Anchored in Pulawat

We had a blissful 3 day/2 night sail to Pulawat. Yes, I said blissful. It started out slow, but just as we thought we would have to spend another night at sea, the winds picked up and we were sailing along at a consistent 7-8 knots. I think we even saw 10 kts at one point.

We traversed a rather tricky pass and quite shallow. It was high tide and the sun was behind us - we couldn't have had better conditions - yet the shallowest point under our rudders still showed 8 feet... woohoo. We anchored in the entrance of the lagoon, as the google earth pictures looked much more shallow than the charts for getting into the actual bay. Andy and Jake went to check it out in the dinghy with a depth sounder. People were waving on the land, so as not to be rude, they checked in with them. The mayor, Dale and his translator Stan, gave Andy a coconut and said we were more than welcome to stay as long as we like....for $35. No sweat, we were expecting this...so they came back to the boat to get me and our little gifts for the mayor.

The old meets the new

On our way in, we were met with two canoes with a man looking none too happy. He said he was the chief's nephew and we were to give him the money. His name was Joey and he wanted to see our permit and if we looked on the computer we would find his name as the person we needed to pay. He told us the fee was no longer $30, but now it was $50. But we could "pay it down" if we had other stuff to trade, like coffee, cigarettes, sugar, etc. He wanted to come to the boat to "see what we had." Um, no. We told him we would go back to the boat and get our permit and would meet him on shore. $35 later, we were down a knife, fishing line, fishing hooks, coffee, and a nice jack we caught on the way in. And we still had to go back to see the mayor.

We went back to the boat and got another knife, fishing hooks and lures and off we went. When we got back to the mayor in the men's meeting house and explained the situation, they said that Joey was wrong and this is a problem with all of the yachts that come in here (funny, that's what Joey said). But they were extremely nice and told us not to worry about it, they would work it out between themselves. Then they gave us some more coconuts and we talked.

I've left out a few things...this place is half way between primitive and half way between the Mortlocks...they still wear their lava lava's (think loin cloths), but they cut their wood with chainsaws. Speaking of chainsaws, Andy has an appointment to fix mayor/chief? Dale's chainsaw in the morning. They all paddle around in their traditional canoes, yet Andy has an appointment to fix Joey's fiberglass boat in the morning. It looks like his day is filling up!

Traditional Sailing Canoes, made here in Pulawat

So, tonight I have mixed emotions. This island has more of the feel of the Marshall's where is was gimme gimme and what can I fix for you, as opposed to the genuine happiness and appreciativeness of the Mortlock's that we just left. Mayor Dale and his crew seemed very welcoming, yet Joey and his klan were not quite as nice (not nice at all actually). The jury is still out. We've only been here a few hours and well, we're tired so maybe my judgment is a little off. We're going to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner of Tuna shashimi (we caught a nice skipjack on the way) and rice and the last of our cucumbers (don't worry, tomorrow I'll have time to make that pumpkin pie!). We'll wash it down with a nice coconut while watching Pirates of the Caribbean. Tomorrow is another day, a new perspective.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Leaving Lekinioch

One of Andy's favorite pictures...Savannah, the supply ship,
and a dog.

First things first...apologies for the long delay in writing. We were having trouble getting out on our SSB and after a bit of trouble shooting, realized it was user error...mine. Oops. We're back up and running now so our updates should be a little more timely. We won't be able to post pictures until Yap, but we have some great ones...be patient.

Sunset in Lukenor

As we prepare to leave Lekinioch after almost a week here, I think we'll remember it in our mind by two events or categories, for lack of a better word. The first is that the Bishop of Chuuk came for a visit here to do a Confirmation as well as to celebrate his 25 years of being a Bishop. The villages here all spent time practicing their singing and performances for the Bishop. There were two ceremonies on Saturday, a welcoming ceremony right before lunch and a more formal ceremony that evening. They hooked up a keyboard to accompany their singing (not only was it not necessary, it probably should have been banned). It was powered by a series of car batteries. When one went out, they would keep on singing while they quickly changed the power source and fired up the keyboard again. It was comical, but also a show of how resourceful they can be. Andy and I were surprised when we showed up for the evening ceremony and there were two seats for us up front, facing the audience, like we were part of the ceremony. It was a little embarrassing but made for a great view of the festivities. We were even invited to eat with the Bishop, which was quite an honor. There was taro (which the ladies spent days preparing), breadfruit, octopus, fish, bananas and large glasses of coconut water. I can't say I'll be converting to their ways any time soon, but I will say it was a lot of fun and we were touched by how welcoming everyone was.

Andy went to Mass the next morning and met the priest. I opted out of Mass this time...it was at 7:00 and well, not being Catholic, I wasn't very motivated. I'm sure it was beautiful, but the confirmation was at 6:00 and that's really what I would have wanted to see anyway and that wasn't happening! Despite my not wanting to get up early, I did rise at 5:30. A young girl paddled her canoe out to the boat to give us some fish and taro. She had told me the day before that she would come before church...she sure did. Anywhooo... I still couldn't make it out. I spent the morning making banana bread and cookies and doing laundry.

 The second item that will always be in our memories is the people. I know we say this everywhere we go (well, most places), but the people here were so welcoming and genuine that they really made an impression on us. Between Simon and Mariel (Peace Corp), we were insured an introduction and translation with almost everything we did. Simon supplied us with limes and coconuts (we're sitting with two dozen on our stern right now), and Mariel supplied us with great company and a great insight into the culture. We questioned whether it would be better to come in by ourselves with no other American around to help us out and in the end, we decided we would miss out on so much without it. She opened the doors for us to talk and joke around with people and really get to know their personalities. No doubt if she wasn't there, they would have been much more shy. Between Mariel and Simon, we were able to observe everyday activities like, going into their Cooking houses as well as watch numerous women prepare the taro for the Bishop. This village is a strange little mix of traditional living with a tad of western ways thrown in. For example, the young women can't walk by themselves or it's seen as "inviting" a man to come with them. They must always be accompanied by someone. One of the kids had to ask us what was hanging in our basket, an onion, yet when we turned on our iPods, they danced in the hip hop ways and there's not a girl here who doesn't know who Justin Beber is. Star Wars was the most requested movie.

Sitting in the cooking house...

Mariel and Jake goofing off.

Jake playing basketball with the local kids... don't tell my
brother that he kicked it first :).

Laundry day for the ladies...

Playing bingo...

Cutting taro...

Pounding taro...

We tried to reciprocate as much as possible. We left Simon with some books and movies and we tried to help with Mariel's need for a little bit of "normal." We cooked her some spaghetti on the boat one night and took her out to one of the other islands for some "alone time." She explained to us that the concept of "alone time" is very foreign to the people here (as we've seen on most of the islands we've been to). All property is community property as is all space. We discovered that as I tried to shoo off a gaggle of kids after playing on the boat all day (or staring at us...whatever you want to call it). It took me no less than 20 minutes to get them all gone and not before one of them was able to try out their colorful English skills on me. I'm sure he didn't know the meaning of what he said but he had the pronunciation down great! We also gave the principle some school supplies as well as offloading our 3 grades of Hooked on Phonics to Mariel.

This morning we went in to say our goodbyes and then we motored away. We were going to stage ourselves beside the pass for the day but it was way too deep (98 feet as opposed to the 28 written on the chart). So we motored over to the little island we've been using as a refuge and anchored there. We had some work to do that would have been impossible to do with the kids all around in the village. They swim out to the boat as soon as they can and then there's nothing getting done. So Andy checked all the engines and went to shore to burn our trash. I finished laundry and baked a few loaves of banana bread (we have more bananas than we do coconuts)for our passage. Now we're relaxing and getting ready for one last trip to the beach.

Tomorrow we'll head out for Pulawat, about 280 miles from here. The winds are looking good and coming from the right direction so we have our hopes set high on a nice, comfortable passage. We had hoped to be there by Thanksgiving, but it looks like we may not make it. We've got a "Thankful" tree going so this year we may be giving thanks a little differently than usual. Not the big feast but no doubt more heartfelt. May all of you at home have a wonderful Thanksgiving and remember what it's all really about.

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Land ho! Lukanor Atoll - the Lower Morlock Islands

We were about 13 miles out from Lukanor Atoll and Andy came to wake me from my nap. There was something on the horizon to the east of us. He couldn't tell what it was, but it looked like we might want to check it out. It could be a buoy, it could be a raft. After looking through the binoculars and thinking that it could be a raft, I agreed. What if someone was out there floating around? I turned the boat (careful not to tangle our fishing lines...I've done that before) and off we went. It was only about 1/2 mile out of our way. As we got closer, it looked more and more like a buoy. Until finally, we were almost right on it, and sure enough, it was a raft lying ahull. It used to have a roof on it, but no more. There were many 1 gallon jugs tied to it, floating, but no people. We looked around (just to make sure), took a few pictures and then headed on. We spent the next half our speculating. I like to think the folks on that raft were already rescued. Andy decided it just broke free from something and never had anyone on it anyway. Either way, I don't think we could have just drove on by. Can you imagine how we would feel if we pulled up into the atoll only to find out that there were people missing? The detour turned out to be productive. We ended up catching two more Mahi Mahi! One was pretty large, the other was well, not large.


The closer we got to the pass, we decided to shower up and make some last minute navigational plans (where are those bommies, where to anchor, etc.). No amount of planning could have prepared us for our welcome. We crossed the lagoon pretty much unnoticed, I think. But as we pulled up closer to the "town," large crowds of people began to gather. We anchored in front of what we would later find out to be the municipal building and local elementary/junior high school. A perfect place for all of the kids to spot a new sailboat. By the time we got the hook down and let the dinghy out of the davits, there were cheers and whistles and waves all up and down the shoreline. It really was a sight to see and there was no way you couldn't smile about it.

Local courtesy says you need to go in and offer a gift to the chief (mayor in this case) and ask permission to anchor. Despite being tired, we got in the dinghy and started towards shore. As we pulled up we counted no less than 25 people waiting for us. The local police welcomed us and helped us tie our dinghy to the tree. Apparently the mayor was in class (he's a teacher at the school) so we would need to wait. As we waited, the local "yacht greeter" introduced himself as Simon and sent some guys out to find us some drinking coconuts. He was prepared with some paperwork for us to fill out as well as a logbook where all the yachties sign in (all 26 of them since 2002) and a brochure about Chuuk (the Mortlocks are part of the state of Chuuk).

The mayor was going to be awhile (turns out we never saw him, he was sick as well), so we went on a tour with Simon (and about 10 kids). Simon is a 76 year old man who served as a contractor to the US Navy in Chuuk, where he learned excellent english, and eventually became a judge there. He recently retired back to his island of Lukanor (now called Lukinioch) where he has 11 kids and 26 grandchildren! He showed us through the Catholic church as well as some other buildings that used to be churches. He gave us the low down on local crops (bananas, coconuts, taro, tapioca, limes, mangoes, papaya) and the three villages on the island. They're named for their location (North, Middle, South - all in the local language though, of which I couldn't decipher). We stopped to rest at the only remaining traditional men's house. They serve two purposes, 1) For men's gathering (drinking mostly) and 2) for the single men to sleep in. There are lots around the island, this was just the only one made from traditional materials.

Notice the small naked kid with the butcher knife...

While we were waiting we met the only American on the island, Mariel from the Peace Corp. She is a teacher here and seemed pleasantly surprised to find us pull up!


Eventually, it was time to go - word came that the Mayor wouldn't be available today - so we headed back to the dinghy. On our way, I saw that this island has come up with a more discrete way to poop on the reef than their neighbors. They've built outhouses over the water. Pretty neat, huh? (pictures to follow, you can bet!) With no running water - each house has their own rain collection device - and electricity only from solar panels, they have to be creative.

A few hours after getting back to the boat, Simon and a few of his grandkids rowed out in their canoe to give us some coconuts and limes. We shared a cold beer with Simon while the kids waved to their envious friends onshore. They stayed on board until a rain shower started to come our way and then they headed back with our gift of a big mahi mahi fillet. We had canoe after canoe all afternoon coming by to check us out. One group got so bold as to yell "CANDY" as they were paddling by. I've decided that's the only way I'm going to be able to hand out this candy I bought. We bought a box of 100 blowpops ($20 by the way) and there are WAY more kids here than that. The box was supposed to last us until Yap. I don't see that happening.

Andy and Simon

We didn't go to shore today as there is a ton of rain just pouring down (much needed here from what we heard). There's a Confirmation happening here on Saturday with a visiting Bishop so we plan on staying for that...should be interesting. Weather permitting, we'll move on Monday.



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Underway - Day 1 and 2

Dolphins surrounded the boat as we left Ant Atoll.

Just in time for supper tonight, we caught a fish. Finally! I won't tell you how small it was, just that it was a Mahi Mahi and it was the perfect size to feed our little family.

Our first "little" fish.

Eventually, we caught two more.

That's the first major event that has happened on this passage. So I guess that makes it a pretty good passage. Our wind has been fair, but we've spent today motor sailing. The trades haven't quite settled in and the wind keeps shifting a bit and the speed varies as well. But we're making good time. We should be arriving in our little atoll tomorrow, early afternoon.

I was trying to think of something interesting to write in this update and couldn't really think of anything. The biggest thing on my mind this time is how much I wish I enjoyed these passages more. I haven't gotten sick on this one, but at the same time, I don't feel my best. I get nervous and I'm sure that doesn't help things. I wish I was more comfortable out here. I keep saying it's because we haven't been out in a while, but I know that's not true. I'm just getting more honest... The good news is that it will just be these short passages between atolls so even though I won't have time to get acclimated, I won't be very far from land for long.

Stay tuned...we have no idea what we'll find tomorrow. From the looks of Google earth, it's a bit populated. I don't think it will be too "native" but we'll see!

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Off to the Morlocks

We finally got checked out on Friday (not before being charged overtime for a holiday, which technically was on Thursday), and made our way to Ant Atoll to rest up and scrub the bottom before moving on.

We're heading out tomorrow and making way toward the Mortlock Islands (also known as Nomoi Islands). We don't know much about these islands other than what we've read from Googling it. We can't seem to find another boat that's gone this way and wrote about it. We chose the route for two reasons...The first being, just as I said, it's off the beaten path. Secondly, it's a great jibe to our next destination, Pulawat. We've heard from other cruisers that Pulawat is a great place to stop, very welcoming and friendly and still somewhat untouched by western ways.

As we've spent our last two days here on Ant, I decided to keep a good eye on the veggies. That local pumpkin I fully expected to last until the end? Well, it already rotted out and I had to throw it overboard. I don't know if it's because I had it too close to the cabbages or what, but it's not a good start. We're finishing up the last of our lettuce (the green bags obviously didn't work) and I had to roast all of our peppers and keep them in oil to keep from losing them as well. At this rate, we'll be breaking into those cans of corn next week. I'm not too worried, just irritated at the situation. As I've said before, since things come in on the ship from the US, by the time they get here they can already be 2 weeks+ old....no surprises that they go bad quickly.

On a good note, we're having fun! We've snorkeled, walked around the island, played on the beach and yes, caught more coconut crabs.

I started off with a little head cold (or sinus issue) and am now left with only the headache. Hopefully that will die off before we leave tomorrow so I'm only left with seasickness! We should arrive in 2 - 2 1/2 days and who knows what we'll find. The Mortlocks are actually quite populated (3000 or so people across 3 atolls), they just don't get very many visitors. Hopefully we'll be welcome.

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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.

Happy Halloween!

Captain America and Ceratosaurus get ready
to explore town.

Jake has been planning his costume for Halloween for about 3 months now.  As you might remember from last year, he gets very particular ideas about what he wants to be and it usually can’t be bought in a store (even though this year we had plenty of stores to chose from while we were home).   This year he decided he wanted to be a dinosaur.  But not just any dinosaur, he wanted to be a Ceratosaurus.  He wanted horns, stripes, blood stains and claws like a real therapod.  

I got ambitious and bought fabric and a pattern while we were in the states.  After stressing over it for quite some time, Andy finally had the brilliant idea to have the seamstress here in Pohnpei sew it for me.  So we did.  But that was just the beginning.  Jake had to make it just right.  So he and Andy spent a whole day putting stripes, horns, and blood on it specifically to Jake's directions.  They made a mask and claws as well (he ended up not actually wearing the mask, but it was his "favorite" part).  Jake thinks it's his most creative costume yet...he was very proud.

After spending so much time on his costume, we had to make sure someone saw it!  We were lucky this year in that we had another kid to go trick or treating with and we had places other than boats to go.  

We started out at the Rusty Anchor with Luke and his dad.  The boys got to show off their costumes and have some dinner to get them energized.  Then we got in the car and off we went.  

He wanted to make sure we all saw his tail.

Every dinosaur needs a bit of sushi before going out to hunt.

Trick or treating in the kitchen of the Rusty Anchor.

Getting their "treat"...ice cream!

Andy and I weren't sure if Halloween was a big deal here or not.  We quickly learned it was a HUGE deal.  Kids everywhere, cars everywhere, candy everywhere.  It's a lot like in the states only no sidewalks and no streetlights.  People pick their favorite neighborhoods and the parents drive them there.  Unfortunately, there's not many "neighborhoods" so everyone picks the same ones.  And it's the ones the Ex-Pats live in...the best candy and fewest dogs, I'm guessing.  You use the same general principal in deciding which houses to go to - the ones with the lights on.  Only the Pohnpeans don't want you to be confused so if they really don't want to hand out candy (or aren't home), just to make sure it's clear, they leave their dogs on the porch to bark and run at you.  Cool, huh?

The kids had a great time and were very excited about their candy.  It's still funny to me to watch Jake eat candy as he doesn't know the names of everything and his favorites are still those weird candy's they don't sell in the US.  Which makes it good for Andy and I.  While Jake eats his wacky jaw breakers, Andy and I get the Skittles and Snickers bar.

We're heading out next week, so from here on out we'll be doing our thing trying to get ready.  It might be a month or so before we actually get to Yap, so a bit more planning is in store this time.  Stay tuned.