Marshall Islands - The outer atolls
(A somewhat long and rambling post in which I repeatedly say I did this and I saw that and it was wonderful.)
(Unfortunately bandwidth here makes uploading photos impossibly slow.)
At 6 pm, we lifted the anchor, raised 1, 2, 3 pieces of cloth, and sailed away across the lagoon leaving behind the city of Majuro, the other yatchs, the fishing boats, and the military vessel that had been our companions for the past few days. The water in the atoll's lagoon was relatively calm but the wind was brisk so as the sun set and the full moon rose we flew towards the pass and then out between the red and green boys, out past the last coconut covered motu, out into the Pacific Ocean proper... and the wind picked up and the boat heeled over and we were charging north. So, with the deck tilted steeply and lifting and falling with each wave, we, the newest crew, sat outside holding tightly onto something, anything, and concentrated on not being sick as the captain gave us his safety talk, and Rhian, age 5, who was born, literally, on the boat and who has lived here her entire life, came out spread her arms wide, raised her chin, and threw herself repeatedly into the air, jumping, full of exuberance, landing laughing sure footed on the lilting jilting deck only to fling herself, yet again, up into the wind, a child of the sea.
1. Bikar Atoll - Diving the wall
Bikar Atoll is uninhabited. It's a ring of coral reef which is above water at low tide and has waves crashing over it at high tide. It has a few patches of land, motus with pristine white sand beaches and coconut palms, and a narrow pass into a very shallow and unbelievably turquoise lagoon in the center.
We sailed north, two glorious days, to get there (shifts of 4 hours on 14 hours off - oh the luxury of being on a bigger boat) with perfect wind and weather, and, and finding the pass impassable, let Infinity drift just offshore while we dove the outer wall of the reef - which falls 1000's of feet straight down - amongst uncountable colourful tropical reef fish, huge groupers, brilliant blue clams, eagle rays, schools and schools of sea fish, enormous turtles, and dozens of black tipped sharks. I'd never seen anything like it at all. Ever. Wow! It was amazing. Just amazing.
2. Utirik Atoll - A tour around town
Utirik Atoll is similar to Bikar except that it has a population of about 400 and a passable pass. We sailed into the lagoon and anchored near the village then dropped the dingy and went to ask permission to stay a while. There are four supply ships that come to this atoll each year and about as many yatchs that visit so our arrival was an event. A crowd of 40 children gathered to greet us on the beach as we landed and tagged along all the way to the town hall. The mayor said we could stay as long as we liked and assigned one of the English-speaking school-teachers to act as guide. Dallas gave three of us a walking tour of the town answering all of our questions and giving us samples of local fruit as we went (many people stopped to ask to trade, one offered a dozen lobster in return for 18 feet of 3/8 inch line to be used as a sheet for a sailing outrigger canoe) and then took us back to his house where we sat and talked some more while drinking fermented coconut sap. Many cruisers must have had similar experiences on hundreds of different islands but for me, for me it was another first, another indescribably amazing day.
We stayed at Utirik several days, each doing as we pleased; reading and relaxing, visiting the town, taking long beach walks, swimming, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, fishing, kayaking, kite boarding... and then gathering to eat lunch together and regroup for the second half of the day. Heaven on Earth.
3. Taka Atoll
Another uninhibited bit of paradise; more amazing diving and other such adventures.
Asides:
1. My camera is broken (hence the lack of photos).
2. I plan to buy - and learn to use - a gopro next fall so that my next blog series will be in the form of video clips.
3. The kids on this boat are hellions who each have multiple screaming fits daily.
4. Unlike their parents I refuse to respond to their tantrums so they behave perfectly for me.
5. They are learning to read and count at a prodigous rate.
6. The stove here is a big old diesel pig, incredibly slow to heat up, so it takes hours, literally, to prepare meals.
7. Fortunately with 9 adults on board we each only have to make one meal every three days (and a few of the crew love cooking and do more than their fair share).
8. A vegan diet (plus lots of fresh fish) is growing on me.
9. You'd think I'd be losing weight, but no.
10. The boat has two hammocks and there is enough free time during the day to read for an hour or two which is wonderful.
Our last day on Taka we did a beach clean up collecting several huge (4 cubic metre) bags of garbage - mostly glass and plastic bottles and plastic shoes - which we lashed to the foredeck to take to Majuro for disposal. It was only a token, of course, as we did only part of one motu, and each motu has garbage lining the shore, and many atolls have many dozens of motus, and there are tens of thousands of atolls... but it felt good nonetheless.
4. Maloelap Atoll
We anchored in several different spots here.
At the first spot you could walk at low tide on the flat (dead) reef rock 500 metres out right to the edge and stand there in awe. 100 metres further out it was 1000 metres deep and within that 100 metres the waves, finding themselves suddenly restricted, rose abruptly to great heights and then crashed spectacularly. Maybe with a gopro and a drone I could have captured the essence of it all; the deep blue and translucent turquoise and foamy white of the water, the thunderous roar of the frustrated waves, the rythmn of their progression, the warm salt spray, the sheer power of the ocean and the realization of how incomprehensibly tiny we each are relative to it. Or maybe not. Regardless, I stood there, captivated, mesmerized, and enthralled until the tide started to come in and the water rose to ankle deep and schools of almost iridescent parrot fish, exactly the same turquoise as the curve of the breaking waves, swam out of the ocean deep and played about on top of the flats. It was, at risk of sounding repetitive, amazing.
The next spot we stopped at was the village of Taroa, a Japanese base during WW2. The bay was littered with shipwrecks and the remnants of what had once been a huge pier and in amongst the current modest huts a massive overgrown crumbling three-story cement and rebar ruin rose like a twisted Angor Wat parody. Enormous bunkers and fuel tanks, currently used to store coconuts, were strewn about and there was a airplane graveyard where dozens of fighter jets had been left behind. (Yup, another amazing day!)
At the third spot Eddie caught two 60 lb tunas while waiting in the dingy for divers and we had fantastic sushimi for supper that night and fried or baked fish for days afterwards.
Aside:
We currently have 11 people on board: the captain, his girlfriend, their two kids, me, an older Australian couple who are here just for the month for the diving, and 4 male crew, all of different nationalities, two of whom have been here for months but are about to leave and two of whom will stay on several months longer...
Aside:
... which bodes the question: Why am I here? Why is this what I am choosing to do with my time? If solid relationships are the most important thing in life - which everyone who watches Ted talks has to agree with - then what the heck am I doing here, in the Marshall Islands, sailing about with a bunch of people I'll never see again?
Aside:
It is wonderful being part of a small community; sailing, working, eating and playing together. It is wonderful always having someone to talk to and always having the option of being alone. It is wonderful swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, walking, and diving the atolls, experiencing daily things that few people will ever be fortunate enough to do even once in their life.
Aside:
But ...
5. Aur Atoll
Yup. More amazing diving and other such adventures.
And then we were heading back to Majuro. Already? Was that possible?
