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| Anchorage at Tabal Island, Aur Atoll |
The Plan
We made a decision early on
to take all available opportunities to explore, aboard "Break
Free", our new tropical locality to the full. The Christmas break was our
first decent chance for visiting the Outer Atolls. We had from December
21st until the 5th of January. Ants after a suggestion from "De
la Mer" had been pondering over the charts and planned a visit to Aur Atoll
60 nautical miles to the north of Majuro and then, if time,
onto Maloelap Atoll to the North of Aur.
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| De la Mer |
The Company
The WAM program associate
director and husband, Kiwis Kathy and Kevin kept us company and sailed
with us aboard their 42ft Steel ketch "De la Mer".
First Stop
We left Majuro on the 23rd,
at around six in the evening, for an overnighter. Unluckily it
was blowing from the direction we wanted to go so unlike most gentlemen
we had a bit of a bouncy upwind sail. We arrived in the mid morning
of the 24th (nicely timed for bommie spotting) at the south
entrance to Aur Atoll and spent the day sailing across the lagoon to the
island of Tabal in the North West corner, where we had been told most of the
population (about 300) of Aur had decamped for the Christmas
festivities.
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| Tabal Beach |
After rowing ashore we were
taken to meet the Mayor in his little grass hut. He was asleep on a
pandanus grass mat platform in the open plan hut with his wife in the small
outer “kitchen bit” of the hut. We showed him our visitors permit, paid
our $25 and were told we were welcome. The local Iroj (the chief of
Tabal island) told us the "beat" celebrations would be in the
church Christmas day morning and again we were welcome. Back in Majuro, around the
churches, over the few weeks leading up to Christmas we
had seen (and heard!) lots of people practising dancing and
singing. This "beat" is done in rows sort of like line dancing with a
leader with a whistle at the front. Each Church "chapter" puts on
a performance on Christmas day and a collection is taken for each group. It
actually seems to be fairly competitive with each group having
distinctive dress or uniforms and trying to out dance the previous
mob.
A Marshallese Christmas day
First thing "De la Mer"
joined us for prsent swapping followed by fresh fruit and pancakes.
We attended the local Tabal
"beat". Quite a different Christmas experience....a
mixture of modern US, traditional Marshallese with a almost tribal feel.
Every section of the local community was represented from young to
old. We were invited to the community feast...and seated at the big
table with all the local dignitaries!!! the food was served on amazing woven pandanus plates and was very
traditional Marshallese fare....Pork, beef, preserved breadfruit,
coconut milk, pandanus meat, tapioca starch and green drinking coconuts....I
can't say yum but there was enough to feed an army for a week! We only
stayed from 11am until 7pm so missed a few hours of the celebrations!
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| Aur boys sitting on bags of copra (coconut meat) |
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| Making the plates for dinner |
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| Looks easy....not |
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| Christmas lunch at the mayoral table |
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| The lovely older generation at Tabal |
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| The "beat" around the Walls of Jericho (that is what they said) |
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| The orange "beat" team from Aur Aur village, Aur Atoll |
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| The yellow team of Tabal village |
Next stop
After a fond farewell from
Tabal we sailed to Bigen...a beautiful anchorage and deserted
island. The underwater visibility was at least fifty metres.
Maloelap Atoll
From Bigen we sailed north
to Maloelap. On the way we caught Tuna, Wahoo and in the lagoon we nabbed
a Rainbow Runner (our first).
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| Wahoo! and a bunch of bananas |
We anchored at Taroa a village full of
Japanese World War II relics....this is where the five islands of Maloelap
had all decamped for Christmas.
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| De la Mer going ashore at Taroa, Maloelap Atoll |
We had an amazing snorkel over a
Japanese munitions shipwreck in the anchorage. About 100 metres long in 15
metres of water and almost intact except for a bombed bow.
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| Repelling invaders! |
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| Break Free through a rusty wreck |
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| A typically shy Marshallese boy at the new school in Taroa |
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| In ground cooking (in a truck brake drum) |
Ashore were the remains of
fuel tanks, admin buildings, plane wrecks, air raid sheltersand
numerous craters from bombs dropped on the WW2 airfield and even a 6 inch
cannon on the beach!
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| 1940's Air Raid shelter/ 2012 house |
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| Japanese fighter plane |
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| The boys with their toys! |
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| Old Japanese Admin building |
On island the Christmas sports
festival of baseball and volleyball was in full swing. The 5 groups of
Maleolap were on the closed airstrip involved in a serious competition. It was closed because the lawn mower could
not keep up with the grass despite a valiant attempt.
A great visit for us.
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| Mowing the runway so the planes can land! |
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| Aerodrome baseball |
Airik Island
Our next stop at Airik was
strange because except for cats, dogs, pigs and 2 women the population
was at Taroa. As we walked around a boat load of Airikians returned from
Christmas celebrations and it all came to life again.
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| Residents of Airik |
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| 18 more young residents with MUM |
Back to Tabal
A great downwind sail saw
the fish larder replenished with 6 fish landed between the 2 yachts.
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| A live turtle going from Taroa to Majuro by boat! Sad? or just a difference of cultures? |
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| A bunch of so called "300" variety bananas we were given |
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| Making donuts for a feast |
Tabal's New Years Eve was a
bit unusual....we're still not sure if they celebrate the New Year
arriving or not...Ants & Kevin ventured ashore but other than after
midnight local Policemen, and other small groups
singing songs at peoples front doors
for presents (like thanksgiving) not much was happening. The
outer Atolls are dry....a no alcohol policy so maybe that has something to
do with it??
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| Flat out enjoying island life |
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| A couple of "cheeky" boys from Tabal in their new wellies!!! |
The homeward leg
We called into the southern
village of Aur Aur but with the wind and sea conditions ended up
anchoring off a nearby island with the anchor at 11m and the boat in
20m...not ideal. Winds a brisk 25 plus. The sail home was a brisk
broad reach downwind. The open seas had worked up a bit of a roll
with a 3 metre swell. At one stage we had three or four large waves
stand up abeam of the cockpit and dump a large dose of the Pacific on
us and the back of the boat....its humorous after the event!!! It
took eleven hours to do the 80 nms. To the skippers delight the
fish count went up by two Mahi Mahi, one a huge 139cm!
All in all a great trip.
