Exploring Abemama

Yesterday, we rented a motorbike from a couple who we met while hanging out
in front of the bank/telephone co/admin bldg/etc. They were waiting to be
paid for their copra harvest, and expected they would be waiting most of the
day. In the meantime, they offered us their motorbike to explore! And
explore, we did! We jumped at the opportunity and headed out on the dusty
trail. Well, sandy trail, actually. We decided to travel South, and went all
the way to the end of the island...about an 8 mile trip.

We passed over three causeways and through a dozen or so villages. Most
villages have a church and a maneaba - a community gathering place, usually
a cement foundation with a steep, metal roof, that hangs low on the side, so
you must stoop to enter. Most homes are small raised wooden platforms with
thatched roofs for sleeping. Some are left open to the breeze, while others
are closed in with coconut leaf mats, or with wooden slats. Each family may
have one or more sleeping platforms, and a separate cooking hut. In some
cases we saw a small screened area that contained a pit toilet, but more
often, they used the beach for that purpose.

We also popped into a couple of the stores on the island. Our trip wasn't
planned, so we hadn't eaten lunch. But, as with the other stores we'd
visited here, there wasn't much that you could eat off the shelf. Most
stores sell some canned goods and a few bulk staples (rice, sugar, flour),
there wasn't much that we could eat for lunch. I offered to John that we
could eat some dried instant ramen noodles - a throwback to my childhood -
but he refused. We settled on a package of crackers, and big bottle of
water.

It was a great day. Even though I'm not sure my butt will recover anytime
soon. Three hours perched on a steel luggage rack...yowsers.

Feast or Fix

Where does the time go? We've already been here a week. We were planning to
stay here at least another week. Not least of all because of this:
Once again, we've stumbled onto a time of local celebration - this week is
important in the Catholic Church here - we are celebrating the Virgin Mary.
There is daily mass (we think), and it all culminates on Saturday with a
morning mass, followed by a big community feast. Already there are people
staying here from other villages. For two days, the women have been wearing
a blue dress - all identical - to mass. We understand that Saturday's dress
will be yellow. There is a great sewing bee going on in many of the homes as
these dresses are prepared. (By the way...hand crank sewing machines like
mine are the norm here)!

So, needless to say, we're glad to be here, and are looking forward to the
community feast, and all the celebrations that lead up to it. But, we are
cruising after all....so of course, there must be some critical boat part
that needs maintenance!

John has discovered that we have a problem with our transmission. So now,
we're contemplating our options. Stay for the celebration?? Or leave early
for Tarawa to work on the engine? Tarawa, though it is the capital of
Kiribati, is not likely to be the end-all and be-all of repair locations.
After all, this is a very poor country. We're not sure if engine work will
be possible in Tarawa, or if we'll need to keep moving to a bigger port.
Lots to think about - we'll keep you posted!

Abemama - Off the Beaten Path

We're definitely far from the Coconut Milk Run now! The police officer told
us that only one boat came here last year - an Australian.

In our last post, I spoke of our dreams of a dinner ashore. Our hopes were
quickly dashed. Although our outdated guidebook spoke of a hotel, it clearly
hasn't been in operation in many years..

We have walked around on a few occasions. Each time, the children are
pleased to see us, and call out to us "Matang, Matang" (Foreigner).
They like practicing their english...hello/bye-bye. The adults are much more
shy. They happily respond to our greetings of "Mauri" (hello), but are
reluctant to reach out into further conversation.

On Sunday, we went ashore early, dressed in our Sunday finery, to seek out
the Catholic church. While we waited, we were befriended by a herd of
children, and eventually three of the village women joined in. We had a
lovely conversation, and they seemed impressed with the few words of
Kiribati language that we'd learned in Kanton. After church, we were invited
to join them for tea. We also met a local teacher whose english was
excellent, and he answered many of our questions about the island, and
offered to help us find a motorcycle, that we hope to use to further explore
the island.

By the way...so far we've seen three trucks and one car on the island, but
most people get around on motor bikes. If you're into that sort of thing,
like John is, you may like to know that almost all of the bikes are Honda
Trail 90's...which apparently cost about $2000 AUD brand new. I'll have to
do some more research, but I'm guessing that the average salary in this
country is less than $4000 AUD.

Arrived in Abemama

We made it! We're now anchored off the village of Kariatebike on the island
(atoll) of Abemama. We made the trip in just under 7 days - averaging 5.8
knots, which is a great speed for us. In total we travelled 955 nautical
miles, a few more than the pass-to-pass distance of 907, as we had to gybe
back and forth of our course line after the loss of our whisker pole. A
great trip.

Winds were consistently 15-20 knots, although a bit lighter for the last two
days. The swell was irregular, and from 3 directions, the largest swell was
about 3 meters from the SE, but not close together. Easterly swell was about
1.5 meters and more regular. So the boat had occasional rolly periods, which
kept us (and our stomachs) on our toes. As a result, we didn't do much
emailing, with the exception of a couple of blog posts. HUGE thanks to
everyone who sent us emails in the last couple weeks. We really enjoy
receiving them and getting news from home - it really is the highlight of
our day. I'll work on catching up with our replies over the next couple
days.

Now that we've arrived, we'll have a quick nap. Our anchorage is (for the
moment) flat calm. We're about 1/2 a mile from the beach, as the coral flats
in front of the village dries at low tide. Apparently we can only go to the
beach during the 2 hours before and after high tide. No problem, today that
corresponds with dinner time...whenever possible, we like to celebrate a
passage with a meal out!

Oh, we found the 'spot' locater...so we can now send our position again. Not
very useful now, as I suspect we'll be pretty stationary for a while.
Friends of ours recently said that they like to stay somewhere at least as
long as the time it took to get there! Good philosophy, I think.

Our current position:
00 24N
173 54E