Moving on...

We’ve planned our next leg of our adventure and it involves 4 atolls and 1400 miles, ending in Yap.  There won’t be any grocery stores between here and Yap so we’ve spent the last few days stocking up.  I wasn’t really planning very well until Andy brought it to my attention that this would be the longest time between stores, including our Pacific crossing…that got my attention.

We don’t have nearly as much on board as we did when we crossed the Pacific.  I wondered if it was because we’ve gotten better at this provisioning thing and just don’t need as much.  But in the end, I think it’s because there is no Costco or Walmart here and things cost at least twice as much as they did anywhere else and well, there’s just not that much available.

You’ve heard my rant on the lack of veggies.  Well, the ship came in a few days ago, so there are plenty of [moldy] veggies.  The problem is, they’ve all been refrigerated and in order to take enough for a month, they need to stay out of the fridge…  I’m being forced to be creative.  I’ve gotten out my “green” bags, which I’ve never used.  I’m hoping they help keep things fresher.  And I’ve got plans for those things that start to go off.  Like my peppers, for instance.  We’ll eat them as long as they’re good, but when they start to go bad, I’ll roast them and then put them in a jar with some oil to prolong our enjoyment.  I bought a local pineapple.  Like everything else, they’ve picked it very green, so I’m thinking we’ll be cutting that open in a week or two.  We’re loaded to the gills with apples and believe it or not, pears.  Onions are swinging from the net and I have the obligatory cabbages.  My favorite part (and I’m not sure I bought enough) is the cucumbers.  All in all, I think in about two weeks we’re going to be out of veggies….then we’ll move onto the cans.

We’ve bought diesel, gas, propane, beer, wine, eggs (I finally found local eggs that don’t have to be refrigerated and they taste 100% better than the tiny things we’ve been buying in the store), cereal, milk, juice, soda, snacks……  I think we’re good to go.  I know we’re out of money, that’s for sure.

We rented a car to get the diesel and gas done.  It took us three trips.

Too much stuff in the car, he had to hang out the window like
the rest of the local kids.

Trip one.... two more to go.

Today we said our final goodbyes to our good friends Rodney, Monica and Luke.  Jake has met so many kids on our adventures, but the ones he truly connects with are few and far between.  Luke was definitely one of those kids.  His sweet little self followed us all the way up his driveway, then his road, and for a few minutes the boys decided he was going with us.  We’ll miss Rodney and Monica as well….great people, kindred spirits.  Who knows, it’s  a small world.  Monica and I are convinced we’ll end up on the same Carribean islands somewhere (or small suburb of VA, either way).

And now it’s time to go.   We’ll check out at the dock in the a.m. and if we can get out of here before noon, we’ll head on out to Ant for a few days and then off to the Morlock Islands.  We have no idea what we’ll find.  I can’t find any research where any cruiser has been there and written about it.  Stay tuned…this should be our least traveled path so far.  Remember, no internet = no pictures, but we’ll be updating the blog via the radio, so tune in for more.