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

Another Visitor

It has been really nice to have another visitor after Kerry and Jenni had been here in May.

July saw Ants' daughter Kimberley arrive on an Our Airline flight from Australia for a couple of weeks. We fitted in lots of bike riding, swimming, snorkeling, sailing, dinners and a three day visit to another atoll, Arno.

Down at RongRong, an Island in Majuro Atoll

To get to Arno the three of us traveled on a small inter island ferry about 15 miles and spent 2 nights in a lovely bungalow. The highlight was to snorkel oceanside in crystal clear water with turtles ,sharks and looking into the deep blue (dropping quickly to 3000feet!) water.

The path from the bungalow to the beach

Sunset from the Marshall Islands Club (Yachties Pizza Night)                  photo by Kimberley

 Some more photos of Kimberleys' visit

Outside the RMI Goverment house

Cycling in Rita (one end of Majuro atoll)

Laura Beach (the opposite end of Majuro atoll)

Raining on a long bike ride day

Rinsing off in the rain after a long bike ride

The bike ride was interspersed with showers but it kept it nice and cool. We were joined by 2 others which was great. We organised one Sunday the inaugural Majuro Mountain Bike Riders Club and had 13 people turn up for the ride. The icecream shop doing big doubles for $1.25 was the bait.

Ants at Peace Park

Out fishing, Kimberley Ants and Cary

How locals use old fishing floats!      photo by K

And the birds were excited!

Rex an Australian from Narau we entertained on BreakFree

WAM canoes refitted and painted for The Pacific Forum

A wreck ,in fact 2 wrecks at RongRong

At RongRong doing the yard clean up

Sunrise in Majuro     photo by Kim

But a nasty oil slick!

We have had quiet winds of late and one morning a Westerley wind bought in a bit of oil from the fish freezer ships in the lagoon. Yuk! A bit of cleaning needed on BreakFree.

The new Japanese tourist brochure

And the stars , WAM canoes and Ants with a MahiMahi

Traditional dress for the recent Pacific Forum

The Yachties Pub Quiz and lobsters

Winning the pub quiz with Dave and Pam and eating lobster 

just a couple of bonuses living in The Marshalls

Nige (behind) handing over the Pub Quiz "dosh"

Yum , Lobster for dinner

The last month has flown by and looking at the photos “Boats” seem to be the theme.

Corrugated aluminum and a soft drink can make great boats

and the little can wins!

WAM, the canoe program, started with a new group of 25 students so that means Jane has been very busy Monday to Friday. Advertising, interviewing and selecting the students, and then starting all happened in 10 days.

This is not the true “Marshallese way”, but a regime imposed by the funding body, the National Training Council, and Jane survived.

A US ship the USS Pearl Harbour came to Majuro as part of “Pacific Partnership '13” an annual Goodwill mission with hundreds of American Navy/Army/Marines and a few Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, Koreans, plus plus who were involved in building, health checks, veterinary clinic, sport, and many other things.

The Utility craft USS Pearl Harbour

Our landing craft arriving at the transom

Lots of vehicles on board

A Maloelap man

Marshallese are happy with the US connection

Our involvement included

*attending the Independence Day cocktail party on the ship

*WAM trainees with Jane were involved with a US Navy/Marine “Boat Safety” morning in Delap park where we helped promoting WAM and selling teeshirts

*the two of us helped the US Ambassador and the PP13 Commodore onto canoes for a race

*the Wellness Kitchen (Ant's garden) organised a cookoff between Navy and local restaurants

*Jane took WAM trainees on a tour of the USS Pearl Harbour

*Ants did a volunteer recorder role at a disaster response workshop (the Northern Marshall atolls are in serious drought with millions being spent but OK in Majuro)

*We were invited to a lovely semi formal dinner for 35 people at the house of the US Ambassador.
*Over the visit we met and took sailing on BreakFree a very nice guy, Lt Bruce Hansen, who was the  community liasion officer

Friendly sailors but big guns

On a health topic. Testing for Diabetes at the Navy/Wellness Centre booth at a health fair with 196 people showed 47 were over 300 (90 is good) and about 20 would have been hospitalised immediately in Australia. 40% to 60% of the population are diabetic because of a diet of white rice, white flour, white sugar, soft drinks and chicken. Not that Australia is a lot better as we heard on Radio Australia recently.

One of the big Tuna purse seiners

A family on a Sunday sojourn

Seiners and freezer ships, all part of raping the world oceans

Typical crowded boat and they paddle, never row

We have been sailing down the lagoon most weekends and this weekend will go to RongRong which although only 22 nms down the lagoon has been visited by no yacht we know of. There is a fair amount of coral outcropping down that end of the lagoon but should be no real drama

A WAM trainee

Next month Kimberley (Ant's daughter) is coming for a two and a half week visit which should be really good. Looking forward to it.