The not so elusive Octopus

We've been waiting out our time here in Kwajalein anchored in front of the island Bigee.  It has some really nice snorkeling and after being here for a week (our third time being here for a week), we've gotten to know the coral heads pretty well.  Given that, I was surprised the other day when I snorkeled over the same old coral head and found a good sized octopus!  He wasn't even all that skittish...just sort of looked at me and moved around a bit.  I came back the next day and there he sat.  Yesterday, Andy was bored and I told him he should take his camera and go get some pictures of the little guy.

"Octopus is hard...I'll probably just get one picture and then he'll run off."  Not one to shy away from something "hard," I sensed a little lack of motivation.
"Consider it a challenge then oh masterful one of the underwater camera..."
That helped.  He got off his tail and went for a dive.

About 10 minutes later I heard him hollering for me....the octopus was out in the open sand by the boat.  I grabbed my mask and fins and swam out to him.  Using his spare regulator I went down and watched him work the little guy.  I've seen this in videos but never in person....the crazy little 8 legged thing RAN across the sand trying to get away from us.  He (or she?) literally RAN and RAN and RAN.  It was so cool!  After a few minutes of watching him, I went back to the boat and Andy continued the photo shoot for another hour.  Evidently, the octopus got used to him and eventually ignored him altogether. He came back with an enormous amount of pictures with the octopus in all sorts of contortions, shapes, colors and textures.  I asked him to narrow it down to a few for me so I could post them here.

The icing on the cake....this morning I went out for one last snorkel before heading back to Ebeye and after seeing a sea turtle swim away from me, I saw TWO octopi out and about, hunting around in a totally different area.  We looked these up and it turns out to be a Day Octopus...presumably because it hunts and wanders around in the daytime, unlike most of it's cousins who are nocturnal.  Pretty common in the Pacific, but not common for us.  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did.  Keep in mind, this is all the same octopus.

The Boob Tube

I realize it’s been awhile since I posted a blog and there are two reasons for that… 1) I’m trying not to write too much about Kwajalein since it’s such a small place and somehow there are quite a few people here reading the blog.  I don’t want to offend, irritate or embarrass anyone without intending to,  2) After three weeks here, we finally discovered that we can get the 8 Armed Forces Network (AFN) channels here on our boat.  That’s right…we have TV.

Now this may not sound like a big deal, and maybe it’s not to most people, but remember…we haven’t had TV in almost two years.  Sure we get to watch movies, but they’re all pre 2009 and there is no access to news, commercials, or the latest prime time (outside of the occasional info we get on the internet).  So, I haven’t had time to write…I’ve only got a few days left to get all my TV in. 

What have we been watching??  Well, we’re fairly up to date on the Republican Primaries, I saw the latest episode of Desperate Housewives (I have missed A LOT), Jake has discovered the Power Rangers, and Andy has been re-inspired by the Iron Chef.  We’ve seen a few post 2009 movies, gotten up to date on the news, and discovered that Fear Factor has gotten totally out of control (cow hearts in a vat of blood?).  We watched House last night and tonight we get to see the latest episode of Bones. 

I totally forgot how much time we used to spend watching TV.  I’m shocked that I wasn’t 300 lbs before we gave it all up.  Prior to our stop here, we would either watch a nice family movie after dinner or we would play UNO or Go Fish.  Monopoly was a family favorite or we might just sit outside while Jake played on the bow and watch the sunset.  And we would RARELY watch a movie in the middle of the day.

We did take time off of the tv to watch Cpt. Ron pull his
boat into the dry dock area for some repairs.

Now don’t get me wrong…we’re not a totally electronic free family (since replacing our computers and possibly getting the old ones back, we have the potential of having 5 computers and 2 iPads on board).  Jake loves his video games and Andy and I love our movies.  But when it’s harder to get the latest and greatest, you find yourself thinking of other things to do – like swimming, coloring, cooking, reading a book, etc.  I think that’s probably a good thing.  

But I’m not giving in just yet…we have three more days here and I am determined to see everything that might remotely interest me…

There’s a commercial that American Idol starts next week…I wonder if our antennae will reach from Bigee?

Other things we’ll miss when leaving Kwaj…

Frozen pizza, Edamame, Burger King, Subway, Baskin Robins, fresh strawberries (I know – everything revolves around food for us), bike riding, speaking English all the time, cleanliness…but most of all, the great people we’ve met and our sponsors who have become good friends that we’ll keep in touch with for a very long time (and maybe share an anchorage one day soon).

Happy Holidays from Kwajalein!

Santa found us in this big ocean.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.  We hope you all were able to spend time with your loved ones and enjoy some time off.  Once again I failed to get Christmas cards out so my apologies...between being unemployed and living in the tropics, I just couldn't find the time. :)

We’ve continued on our social marathon here in Kwajalein with holiday parties, cocktail hours and we even fit in a few boating trips.  The first was on the ferry here to Ebeye, a neighboring Marshalese Island.  This is where most of the local workers on Kwajalein live.  They take the ferry daily back and forth from Ebeye to Kwajalein.  We took the ferry with our sponsors on Christmas day to see the town and listen to some of the church singing.  It was a nice day getting out and about.  Ebeye is crowded, but appears to be a bit cleaner than Majuro and the people also seemed a bit friendlier.  Of course my opinion might be skewed given the high praise I have for Majuro (wink, wink)…

The ferry ride to Ebeye.

Yesterday we took our friends out on the boat to another island, Bigee (pronounced Bee-gee).  It was so beautiful - crystal clear, blue water with white sandy beaches – we decided it would be a great place to hang out for a week or two.  Ron and Christina brought their paddle boards a long with them for us to try.  I’ve been wanting one and it was nice to get to try one out first.  Although I think I might have been more successful if I didn’t wait until there was a small squall coming.  For a while there I thought Andy was going to have to get in the dinghy and come get me.  The kids played under the boat all day either swimming back and forth from the bow to stern or just making up games on the paddle boards.

The sailing was great as well.  We made a consistent 8 knots going out to Bigee which pleased Captain Ron to no end.

Captain Ron

The kids...a bit tired.

Playing under the boat.

Ron on the paddle board.

Not a bad place to be, huh?

We’re still enjoying ourselves and are even considering trying to find work here for a year or so (some of you will be picking yourself up off the floor right now).  We’ve had a lot of unexpected expenses since Tarawa and it would be nice to replenish the cruising kitty a bit while resting in a little slice of the US out here in the middle of the pacific.  But nothing is guaranteed here so we’re not getting our hopes up too high…it’s a win win either way – if we get jobs, we stay.  If we don’t get jobs, we leave and go to Tonga next year and keep on cruising.  There’s no bad option there.

In the meantime, we’re just soaking up the sun and enjoying this friendly, relaxing atmosphere.

Kwajalein

Well we’re here and we hit the ground running.  It’s the holidays so there are more things to do than time to do them.  Given that we’ve been pretty lazy for the past two years, Andy and I are trying to keep up.  Jake has actually been playing so much that he slept until 10:00 the other day – a first in his short 6 year life (he’s normally a 6:30 kind of person).

We’ve gone to several parties, met tons of people, taken a tour of the island, gone on a lighted boat parade and Jake has gone on his first sleep over.

Jake, Miles and Jacob showing their silly faces.

This is a funny little place.  We’re thoroughly enjoying our selves but there are some things worth mentioning to help you get a picture for it here.  There are very few cars/trucks.  They’re all government vehicles.  The people here travel on bikes and the occasional golf cart.  There are all sorts of bikes too – “Island bikes” – meaning the handlebars might wiggle, the chain might slip, but no worries, because it gets you from point A to point B.  There are all kinds of trailers for these bikes too.  As a matter of fact, I happen to be carrying Prince Jake around on a trailer fit with a lawn chair tied down by a bungee.  The grocery store here even gets in on the action….since trailers can only carry so much, they deliver!

It’s nice because you can just sort of let your kids do what they want without worrying about someone snatching them up or them getting hit by a car.  It’s kind of refreshing knowing there’s still a place around that’s safe.

Everyone is really friendly and it’s such a small community that everyone knows everyone.  That could be good or bad, I suppose, but so far for us, it’s nice.

They have pretty much everything you need here – swimming pools, movie theaters, sports, water sports, beaches, even a food court complete with Burger King and Subway (Something I bet Andy they had…

I’ve never been to a military base that didn’t have at least one Subway).

Some of our favorite things have been the turtle pond and a little beach spot that our sponsors showed us with a rope swing.  Jake spent a few hours there the other day swinging and jumping off into the water.

MY favorite thing so far has been watching Jake learn to ride his bike!  He’s been on the boat since he was 3 ½ and cruising isn’t always conducive to learning the basics that most kids do.  So, we bought him a bike in Majuro and when we got here, we found a nice grassy spot for falling over.  Surprisingly, he caught on right away and he’s almost ready for the big time.  He just needs to learn to get started on his own and be a little more aware of his surroundings…but he’s doing great!

We’re off in a few minutes to pick Jake up from his sleep over.  I called and found out that our kid fits in fine even if he is a little different….his stuff smells like boat, he puts his toilet paper in the trash can and he politely asked Christina if she could turn off the air condition.