Life in Majuro
We're finding life on the lagoon in
Majuro is quite a thriving social scene with a constant stream of
activities to attend. What with the regular yacht club events, a
monthly yacht race, the Tuesday night dinner, nights out at the
Australian Navy Base like the Australia Day celebrations and various
other invitations to expat events. Then theres the Billfish club
which Ants is quite active in and my WAM work and AVI (Australian
Volunteers International) related events. Ants is still working away
at the Wellness Centre garden and just ignoring the “in-house”
politics.
We have found its becoming unusual to
eat in. One problem I have found is all this socializing puts on the
weight!!! Ants (lucky him) does not seem to have that problem but all
I have to do is look at a coconut and Hey Presto...mid riff bulge. I
think one plausible excuse for me is the higher air temperature
relative to body temperature here means a person is less likely to
burn off calories in keeping warm. Not a bad excuse me thinks?
 |
| Ukelele Rod at the Party |
 |
| Rent A Crowd at Ants's party |
The big Six O
Our latest celebration was Ants 60th
birthday celebration which we held on our landlords (Ben Chutaro owns
the mooring we use) lagoonside lawn under a couple of coconut palms.
A truly beautiful, idyllic location. Ants had made up decent
quantities of a couple of versions of his renown homebrew which went
down a storm. About 30/40 yachties & landlubbers turn up to a
“plate to share” evening. Rod, a California Yachtie friend,
brought along his Ukelele and regaled us with his versions of some
old favorites. He did a great rendition of Jim Hendrix's “All along
the Watchtower” Uke style! The food spread was amazing and
delicious. Ants had politely requested, as the birthday boy, for fish
and vegetable dishes so Mahi Mahi and Wahoo turned up marinated in
lemongrass and sesame dressing yum. The party was a great success and
we have made a lovely bunch of friends here. Kimberley had commented
“wow already you have that many friends to invite” and Josh's
comment was “Wow 60, that's really old!”.
Tooth Hurty in Majuro so 430 in
Haiwaii.
Before coming to the Marshalls it was
required by AVI that both myself and Ants had to have the “once
over” dental wise but unfortunately, just before Christmas, I
started to get a pain in one of my back teeth. By January it had
developed into an abcess and the only option offered here in Majuro
was to pull the offending tooth out. Well, I'm at that stage with my
teeth that I need them all. As it was a dental emergency, the AVI
insurance offered to fly me to Haiwaii (easiest and nearest) for root
canal treatment. Both of us decided we might as well go to Waikiki
together and have a mini break while I was getting the work done
....Ants bought a ticket for himself and so Aloha and all that....
here we come.
 |
| Another bloody tourist at Waikiki |
 |
| PAPER plates and a good view at the Eco? Paradise Bay Resort |
In between dental appointments we
spent two nights on the Windward coast. We bussed around the Island
for a very reasonable $2.50 with a quick visit to Hailiewa and the
famous Pipeline surf beach. Paradise Bay Resort on the Windward coast
was a bit of a misnomer as it was in reality a mangrove creek. But to
give them credit they provided complimentary Kayaks to use in the bay
and we enjoyed paddling out to a sandbar turtle spotting and
afterwards utilised the hotel spa and pool. There was a Mai Tai
evening buffet which we enjoyed....A Mai Tai being an Haiwain
cocktail that is a mixture of rum, coconut, pineapple and most
probablly more very strong rum!! There maybe other spirits in there
but I found it too strong to drink let alone taste, it reminded me of
of the Irish hooch poteen. Ants appreciated them much more than I
did!
We managed to climb a few hills while
we were there after being starved of altitude in RMI (the highest
hill in the Marshalls is 30ft, Mt Majuro- the rubbish dump- is a bit
higher!). The classic Diamond Head was nice but crowded but the
Olomana ridge views were probably more spectacular. The volcanic
ridge walk was a good but serious climb with lots of exposure and
scrambling. Some bits had fixed ropes which helped, it certainly got
the heart rate up.
 |
| ...and seriously steep |
 |
| Olamana Ridge, it was quite narrow... |
 |
| Kayaking from the resort |
All in all very enjoyable even if I had
to go through the dental work...
In our absence the Annual General
Meeting of the Mieco Beach yacht Club was held and Ants was elected
Race Director which I think he will enjoy doing. All that number
crunching and statistics is his forte. He has already organised a
reverse handicap for the next race which should be quite interesting.
If it goes to plan a whole range of cruising boats should cross the
finish line together.
'til next time.J&A
For those interested the link to our
yacht club web page is
 |
| Break Free nearly catching Seal after starting twenty minutes behind |
