Merry Christmas from Yap!

The view from our hotel room...Savannah right in the middle.

Christmas came and went in a whirlwind!   Santa found us and brought Jake a bright, shiny, new bike (yes, this is his third bike and no, he can’t ride it yet…bikes and boats don’t mix but we’re going to try one more time).  He also brought just about every dinosaur Lego set possible.  We spent the entire morning putting together legos and our main salon has been taken over (I can’t seem to find the pictures of Christmas morning so I’ll have to post those later).

As for Andy and I….Jake and I bought Andy some new filet knives and lures and Andy got me a massage, manicure and pedicure at the local spa here.  As a gift to the whole family, we spent a night in one of the resort hotels, used their stand up showers, swam in the pool and watched cable tv!

Jake enjoying the iPad with free wifi in the hotel room.

Ice cream at our friend's house on Christmas Day.

I got up early Christmas morning and made homemade cinnamon rolls, chocolate milk (for Jake) and mimosas (for us).  After Jake opened all his presents and we had breakfast, our new friends here in Yap came and picked us up.  This is the couple that we brought back some stuff from Woleai (where they’re from), so to thank us, they had us over for a bar-b-que.  Their house is literally behind our boat and it’s a good representative of Yap; a strange mix of old, new, and somewhere in the middle.  They have a stove inside their house, but they prefer to use the old cooking house outside.  Vincent and Agatha (our new friends) wear western clothing while others in their family are more traditional (lava lavas sans shirt).  They have pigs and chickens, but the chicken we ate off the grill came from the grocery store.   It’s indicative of most of what we’ve seen in Yap.  Some people have spent much time away in Guam, the US, or some other country and have adapted their ways.  Others are holding tight to the old traditions.

Vincent and Agatha have a 10 year old son, Trevor.  He speaks perfect English and seems excited to have met Jake.  He and Jake played together well and we have future plans for Trevor to come out to the boat.

All in all, it was a great day.  We did have the chance to eat more turtle, but after a few bites, I decided to call it quits.  It’s one thing to try it, but another all together to get a taste for it.  Plus, the dogs pulled it off the grill and then Vincent rinsed it off and put it back on…I’m not sure how many times that happened before we got there.  When it was all picked over, he gave it to the pig.  The dogs snuck in again and took off down the road with it.  Quite the comedy.

We really like it here and have decided to look into getting Savannah hauled out.  We are in desperate need of bottom paint and we heard rumors it’s cheap to pull out here.  We would also like to take a look at some of those leaks we’ve been fixing along the way and see if there is any welding to be done.  There is a trolley that would be fairly easy to go up on, but we would have to go sideways…and then there’s the chore of trying to get the paint here.  I don’t know how feasible the whole thing is, but we’re going to look into it.  If it could save us a few thousand dollars, then I certainly think it’s worth it.

The weather is starting to ease up a bit, so it looks like we might get to go diving next week and not have our tails handed to us.  We haven’t done much in the way of tourism at this point, so lots to see and do in the next few weeks…

Final Picture update - Lamotrek and Woleai

I finally finished uploading the pictures from the outer islands.  Now we can focus on Yap :).

Click on the links for updates (or you can just scroll down)
Going Native
Culture, Culture and more Culture
Turtles and Taro
On to Woleai
Wolei and Beyond

For all of you geographically challenged people who still don't know where Micronesia is, I've updated our map at the right of our page as well.   You can move it around with your mouse, or click on the larger view at the bottom to see exactly where these islands were.

I've been seeing everyone put their Christmas pictures up on facebook, so I decided to add ours here since we're so close to Christmas.  We spent a day making ornaments and putting up all of our decorations.  It's not Macy's Window quality, but we like it.  There aren't too many pictures as well, we only have a small space to decorate....sorry.

Making tiny reindeers out of closepins, pipe cleaner candy canes,
and paper snowflakes.  If you're not impressed, you should be.
I don't do crafts very well.

Updated Pictures from Pulawat (and a few more from Lukenor)

As you can guess, we've arrived in Yap.  We've been here a few days and so far, we're really enjoying ourselves.  Check in was a breeze (less than 1 hour) and the people are extremely friendly.  I've already had an old guy stop me in the middle of the grocery store and tell me if we need any bananas or coconuts, to let him know....just let John know.

The weather is acting funky though.  Today, we've had winds up to 40 knots and lots of rain.  Not sure how long it's going to last, but at least we know our anchor is secure.  We haven't moved an inch.  And good thing too...we have a reef directly behind us and a giant mega-yacht (actually, two) on our port side.  It's a tight anchorage when you're next to million dollar boats and you have no insurance!

I've updated the pictures for Pulawat...hopefully you like them.  Click on the posts below to see the latest...

Anchored in Pulawat
More on Pulawat
The Other Village
Coconuts, Bananas, and Typhoons
Underway for Lamotrek

We also found a few pictures we forgot from Lukenor, so I'm posting them here.  If you wonder why we have so many pictures of Mariel, besides the fact that we love her, we told her to tell her mom to check in on the blog so she could see how she was doing....hopefully the message got there! Enjoy!

Mariel with one of the many little ones.

The night time celebration for the Bishop.

Simon's grandsons

Jake playing with the kids after they paddled to the boat.

Jake in his swimming pool (Andy was shark fishing....hehehe).

Updating pictures from Lukenor/Lekinioch

We have a ton of pictures and I've finally started loading them.  I've decided to go back and load them on the pages with the stories as I thought they would be more interesting that way.  Internet here is extremely slow so I'm only able to do one island at a time....this free internet here at the restaurant has cost us 3-4 beers a piece...expensive password.

Check these links out for the latest...

Underway day 1 and 2
Land Ho!
Leaving Lekinioch

And here are some of our other favorites...everyone had to have a coconut tree shot....

Woleai and beyond...

These kids were practicing for their Christmas party, but
they were really hamming it up.  The little boys in the front
were gyrating and moving around like nobody's business.
They had everyone in stiches.

We arrived after lunch in the Woleai lagoon and did our usual meeting with the chief. This island is much bigger than the last few, but the people are just as friendly. The chief was also very welcoming but did ask us to pay a $10/person fee. Andy and I had talked about this before. On all of the other atolls, Andy spent almost the entire time fixing things and we gave away hundreds of dollars of stuff. We had decided that we weren't going to pay a fee here because it would more than likely be the same way. So we told the chief we would be more than happy to help the people and give them things they need (like the school supplies I brought for the elementary school), but we weren't going to pay a fee. He was very nice about it and said we could stay. Now normally we don't buck the fees, but well... we just don't feel they're justified in this case.

So, we knew we weren't going to stay long as we want to get to Yap before Christmas and before they start charging overtime fees for checking in. On top of that, we are almost completely out of vegetables and anything good to eat (we have plenty of food, just nothing that we want to eat). We decided to watch the Christmas drop and then leave the next day.

Cool, huh?

The Christmas drop was pretty neat. A C130 from Guam did a few fly by's, the people here put out a bright pink target, then they flew by again and dropped two big boxes with parachutes. There was one small problem. There was a mix up about wether the target was where the boxes were supposed to land or where the plane should actually push out the boxes. The result was that the two boxes ended up in the jungle. Guys with machete's were running through the woods trying to see who could get there first. Apparently, the parachute and plywood that the boxes come in are the most valuable things around. We followed them and Andy got some pretty good pictures of it all (although after he edits them all, he only gives me a few.  I told him he could just say I took them, but for some reason he thinks he has a reputation to uphold).

Carrying one of the boxes out of the woods.

I don't know the details behind it, but I imagine there's a squadron in Guam that puts a box out and the people bring in donations of "non perishables, clothing, etc." Then they pack it all up. It's all done with genuine, heartfelt, charity in mind from a lot of people that probably don't have much themselves. The problem is, no one is told what these people need. I saw one box opened and it had t-shirts and down comforters in it. They don't wear shirts and it's mighty hot out here. Now they're resourceful people and they'll figure out something to do with it, but it wasn't the most appreciated gift. When I was home, I probably would have had the attitude of "well they should be greatful for anything we send. Something is better than nothing." I still harbor some of that, but after seeing it close up, not so much. They don't have a place to put things they can't use, so it ends up just sitting around rusting/rotting/stinking up the place. And they have limited space... Not to poo poo Operation Christmas Drop, but just a different perspective. Maybe they could send flipflops, fabric, thread, knives, machetes, etc. For us though, it was quite a treat to watch, especially coming from a military background ourselves and knowing the types of people giving.

The high school

We toured around a bit more seeing the schools and power plant (the whole island has electricity) and went back to Savannah to start getting ready. We're underway now to Yap with semi-rocky seas and good winds. It should be a fairly fast trip, if not the most comfortable. 360 miles to go...

The high school kids watching the Christmas drop on one
of the other islands in the lagoon.

Sailing canoe

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On to Woleai

Aren't they adorable?  They followed us all over the island.

It turns out the Christmas air drop by the Airforce was postponed until Friday. Not wanting to get into Yap next week during "afterhours" (= to big bucks), we decided to go ahead and go to Wolei. We would have skipped it all together but we already promised some folks in Lamotrek that we would take some letters and food to their kids at school there.

Tuesday afternoon, we went in to collect the stuff and say our goodbyes. It was so much fun. Everyone wanted to shake our hands and tell us "Merry Chirstmas. Have a safe trip." It made us feel like they really enjoyed us being there. Michaeila and her family made us some snacks of breadfruit, taro chips, and coconut candy for our passage and more leis. Another woman, Augustina, gave me another lava lava in thanks for taking her son some food/mail. We were sent off with stalks of bananas and lots of coconuts. In the end, I like to think we gave more than took. I know Andy fixed a ton of stuff and we gave away everything from movies to batteries to old sails. They invited us back "anytime" and said they would miss us. We'll miss them too. A very nice place, indeed.

We left yesterday for Wolei and are now about 30 miles out. We should get there sometime after lunch. We found out right before we left, that there is another plane doing a Christmas drop in Wolei on Friday as well, so we might actually get to see that after all.

It's been a nice sail (motor sail, last night), though we did see a few long liners in the night. One passed pretty darn close to us and we're still not convinced he saw us. Andy lit up the sails with a giant flashlight and we pulled the motor back as he passed in front of us. After almost three years sailing out here, I've learned, there's only one law of the sea out in the ocean....the law of mass tonnage. They rarely see you (as they've got it on autopilot and are sleeping), they rarely answer the radio, and they rarely change course. Always important to keep a good watch. You may go months without seeing another ship, and then, like last night, we saw two and the one went within a mile of us.

So, we're almost Atoll-ed out, but we're going to give Wolei a few days, then head on to Yap...and buy some vegetables.

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Turtles and Taro

I was going to start this blog with what a wonderful day we had and how we were treated as royalty and I've never met so nice of a people (which is all true). But after the last few hours, I have to say that I am going to show how shallow I actually am and make the beginning of the blog be about me...yep, after weeks without any female friendship at all, I finally got an hour and a half by myself to be a girl and watch a chick flick, while Andy and Jake went to shore for the drinking circle and for Jake to play on the beach with the local kids. About 15 minutes into my chick flick (while sitting in my underwear drinking a coconut...fabulous day), Andy came back and told me he was taking not only the computer, but the generator AND THE TV!!!. Yep, he had made a copy of Act of Valor ("Andy's MOVIE") for one of the guys, and while they were "testing" it on a tiny portable dvd player, he offered up our TV for a movie night. They sent him back to the boat quicker than he could say NO!!!.....seriously, I wasn't happy. You can only imagine what I was thinking, but I'm going to really try and let it go...


Not letting my own issues get in the way... this was a wonderful day. I've never met a nicer group of people. We went in this morning for Mass and we were met at the door with fresh lei's for our heads from our friends Michaeila and her daughters. After Mass we were whisked off to our friend Sasario's house for his daughter to fry up some fish for us and give us some taro. They also had lei's for us and every time I looked at Andy I thought of that lemur on Madagascar with the flowers poking up out of his head... spitting image.


As we waited for the party to start, I suggested we go say hi to Michaeila and her family. When we got there, they asked me if they could decorate me in tumeric, as in the spice. I had seen a few people in church all dusted up, so I said sure. Saralee (or Juralee...not sure), made me take my shirt off so I was just wearing my bikini top and took a HUGE can of tumeric and covered me with it. Did you know tumeric was yellow? I do now. It's yellow (and takes more than one shower to come off). I'm not sure what this had to do with Mary's Ascension, but everyone seemed to really like it. Jake and Andy were wondering if it was just "seasoning." I assured them I wasn't fat enough, and it was just for local entertainment. They wanted to paint my face with lipstick as well, but I kind of drew the line. I have an aversion to lipstick, even in my own culture.

Quite attractive, don't you think?  Matches
the flowers on my head nicely.

Turtle meat from one turtle (and the fat too).

We went and waited with our other friends while they divided the turtle up between everyone as well as the smoked fish they had been preparing for the last few days. They each drew a name from all the island households and prepared baskets for each one (think "dirty santa" without the dirty). The island had actually gotten together and made a basket (two, actually) for us as well! It was really neat to hear our names called out, but I can't feel but more than a little bit of guilt for taking so much from them! We had a basket of 4 land crabs, a bunch of bananas, two curried fish, a papaya, and a huge amount of taro. Then we had another basket full of taro and rice and on top of all of that, we had about 8 coconuts and a pound of smoked fish. Oh yeah.. almost forgot...we got our share of turtle. And it was good. I have so much to say about that, that I just don't have the room or the time.

This is the fire that's used to loosen the shell from the turtle.
If you look close you can see the tail sticking out on the right
hand side of the picture.

Smoked fish to be rationed out.

People starting to bring their gift baskets.

Starting to hand out the baskets to everyone.

Everyone waiting to hear their names called.

The men mostly picked up the baskets and the women watched.

Our name was called!  Look at that elaborate basket.
It had a top and bottom put together by some sort of
woven hinge.

I think Andy looks like King Julian on Madagascar
with his headdress on.

We ended up having two baskets, but this one had the
best goodies...crab, fish, bananas, papaya.

After many swims in the ocean (tumeric kind of stains the skin), a chick flick later (on a VERY small computer screen), and watching my son eat turtle, I have decided we really live an extraordinary life.

We have decided to stay a few more days to watch the "Christmas Drop." The US Airforce flies from Guam to many of these small islands and drops a Christmas package (with a parachute) full of stuff for the islanders. They're scheduled to come here on Wednesday and we thought that would be a site to see. Should be interesting.

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