Liberation Days at Aur

April 17

We've had a wonderful time at Tobal, Aur, enjoying the Liberation Day
celebrations.

We already wrote about all the field day activities. On Sunday, a day of
church and rest, we joined the crew of SuperMario on a trip to the North
Pass, where we would do a drift dive through the pass. It was a great day -
the diving was fun, and Mike and I had a great day. John stayed behind on
Renova to fight off a cold.

On Monday, the Liberation festivities continued. We went ashore and watched
several baseball games, were served another delicious lunch and bought
several handicrafts from the local women. We returned in the evening to
watch the grand finale event...the SPELLING BEE!! All the student of both
schools (Tobal and Aur) competed for the honors. We finally left at 10:30,
and the spelling continued until after midnight. When we returned in the
morning, they had resumed the spelling contest. In total, the finalists had
been spelling for over 7 hours!! WOW.

After the closing ceremonies, the Aur residents quickly packed up and loaded
the boats to return to their island before lunchtime. The island of Tobal
became very quiet. John helped James to fix his outboard. Mike and I walked
the island with Kendra (WorldTeach volunteer that we met here on our last
visit). We all returned to Renova for a dinner of pork stirfry later that
evening - a rare treat for Kendra!

Labels: Aur, Marshall Islands, visitors, cruisers

Party on Tabal

(April 14 - posted by Mike)

Hello from Tabal!

We arrive at Liberation Weekend here on the island and it is the local
equivalent to Canada Day and second only to Christmas. We brought with us
deliveries for the locals, some mail and care packages for the teachers, and
some supplies for James, the medical officer on the island. We spent
yesterday meeting a few of the locals and then retreated back to the boat to
do dinner with our friends aboard Super Mario. Naomi, John and I joined 2
of the girls from World Teach, Kellyn and Kendra, and Super Mario's crew,
Sylvia, Noortje, and Paolo, for steaks, baked potatoes, salad, grilled
pizza, drinks and Birthday cupcakes!!! What a treat!! A super Thank-You to
Super Mario and Paolo for hosting a great evening.

Today we went ashore to check out the local festivities. After a few
speeches, we watched the field day competition between the local school kids
from Tabal and the school kids from neighboring Aur. There were races of all
kinds including running, basket weaving, juggling, tug-of-war, and
coconut-between-the-knees races. I've never seen an entire town get behind a
single baseball game before!!

For lunch, we were served chicken and rice on local plates woven from
coconut fronds, freshly made during the basket weaving race.

People here are very welcoming and the kids are always excited to see new
white faces. After lunch, we went back to the boat for a little R&R,
including a second wakeboarding session for Mike. It's hard to believe you
can be so sore after such a short period of time. I guess I'll have to work
on my technique a bit more.

Tomorrow we plan on meeting with SuperMario and exploring a nearby reef and
doing a little diving.

Talk to you soon.
Mike

April showers

(April 11 - posted by Mike)

Yesterday was chore day on Renova with the Captain and crew gathering
supplies, fuel, water and making preparations so we would be ready to sail
north in case we get some favorable weather. (ok, maybe a little more
captain and a little less crew- thanks john!) We seem to be stuck between 2
low pressure systems which has been disturbing the trade winds. And with the
low pressure comes rain.

Last night was another cruiser dinner night at a local restaurant. Seems
funny to come all this way for taco night!

We had had sun for most of the day. As we finished our meals, it started to
rain - then pour! We waited inside for the rain to lighten, which never
came. In fact, it started to rain harder. We ran for the dingy which had
collected a good supply of rain water.

Back on the boat and soaking wet. We hunkered down and kicked ourselves for
paying for freshwater! We put out some buckets and went to bed listening to
the rain and watching lightening across the lagoon.

We awoke today to grey skies and more rain. Should be a good day for
Internet and some shopping. After all we don't seem to be going anywhere
today!

But I have to say at least it's a warm rain!! Not bad at all as far as
weather goes!

Chat soon!
M

The winds return!!

(April 12 - posted by Mike)

After days of no wind, the trade winds finally returned last night, bringing
with them clear blue skies this morning.

We plan to get the last of our perishables today as well as items for
delivery to the outer island.

With any luck we should be setting sail this afternoon. If the weather holds
out we should stay out until I have to be back at Majuro the day before I
fly out on the 25th. Communication on the outer islands is by radio alone
so no Internet or cell. Hopefully, we can get a few updates out by satellite
phone.

Ok it's time to get up and make some hot water for the morning brew and
check the radio. Each morning we listen to the cruisers daily "net"- a radio
broadcast that has local info and weather for the boaters. Let's see what
the latest forecast is!

Fingers crossed!
M

No Wind, No Travel

Mike's been here a full week, and we're still in Majuro. We've got a very
weird weather system around us. Absolutely no wind. For the past week we've
had less than 5 knots of wind in the forecast. Not ideal sailing weather. So
we've hung out here in Majuro, while we wait for the wind to return to push
us to our next stop, Aur Atoll.

No problem, we're still keeping busy and having fun. We went to our
favourite local hang outs - Eneko and Enemwanet. We snorkelled. We swam. We
lounged. We bbq'ed. We paddleboarded. Mike even wakeboarded.

Now it rains. Torrential, sink-the-dinghy kind of rain. Sheesh. And we just
bought water to fill our tanks. Figures.

Good Starfish, Bad Starfish

We are always learning on this adventure. We've learned that not all
starfish are good. The Crown of Thorns starfish are interesting
critters...central body with 'legs' similar to other starfish. But the
number of legs is more than 5. And not necessarily multiples of five. They
eat coral. They are eaten by Napoleon Wrasse and other big (and locally
absent) fish.


Here on Majuro Atoll and adjacent Arno Atoll, these starfish are in the
midst of a population boom. The scientists don't really understand very much
about them and are not sure what causes these localized explosions. But they
do know that where these leggy critters are in abundance, the coral is
decimated.

An instructor at College of Marshall Islands (CMI) and the local fishing
industry association (MIMRA) have joined efforts in an eradication program.
We were asked to join in the effort. So John, Mike (my brother), and I
joined five cruisers and 10 others and jumped on one of the local fishing
transport boats to nearby Arno Atoll. Even though we were planning to stay
only one night, we were loaded to the gills. On board was dive and snorkel
equipment for everyone, 2 dozen tanks, food, coolers, sleeping equipment and
so on. We could have stayed a week! The trip was fast, travelling at least
20 knots - we arrived in less than an hour, propelled by two huge 150hp
engines on the back of this open vessel.

We arrived and staked out the accommodations at a local B&B. Shortly
thereafter, we had a brief intro from Dean, the CMI instructor to discuss
what we were looking for, how we would capture them, and how to avoid being
stung by their sharp thorns. We were diving at night, as that is when they
are most active, and will be easiest to capture.

At 8pm, we all (remember - 18 of us) jumped into the back of a truck for the
ride to the boat. We spent an hour sorting out our gear and getting suited
up and then the boat dropped us onto the reef, just 100m away from the dock.
We worked in pairs or triplets, with some people responsible for scanning
and searching for animals, others wielding the long handled bbq tongs for
their removal, and all of us with multiple straw sacks tucked into our
BCD's/wetsuits that we were to fill with dozens of creatures.

After an hour of searching John, Mike and I had caught one starfish. ONE.
Most other dive teams had similar luck, with only two or three animals. The
snorkellers were having much better luck in shallow water, but we didn't
know that until we all rendezvoused back on the boat. Our trip definitely
added to the knowledge pool on this creature: shallow areas were preferred,
rather than the deeper sites; animals remain hidden and are not especially
active during the full moon; and coral with bleached spots may indicate a
nearby starfish.

All in all, it was a good trip. We did some snorkelling the next morning,
and a few more Crown of Thorns were added to the 45 that we collected the
previous night. The coral at Arno is some of the most beautiful we've seen
anywhere in the Pacific, such diversity and explosions of colour. Fabulous.

Mikey arrives on a shitty day

My brother, Mike, has arrived for a three week visit!! We're thrilled to
have his company on Renova. Too bad Tara couldn't join him.

Our first day was pretty relaxed. We sat around and caught up on news, and
enjoying unpacking the treats that he had brought with him from home. We
were thrilled with the books and magazines that he brought for us, as well
as lots of dried foods that will be great for the long sail home next month.
Our first evening was spent having dinner with the yachties.

Wind is light this week, so we've decided to stick around Majuro, until we
have some wind to push us to the outer islands. Even without wind, life
hasn't been dull. Mike's first full day was spent watching John rebuild our
head (toilet)...the most loved boat project aboard. Unfortunately, we
discovered a crack in the pedestal, so we've had to order a new part. Oh
well...it's a good thing we have great mail service here. There was no
shortage of poo jokes around here. Two boys, a toilet in pieces in the
cockpit and the kitchen, and the chief mechanic is also the chief cook. Yep.
Good times.

Shit-eating grin :O)

Oh yeah. And it poured rain for his first two days.

Updates

I see that my recent updates have not been uploaded. Sorry for the delay, I
see there has been a glitch in the email post feature. I'm going to resend
them. Also, you may have noticed that while we were in Majuro, I uploaded
pictures to the past couple months of blog posts while we were in Aur and
Maloelap. I've also updated our photos on flickr.

Enjoy.

Wotje Atoll

After a week of hanging with friends and reprovisioning in Majuro, we set
off through the pass and headed north. We sailed 175 miles to the atoll of
Wotje, which has 75 islands circling the atoll, a total area of 8 km2, and a
peak elevation of 3 meters.

We are anchored in 15 feet of crystal blue water, with a crumbling flying
boat ramp on our north side, and a crumbling pier on the south of us. We're
nicely sheltered in one of the calmest anchorages we've seen!

This island was another major Japanese base during WWII, and our guidebook
tells us that it is covered 'end-to-end' with war bunkers and artifacts.
We've read that 3000 Japanese military were heavily bombed by the Americans
here and many of those who didn't die in the attacks starved to death. Only
1200 survived.

After two days of wandering around, we've seen remains of some bunkers, pill
boxes, a radio tower, torpedo racks and barracks. There does not seem to be
as much here as Maloelap, but we still have some exploring to do. This
morning, we plan to snorkel a sunken ship and plane wreck not far from our
boat.

These racks held the torpedos for the flying boats and planes

Wotje is also the location of the regional high school for northern islands,
so there are lots of students here. It also seems to be more wealthy than
the other two local islands we've visited so far. Most homes are made of
cement block and almost all are painted in cheery colours, a luxury that we
rarely saw on Aur or Maloelap. There are even a couple vehicles here - we've
seen three trucks so far. There is a large generating station providing
power to most homes. It is a pretty unusual sight to see a local home built
of simple materials with a power meter mounted to the outside wall.

This old Japanese ammunition bunker is now being used as a home, and you can see the power meter mounted on the side.

After a couple months of both local planes being away for repairs, the local
airline had one plane running for the last month or so. But now it is back
in the repair hanger. This is a common theme in the islands. It is well
known that if you fly "Air Maybe" there is a good chance that you might not
be able to return as planned. There are currently a few people here on Wotje
that are looking for a ride to Majuro - we've been asked to take four people
so far, and we've heard that there are more. Our plans aren't firm yet,
we're waiting to hear when we need to be back in town, so we haven't yet
committed to the passengers. In any case, looks like we're in for an
interesting ride...

Majuro Fun

We have a love-hate relationships with Majuro. In so many ways it is
fabulous. There are large grocery stores, where you can buy most things that
you would want or need. It may be expired, but it is here. There are great
hardware stores, so it is easy to get your inevitable projects completed.
They use the US Postal Service, so receiving mail is simple and fast,
especially from the States. There is a great yachtie community here with
regular social activities and a wealth of local information. There is
internet - expensive, but it is good and we can get it from our boat - a big
plus.

Of course, it is a busy city for this part of the world. So it is a bit
dirty. We don't swim. The harbour is deep, so tying to a mooring ball is
required and not free (but by no means is it expensive). The worse part for
us is that we have no self control. We eat out. We buy stuff. We just bleed
money. So our new mantra is to stay only as long as necessary. After all,
we're getting closer to the end of our trip and funds are getting low.

But our favorite part of Majuro is that just a few miles away from 'town' is
a lovely getaway spot that is frequented so often by yachties, that they
have installed a few mooring balls to save the coral from anchor damage.
There are sandy beaches and wonderful swimming here. You instantly feel
removed and relaxed. Cruisers who are working in Majuro often come out here
on weekends, but during the week, it is easy to find yourself as the only
boat. We spent last weekend out at the island of Eneko, with friends on Savannah, Love Song and Molly II.

Love Song and Savannah anchored at Eneko

We had a great weekend. John scrubbed the bottom. I slummed with the
ladies on the anchored floating dock, where we read magazines, swam when
hot, and painted my toes. I gazed down at the coral life while cruising
around on Love Song's stand up paddleboard. We potluck bbq'ed on the beach.
And I even managed a sewing project.

3 boys and 2 dogs on a kayak exploring the reef. Very cool.