Nikko Bay

We were getting tired of the same old scenery on our mooring ball, so we decided to move the boat over to a little place called Nikko Bay.  It’s still right here in Koror, but it feels like you’re in the Rock Islands…for free! 

We stocked up so we wouldn’t have to go into town (although it’s just a dinghy ride away) and we stayed tucked back in a little hole for the last 6 days.  There’s a world of things to do back there.  This is a big area for WWII stuff…there’s a channel called Pill Box Channel that has, well, duh, pill boxes guarding either side (pill boxes for anyone who doesn’t know, are concrete fighting positions used by the Japanese).  We climbed up there and took a little peak into the pill boxes. They’re so tiny and dark, they kind of freak me out a bit.  Just imagine those guys sitting up there waiting for something to happen.  Also on the WWII front, we hiked up a little trail to an old Japanese camp.  We found some old bombs, fuel barrels, pottery, batteries, etc.

Our next major discovery were the caves.  Palau is covered with caves.  But they're not the big huge ones with lakes in the middle and tour guides.  They range anywhere from tiny little holes to big enough to walk around in easily.  There were a few we knew about and then one Andy discovered while paddling our new SUP.   I’m not a huge fan of caves so Andy and Jake went to check it out.  It turns out it’s a large cave with several small caves in it.  Jake said I just had to see it.  So I went.  Now, I’m not a chicken.  I try new things.  I go out of my comfort zone.  But I hate caves.  I went anyway and while I did climb around in the main cave, much to the disappointment of my son, I declined to crawl down into a deep hole with one flashlight between us to see the giant mutant crickets.  The day was a bust in his mind.

While I wasn’t able to keep up with my running, I did manage to make a routine out of my morning paddle.   Andy got into it a bit, too.  We may see a second paddle board in our future.  Jake even took a turn and I have to say, he’s not bad at it.  He envisions being able to paddle to his friend Charlie’s boat the next time they come to Palau.

We have a relaxed dress code on Savannah :)

When we weren’t exploring, we were just lazy and enjoyed our “break” from the hustle and bustle of the anchorage.  There are a few tour boats back there, but not nearly as many as the Rock Islands.  You don’t see many sailboats back there either  as it’s kind of a pain to get to.  You have to wait for high tide to go through a little man made cut in the islands and most anchorages are either really deep or have really shallow reefs to cross.  We’re back now – we ran out of waffles and juice – but I for see many more trips to our newly found “vacation” spot.

Easter in Palau

The Easter bunny brought kids!   Jake got almost a full week of just play, play, and more play.  There is a family from Guam that has a boat here and they come once a month to work on it, getting it ready to sail.  They have a 6 year old boy and a 9 year old girl.  We finally met them on their trip this time around and Jake and Charlie pretty much spent every day together.  They were here over Easter, so we had an egg hunt up at the Yacht Club/Sam’s Tours.  The kids ran around with so much energy as if they’d already eaten that candy, trying to find the eggs.  Jake is a trip to watch…he couldn’t find his own head if it wasn’t attached.  He gets so excited and runs around looking left and right, up and down and never actually sees anything.  But he did manage to find a few eggs (with a little help) and one of them even had a dollar in it (He’s saving up for his very own iPad…he says he only needs $700, so every little bit helps).  They did a second hunt and Charlie’s dad hid one of them in the water.  Jake came running to Andy and said, “Daddy?  Can I jump in and get it?”  Andy said, “Sure”  and off he went.  He never missed a beat…ran right down the dock and into the water to get that egg.

Throughout the week the boys spent time swimming, “pulling” (they lay on the paddle board and hold onto a ski rope while we pull them with the dinghy), playing on each others boats and then we topped it off with a huge play date with both Charlie and Carla as well as Selma (6) and Magnus (3) from another boat, Hero.  If anyone knows me, they know I’m not exactly the kind of mom who usually invites 4 kids over to play…but these kids are really sweet and well behaved and they all played well together, despite the age differences.  The boys played Hero Factory while the girls decided to set up shop and “sell” the parts to the boys so they could make their creatures.  This is a typical scenario for boat kids.  They meet, get to know each other in about 8 seconds, then play as hard as they can because they don’t know when they’ll get to do it again.  Unfortunately, Charlie and Carla were headed to the Rock Islands, we were headed to Nikko Bay, and Selma and Magnus were leaving Palau for adventures elsewhere.  The good news is, Charlie and Carla will be back next month (and the next, and the next), so there will be many more play dates in the future!

The Making of a Lava Lava

I wrote this in Yap but have just now gotten around to getting the pictures ready...hopefully you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it...

Through our travels in Yap, I’ve obtained quite a collection of lava lavas.  I’ve paid for some, I’ve been given some.  Some were very pretty, some were kind of out there and some were said to be “cheap.”  What they all have in common is their origin.  Women in the outer islands of Yap are known for their intricate patterns and creative use of colors in these hand woven skirts.  Traditionally they were made out of thread made from hibiscus bark and dyed in colors derived from natural elements.  Over the years, the process has simplified and they have begun to be made out of colorful threads found at the local store, similar to the thread we use to sew or embroider with in America.  I use the term simplified loosely as this is no simple process.  I was soon to find out how difficult it was first hand.

I expressed an interest to my Yapese friend Agatha, originally from the outer island of Wolei, in seeing how these lava lava’s were made.  I had seen the various parts of the loom and the threads in the stores, but I had no concept of how it was actually done.  What started out as a simple curiosity, soon turned into a project for both Agatha and myself.  She was going to help me make my own lava lava. 

I met her at her house on a Sunday morning to start the experience.  She had laid out all of her lava lavas and I was to first pick the pattern that I liked most.  The patterns appear to be very similar when you’re out in town admiring others, but when you sit down and try to pick one out, you start to recognize all of the small details that make one stand out from another.  Fortunately for Agatha, I’m a pretty quick decision maker, not one for too much pondering, and we were on our way to the store for step two…picking out the main colors.  Yap is a small place so it didn’t take long to find what I wanted despite having to go to two stores.  Now it was time to prepare the threads in the pattern I had chosen and get it ready to go on the loom.  Agatha and I made a date for later in the week to get started.

Our first session was an eye opener for me.  The preparation of the thread involves a piece of wood with 5 small poles attached perpendicular to the wood.  There’s lots of knot tying and lots of looping of the thread around the poles.  Agatha started and after a few dozen rows, she offered me a turn.  It took a few tries but eventually I got the hang of it.  There was so much to remember; which pole to wrap the thread around, keep the string loose but not too loose, don’t forget to go ALL the way around the back, etc.  It was apparent after about five minutes that if I were to be the one making this lava lava, we were going to have to move to Yap.  Since we were planning on leaving in a week, Agatha was generous enough to offer to make it for me, “I enjoy this.  Please let me do it.” 

The weaving itself was fascinating, but I quickly noticed that this is a social event as well.  All of the women in the house gathered to watch and help and offer opinions.  Girls are taught from a very young age how to weave lava lavas.  Lava lava is actually the English name for it.  In Yapese it’s called a toeru (pronounced tear, as in rip, with a little Yapese twist that I’m unable to reproduce with this southern drawl).  Each woman develops her own manner of weaving.  They might add a little to a pattern or take some away, but it’s a small way to show off their personal style.  The newer generations have even figured out how to weave their names into them.

 After all of the details are sorted through, it comes down to good, old fashioned hard work.  While sitting on the floor, a belt is strapped around the waist of the weaver and attached on either side to the loom.  Several rods are pushed through the threads to hold it in place and differentiate between sections.  After each pass of thread, a large wooden board is used to tighten the weave.  It’s back breaking work and I, for one, was glad Agatha wasn’t holding me to my naïve notion of “making my own.” 

Working at night on the lava lava, after an already long day at her job as a nurse, Agatha spent a long hard week finishing up.  I went to their house the day before we were to leave Yap to pick up the finished lava lava and was overwhelmed with the dedication and work that went into this gift for me.  What started out as a kind of cool thing to have turned into a bonding experience that left me with a friend for life.  I hope Agatha felt the same way.  I will always cherish my experience and friendships made in Yap and while I don’t think I’ll need reminding of how much I enjoyed it, it’s nice to have this beautiful, hand woven, one of a kind lava lava to help bring those images up whenever I please.

The Rock Islands, Palau

We’ve spent the last 10 days finally exploring the Rock Islands here in Palau.  There are over 300 islands, some originated from volcanoes, others are limestone.   While the islands themselves are stunning, the real draw here is underwater.  Palau has some of the most beautiful dive sites in the world, and fortunately for us, we had a rare moment where Andy and I were able to enjoy them together. 

Our first few days were spent buddy boating (yes, Monica and Andy actually had a "buddy boat," totally against our way of life) with our friend Captain Ron and my new running partner, Nadeen.  Because we had other people with us, we were able to dive the famous Ulong Channel (more than once!).  It is by far the most beautiful dive we’ve ever done.  It’s a drift dive (pretty swift the first time or two) that takes you across this amazing false channel (i.e. it doesn’t go anywhere) full of soft corals, hard corals, sea fans, sharks, turtles, trigger fish, grouper, you name it…  Later in the week, Captain Ron came back with the owners of his boat and we were able to do it again, along with another dive site.  We were truly lucky this week as not only did we have great company, but Andy and I haven’t gotten to dive that much together since the Marshall Islands with Naomi and John.

I have some of my best hair days underwater.

Notice the huge grouper under the coral.

The prettiest soft corals I've ever seen.

The dive shops here have come up with an eco friendly "dive hook."
You can just clip into the coral (to avoid fighting the huge currents), put
a little air into your BC and just hang out.

Yes mom, that's me in the background :)

Capt. Ron and Nadeen on Shalamar II

The rest of the week that wasn’t spent hanging out with our friends, was spent snorkeling, playing on the beaches (they filmed Survivor here years ago) searching for caves and exploring the vast area by dinghy.  We just scratched the surface of the islands but are eager to go back again. 

On the surface, it’s kind of a pricey gig…they charge $50/person for a 10 day permit, $100 if you want to do jellyfish lake (more on that later…we’re saving that), and $40/month for the boat permit.  If you compare it to the price of a day’s admission to Sea World, it’s actually a bargain.  But if you want to go back over and over, as we do, then it starts to add up.  The good thing is, you don’t spend a dime while you’re down there so even with our super provisioning exercise (you know we didn’t go unprepared), we still came out even.  After we’re here three months, we can apply for temporary residency (being American’s) and then it’s all free from there.  Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

It's amazing that the islands and coral are still in such good shape as there are thousands of tourists here.  It is clearly their main industry.  There are no less than 8 dive boats at any sight, any time.  We passed by a snorkeling reef called Cemetery Reef and I kid you not, there were 8 boats with no less than 10 people per boat there - and it was raining!  Going on your own yacht is by far the way to go... I'm just saying.

We have tons of small stories from the week, but they just don’t seem to do it all justice.  I’m going to just leave it with some pictures from your favorite travel photographer (no, not me silly).

This was actually in a cave.  Jake has a new obsession.  He's
absolutely fearless when it comes to crawling around in these things.

Jake and I on the "Natural Arch"

We look really tiny....

Be careful what you ask for...

When we arrived in Palau and made it public that we were staying for a long while, everyone immediately began asking if we were going to get jobs and put Jake in school. My answer was "no and no." Andy's answer varies a bit but he always leaves the window open if an opportunity should arrive. It didn't take a week here in Palau before he was asked to help film Shark Week here at one of the dive shops. Thinking it would be a good opportunity to meet people and make some contacts, he agreed. While he did make some fantastic (and interesting) connections in the diving and photography community, after working 12 hour days for a week (for almost free), I thought he had it out of his system. Seeing that he was easy going and professional, they asked him to take a day and follow the Prince of Monaco and the President of Palau around and snap a few (hundred) pictures (but make sure you don't get them eating or drinking)...for what might as well have been free. I'm not sure what they were to be used for but Andy managed to score a nice meal out of it and bragging rights for hanging out with the big guys. Andy, not being one to let people down, then said yes to being a "dive guide" (much like herding cats) for a day for said dive shop...I still don't know if that was free or not. Then finally...finally...we got him back.

And now we're on day 4 in the Rock Islands...life could not be better. There's no internet down here so when we arrive back in another week, I'll post details and lots of good pictures. For now, pardon our absence...Jake, Andy and I are getting re-acquainted with each other.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com