Estrellita, IP38-138, 2 Years OUT

This was sent in via email from the South Pacific by Bill & Amy

Position Report
March 17, 2009
N 07 06.135 E171 22.338
Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands

Yokwe! (Marshallese for Hello, Goodbye, Good Morning-Afternoon-Evening… very versatile…)

Today is a big day for us. We left the boat yard on the west coast of Florida exactly 2 years ago. Wow. At the time our goals in the Pacific were Galapagos and Bora Bora, though we couldn’t tell you where either was. In two days we leave for Pohnpei and Chuuk. 2 years ago we had never heard of them. We have come a good way.

Our last letter was January 9 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. We left the army base there a few days later on January 15. We were ripe to get moving again despite the heavy winds.

We got away from the dock late in the day and the next night found us at Edgigen Island on the north end of Kwajalein Atoll where we spent the next 7 days on the boat with winds howling at 30 plus. Finally at the end of the 7 days we saw what we thought was a small window that would allow us to sail to Rongelap, about 100 miles north, and the first leg of our upwind trip back to Majuro. We set off in 25 knot winds that grew into 30 and 35 knot winds as we beat our way north. Sometime overnight our anemometer logged a peak of 41 knots. This is not pleasant sailing weather no matter your course but especially beating into the wind as we were. Maybe you have noticed a trend… sailing up wind in 30+ knots of wind sucks. And it seams like that is what we do lately!

The reward was 3 ½ weeks pinned down still in 30+ knot winds in Rongelap, Marshall Islands. Spectacular. Rongelap atoll is one of those evacuated due to the US nuclear tests of 1945 and 56. Unfortunately it was not evacuated until after the fallout had wreaked all kinds of havoc to the health and well being of the residents. Long story short, the test authority had no idea of the impact of a nuclear explosion. In fact, I believe that they thought the destructive effect of the bomb was mainly in the concussion, just as a conventional bomb destroys by concussion and shrapnel, when in fact, the true pain of a nuclear blast is in the long lasting radioactive fall out. I don’t think the testers were evil or uncaring to the Marshall Islanders, but their ignorance to the true impact of the blast led to a devastating effect. Evidence is the fact that US Navy personnel were allowed onto Bikini Island and the surviving ships floating in the lagoon with no protective clothing the day after the blast. We have seen video of enlisted men with big smiles crawling all over the test environment within 24 hours of the test. It seams they were aware of radiation and radiation poisoning, but were ignorant to the scope of the danger they held. Those navy enlisted men paid the biggest price of American ignorance. If you can find a film called “Radio Bikini” it will be worth your time and money. I also can suggest a book, “For the Good of Mankind” that will fill you in on one of the most embarrassing mistakes of US military science. And as a proud American I make that statement without pointing a finger in malice. It is simply an observation of the limited knowledge of the time.

OK, on a more pleasant thought about Rongelap… because the entire atoll is basically empty, the water is clear and the marine life is unspoiled. It is simply beautiful. I may have said this before, but this time I really mean it, snorkeling here is like swimming in a salt-water aquarium. Unimaginable. This atoll sees only one or two cruising boats like us per year with zero other visitors. None. There are about 30 caretakers on the main island who maintain a few buildings and wait for the day when the island’s population may return.

Because of the radiation scare the place remains basically uninhabited, though we have read (see “For the Good of Mankind” above) that the place is harmless for short-term visitors. In fact, an international consultant hired by the Bikini authorities makes the point that the area is safe for permanent residents so long as the diet is not restricted to ONLY foods grown on the atoll. The water and fish were found to be completely safe due to the ability of the sea to clean itself efficiently and relatively quickly. I think the main reason that the Rongelap and Bikini Atoll citizens have not returned is so that they can continue getting US “guilt” money. Oops, radical conservative opinion alert! But the bottom line is they make more money and live a better life if they refuse the evidence that the islands are safe and do not return. To admit the land is safe is to turn off the cash flow and return to work on the land. These atolls are quite remote and life there is hard and primitive.

Anyway, the wind was blowing so hard that we were forced to stay and enjoy the most unique and peaceful and remote anchorages of our cruise. We walked on motus that haven’t had human footprints in a very long time, as evidenced by the glass fishing floats we found. Fishermen quit using them 30 years ago.

Finally we got a 48 hour break in the weather that allowed us to sail (Up Wind AGAIN!) to Likiep Atoll. More folks here, about 500, but still a very remote Pacific Island experience. Here we met two of the most interesting people. First, Joe De Brum. Joe is a direct descendant of one of the first white settlers of the Marshall Islands. His family, the De Brum’s and another, the Capelles, own the entire Likiep Atoll. This is unique in the Marshalls because De Brum and Capelle were European whalers who settled on the atoll at about the same time in the late 1800’s and bought the land from the king of the Marshalls. There is a long history of these two families infighting and intermarrying that is too long and too hard to explain and besides, I’m not sure I quite get it. Let’s start with the fact that at one point Mr. Capelle “borrowed” (Joe De Brum’s words, not mine) Mr. De Brum’s wife and a child resulted… Add 120 years of living too closely, and see what you get… Not quite the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, but you get the idea. The biggest thing the whalers did for the folks was to set up a copra co-op. They put everyone on the atoll in business. De Brum and Capelle provided all the tools including the boat and the market, and the islander simply worked his copra trees. They were great contributors to the Likiep people’s better life. Likiep people could now afford food, medical care and other outside resources.

Then we also met Sato Maie. Former police chief, prosecutor and senator for the Marshall Islands and importantly, lease holder to the Kwajalein Atoll Missile Testing Facility. There is a little money there… We met Sato while walking around Likiep Island one day. He invited us for coffee the next morning, so we dropped by. Turns out that Sato and some of his close friends have breakfast every morning in an outdoor dining room adjacent to his detached kitchen. We sat down to coffee and ended up with a full breakfast and a new friend for life.

For the next 10 days we spent many mornings and evenings with the Sato and De Brum clans. We knew this was something special. On our last morning in the anchorage as we prepared to up anchor and away, we had a visitor. Sato’s grandson and a friend paddled a boat out to give us coconuts and freshly baked cinnamon cookies as a going away gift. Sato was on the shore waving at us and I got to tell you, I was getting a little choked up as we pointed Estrellita away from Likiep and finally back to Majuro.

But the story does not end there! By sheer coincidence, both Sato and Joe turned up in Majuro the next week! Sato had come for a legal matter concerning his mother’s estate and Joe had come to meet his wife who was returning from some time with the kids in the states, Seattle. So for the next two weeks after we arrived in Majuro, we spent many hours with both Sato and Joe. We hope we know these two gentlemen for a long time to come.

OK, so you can guess that the highlights of the past too months includes these two exceptional and unique gentlemen. Here are some others…

Discovered in Rongelap, yet another major failure to the rig. This time it was the stainless steal support for the radar/solar array arch. Broken! We mended it with fiberglass and epoxy hoping it would do the job. For one thing, we were miles and miles from a welder and because the stress on the affected part of the structure is mostly in compression, it was about the only choice we had. Now a month later and after 2 hard passages upwind it looks as though it is holding. Check the photos.

Now back in Majuro… We received new sails. We ordered them from Lee Sails out of Hong Kong. Turns out they were half the price of sails from the US and the company has an excellent reputation. We have not gotten them bent on yet, but will before we leave the Marshall’s.

Even in a land where fishing is a way of life, they still have fishing tournaments. Joe De Brum’s grandson wins a lot of them. He probably has $30K in gold Penn reels he has won. Hanging in his "clubhouse" he has so many swords from swordfish that you wouldn't believe it. He goes out most days and catches fish for the local restaurants. Even if you’re not too keen about hunting tournaments of any sort, you can at least appreciate that they eat everything they catch. And when I say they eat everything, I mean everything. The other evening we were visiting Joe and family’s evening gathering and they were having fried fish stomachs as a snack, yep stomachs. They are thin, tough, crunchy and fishy tasting, not our favorite. I think the guys were enjoying watching us eat them.

Turtle. I’m not sure these photos will make the web. I am going to ask permission to post these controversial photos. Let me say this, I am sure that turtles are not in trouble because the Marshallese harvest and eat them for their own sustenance. I am sure the problem lies with foreign exploitation. While in Likiep we witnessed the harvest of several turtles and got to taste it. These turtles were harvested solely for the food needs of the local population and were in no way a commercial venture. Still, Amy and I could not overcome our life long training and could not enjoy the meat. We tasted it. It was fine but due to our cultural background we found it… We just couldn’t eat it.

Real Estate! Big news for us is that we just bought a lot in Punta Gorda, Florida. It is on a deep water canal in an established neighborhood. When we return we will have a place to keep the boat, so that is good, and we are thinking it is a place we can live until they are wiping drool off our chins and putting us in a home. So we have that going for us… Which is nice.

Amy spent some time shopping this neighborhood in 2003 after Hurricane Charlie (the reason that this is a vacant lot) when the news was full of people saying that they were done with Florida. “Selling up and moving out.” Well, looks like the news got it wrong, imagine that… or that the folks who were moving were not property owners because real estate prices continued to climb. So today’s slumping home prices are not all bad news for some of us, anyway. We think we got a good price for the times and a great price for the neighborhood historically.

In the next two or three days we are off for the next big hop on our trip west to Florida and home. We will be sailing to the Federated States of Micronesia and then continuing west to Palau and the Philippines by June.

View ALL our Photos on IPphotos.com here:
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Video “What Do We Do All Day?”
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Video “Kwajalein Shark Smorgasbord”
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Bill and Amy
Estrellita, IP38-138