye, it's no longer the
South Pacific I fell in love with.
This is not uncommon. A met a guy from the midwest who moved to
Palau and couldn't stop talking about how perfect it was. A year later, he left. On my first trip to
Oahu I fished, dove, hiked, and sailed. The tenth trip I never touched the
water. People I know who move to
Hawaii spend six months in the
water, after which they go years without touching the beach. In Solomon Islands they say there are three types of white men- missionaries, mercenaries, and misfits. Quite true.
I see the Pacific as having changed, and not for the better.
Tonga is owned by the Chinese, with something like 70% of GDP owed to
China. The stunning relic Painmaker (oh, sorry, Rainmaker)
hotel is gone- torn down and thrown away, rather than repaired. Suva continues to fall apart, the colonial structures decaying, perhaps by design. Moresby and Lae we need not even talk about. Still, somewhere in the back of my mind I understand that not only have the places, people, and politics changed, but so have I. Like most, I enter in awe and leave in disgust and despair.
I think that most sailing cruisers don't see this. Like many of us sailors, they live on the edge of land and society, looking in. Beachcombers and hotel-bound visitors seem so pedestrian, so restricted. But it works both ways- cruisers, I can say, tend to stay near the water's edge, restricting themselves to a different false world without exposure to developing-urban societies and the politics, and even the inland wonders. While cruisers interface with the local YC, or the market, or the local (and wonderful) villagers, they "miss out" on the BS- the same BS they left back home (albeit, likely at a more volatile level).
Often my dreams take me to a supposedly better, and more real, Pacific. These, of course, are exacerbated and cleansed by Michener's
Tales of the South Pacific. And Jack London's
South Seas Tales. If one can leave the garbage and politics of the SoPac islands, there is a shocking lack of change since Caroline Mytinger's exploits of a hundred years ago as detailed in
Headhunting in the Solomon Islands. And in reading A.S. Meeks'
A Naturalist in Cannibal Land it's clear that these islands are not much safer than they were a hundred years ago- diseases and internecine warfare and (we we think of as) random violence are still quite common.
But to me, the sad loss of the best part of the Pacific is driven by the politicians. Preceding naturalist Meek in the Solomon Islands, Charles Morris Woodford in the late 1880s studied butterflies. His contributions to scientific knowledge are astonishing. But God forbid somebody try to remove a butterfly from Solomon Islands (or Fiji, or
Vanuatu, etc.) today, as these countries have largely become banana republics with rules developed for the sake of making rules (not that it's different than
USA or
Europe or Australia- but certainly, the island nations make an art form of it.) Case in point, while one may not take a butterfly or lizard off Choisul or Viti Lavu, they don't mind logging the **** out of the island. And historian Justin Taylan discovered pirates (as it turned out, well connected pirates) removing Japanese aircraft from Balaelae- for which the
government confined him to "house arrest" on the boat for three months, and subsequent to the aircraft being removed he was fined US$67 and allowed to go free.
Continuing my gripe, the people themselves have changed. Primarily I see this moving from self-dependence to lets-wait-for-the-government-to-fix it. In 2003 a Cat 5 cyclone hit Tikopia with little notice. Nobody died. And while
food was scarce afterwards, they got by. Contrast that with urban
New Orleans which, despite days of notice, had 1500 dead following Katrina, followed by a complete reliance on
government. Two years after that Gizo was hit by a Tsunami. I fully expected them to put their Pacific big-boy pants on and
rebuild, but instead they had somehow picked up the sit-and-wait-for-government attitude. I must, say, that was a shock and sadly disappointing change from tradition.
Surely cruisers will call me a spoiler. They will claim that the Pacific villagers are still warm, welcoming, and wonderful. And that is true, they are. Yet, I've seen them change too. The ignorant bliss is gone from their eyes, the corruption of heart and faith has crept into almost every
remote village. Yes, times change- but they have changed SO quickly. The difference between 1880 and 1997 was slight in most of the Pacific; today the difference is vast. Some of this is "good"-
communications, for example. But the innocence that I so enjoyed has disappeared in such a short time.
I see little difference between Niafu and Tortola, or Pago and St. Thomas. Crime- including violent crime- has crept into innocent Nuku'alofa as it has Ambergris Cay. Nauru and Detroit are sister shitties. Raro has 4G and LTE, but no more coconut crabs. Honiara is becoming Moresby II.
Australia has become "Hotel California" because if you don't meet their beaurecratic requirements you can't leave...but you can't stay. Places that totally suck now include Pago, Betio, and Lae. Bring your checkbook to Papeete and Noumea.
Not that this should dissuade from cruising the SoPac. Two thousand years ago a Greek philosopher was quoted that the new generation of
children were spoiled and would undoubtedly ruin society- perhaps not ironically something we've heard every decade since. And the same be said for the Pacific- my perspective doesn't change the fact that it is still wonderful, unique, and (largely) welcoming.
Yet still, I do wish I could visit the 1950s SoPac after being made accessible by WW2 airstrips, or the 1970s made more accessible by jets, or even the 1880s when things were tough and dangerous, yet there was freedom to explore and taste. But again, my perspective.
If I were to delight my love and cruise the Pacific, I'd want to go off the path. Yes, there are the more well known places and
events I'd like to experience- Nan Madol and John Frum Day come to mind. But I'd want to get off the path and go even more remote- Henderson, Palmerston. I'd like to show up and surprise my friends in Tokelau. I'd rather hang off the beach of Lokuru than get another Gizo Yacht Club birgee. I could spend a few weeks on Kayangel, and skip Koror. I'd love to visit Ontong Java. I have friends in Bville who would more than welcome me, though I missed meeting Francis Ona.
There are some places where "my" Pacific still exists. Problem is, I don't want to sail there...and few do.
It is just a little more difficult to find remote places. The rest I ignore! I would imagine it is the same in the South Pacific. We will be heading that way in 2-3 years. I do not expect to run into 
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