Thursday 3 October 2013

Ants does a little side trip

Jane found a shallow reef near Ejit Island
Ants got offered a trip around 13 atolls and 15 villages so of course he could not refuse.Because of the drought emergency in the North of the Marshalls food aid is being sent to these atolls and his role was to check the quantities as they left the ship and sign off on the shore. All up 154 tonnes of food worth close to half a million USD so quite a job.
The boat "Aemman" is 150 feet and 400 tonnes with a 600HP Yanmar and did 10 knots.
The trip was about 1100 NMs and visited,   Tabal on Aur Atoll, Ollot and Kaben on Maloelap , Wotje , Mejit Is, Ailuk, Likiep, Ebadon and Mejato on Kwajalien Atoll, Wotho, Ujae, Lae, Lib Is and finally Majkin and Mae on Namu Atoll. If you search them the names will sort of come up but is Ollot actually Wollot . Always a guess on the real name.
"My" ship the Aemman on a smooth evening 
My helpers with some neat stacks


Note the high quality anchor chain on the winch
When you look at the anchor chain you can see the maintenance is fair only but the nice clean Yanmar purred at 650 revs and the trip went smoothly. Entering reef passes by moonlight, with radar but no depth sounder is interesting. I just watched quietly.
Lowering one of Aemman's tenders

And fuel drums the same

One of our crew in pirate "get up" going back to Aemman

Aemman alongside at Likeap Atoll
Some of the food cargo shifted in the hold


Some dead machinery on Ailul Atoll


The engineer with his 600HP Yanmar

Captain John on the bridge
2 tonnes or more of recycled batteries

Ants trying to be artistic


Coconut crab and breadfruit I had for brunch

Bad weather near Wotho Atoll

A traditional caoe at Lae Atoll

Traditional canoe and a modern load carrying catamran


Lib Island kids unloading beans

And thier big brothers

Watch out for global warming!
I kept in touch with Jane by HF radio and a couple of Sat phone calls and on the last day she sailed BreakFree out to meet me. Nige Glen and Sofie were also on board to meet me. After Aemman anchored one of the tenders transferred me to BF for a sail, a lovely way to finish the voyage.
Jane sailing out to meet me

Nice sail trim

Back into Majuro after 11 days

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