Billabong begins cruising season 3

Billabong begins cruising season 3

Current Location: Underway from Majuro, Marshall Islands
Current Position: 03°37.00' N 174°58.47' E
Next Destination: Samoa, Wallis & Futuna, or Fiji
Approx Miles Traveled: 370
Approx Miles to Go: 1430



You know it's time to leave when a cockroach the size of a small kitten
flies from shore, through your open hatch and lands on your bare back in
the middle of the night. I am thankful for two things; that Chris is
the one who sleeps directly under the hatches, and that he has very
quick reflexes (which he used to capture and destroy the unwanted
guest).

With light winds and flat seas predicted we departed Majuro on Monday,
May 15th. Even I, the non-sailor, thought the conditions were pretty
comfortable. In order to make it to Western Samoa or Wallis & Futuna,
we need to get pretty far east, and have therefore been pinching every
degree possible - slowly inching our way over. We haven't been
completely successful - as we didn't make the Eastern side of Milli, but
have since been able to make up a few degrees.

Our first two days at sea were beautiful, winds were light, but enough
to keep us moving around 5 knots … and the seas were some of the best
we've had (in my opinion) since leaving Ventura. Chris dove right into
his reading, already finishing over five books. I held off, testing out
some new sea-sickness remedies (which include not reading in the first
few days, and so far seem to be working). We've had a few bites on the
fishing lines, but nothing hooked - we aren't trying to hard yet as I
precooked five days worth of food that we have to first get through
before we have room for fish. We also spotted a large pod of small
dolphins, who didn't hesitate to show off with some amazing jumps.

Over the last day and half the wind has been on and off, and we've had
to motor over fifteen hours. So far it looks like we might have to
continue motoring for a bit longer. The positive side of motoring is
that we are able to get further east. As of now we still haven't
determined whether our landfall will be Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, or Fiji.
We've been lucky to not hit too many squalls and so far the passage has
been relatively dry. We are slowly getting back into the groove of
passage making; rediscovering our sea rhythms after four months at
anchor. The trip up to the Marshall Islands was deceiving with all the
stops we made; most of our "passages" were easy one or two nighter's.
We hadn't realized, until preparing for our passage back south, that we
had covered over 1800 n.miles! With a potential two weeks left at sea,
we'll have plenty of time to get our sea legs!

The most ironic thing-the DAY AFTER leaving our last package finally
arrived in Majuro!!! Unbelievable! Luckily a few boats are still in
Majuro and will be heading in our direction, so with any luck we'll hook
up with the package in Fiji.
Majuro Journal

Majuro Journal

Majuro, Marshall Islands (w/ a side trip to the States)
December 20, 2005 - May 15, 2006
by KT

Position: 07‹ 06.30' N 171 22.39' E




Since spending cyclone season in the Marshall Islands, a number of people have asked us "how were the Marshall's?"  In all honestly we can't really provide a good answer.  Even though we spent five months there, we never got out of Majuro, so we don't have an accurate, whole view of the island chain.  We absolutely loved going up the Tuvalu and Kiribati chains, but once we arrived in Majuro, between the holidays, flying home, and a number of boat projects, we never got out to explore.  True, we probably missed out on some cool places, but we quite enjoyed staying put for a bit, and managed to keep quite busy in Majuro.

December

It was exciting to arrive in in Majuro for the Christmas holiday.  Since Majuro uses the American
dollar, gets NFL football & ESPN, and utilizes English, it felt like a piece of home.  Trees were decorated with twinkle lights and stores played English Christmas music.  After the Kiribati chain, Majuro felt like a thriving metropolitan city!

Christmas came quickly.  We had John & MJ (Island Sonata) over for Christmas Eve dinner, and joined a group of cruisers at the local resort for Christmas brunch.  We spent the rest of our time checking out the various small stores that covered the 35 miles of Majuro's main road, meeting new cruisers (and locals), and enjoying cold beer while watching NFL football.

January

Majuro puts on a terrific New Year's block party.  There were game vendors, food, and at least five bands.  After an excellent dinner out, we joined other cruisers at a local's party and then wondered the street, enjoying the various bands.  We danced until the new year arrived and then called it a night.

Since Majuro utilizes the United States Postal Service, upon arriving we went on a huge internet shopping binge.  One of the "must have" items we ordered was a home-brew kit.  So with the new year, we also brewed our first batch of beer.  We had to wait two weeks before testing, but it was worth the wait, as it's some of the best beer we've been able to get since cruising!  We also went on a huge cleaning spree, anxious to ship home the numerous souvenirs we'd accumulated over the last year.  Chris discovered that Majuro is the perfect spot to load up on fishing gear, and may have gotten just a bit carried away when he, along with five others, ended up buying an ENTIRE fishing store!

We volunteered to help out the local Vet Clinic who was putting on a three day massive dog and cat spading.  It was an unique learning experience, with some 'sites' that I had never guessed I'd see!  Chris helped the 'capture' team, wondering through Majuro collecting the stray dogs, and later carrying back the groggy animal.  It was a bit sad for both of us as ill cared for animals were brought in, dogs covered with tics and fleas, and cats nearly starved.  Hopefully with more clinics such as these the animal population can be brought into control, and proper care given.

Originally we had planned on flying home for a visit when we returned to Fiji in May of 2006,
however after scoping out the mooring field of Majuro, we decided it was safe enough to leave Billabong, and by traveling home from Majuro we could spend more time in the States.   We celebrated Chris' birthday early, before I departed on the 18th for California. Chris would come later, on the 27th.

The States were a whirlwind of noises, cars, and people for Chris and I.  We had both forgotten just how 'fast' things move back home, but the real shocker was the noise ... cars, planes, people, everywhere we went it felt like sensory overload.  I felt a bit out of place with my casual (out of style) clothes, un-styled hair, and makeup-less face.  The stores were amazing, so clean, so big, so full of STUFF!  I loved going to the grocery store, and more than once made my dad walk all the aisles while I gawked.  Waist line be damned, I was thrilled to eat out ... I frequented In-and-Out at least three times in my 2 1/2 weeks in California.

Unfortunately when Chris arrived, he was quite sick, so spent his first week just trying to get better.  It was lucky he made it at all, apparently he was almost booted from his Continental flight from Majuro to Hawaii.  The Marshallese travel to Hawaii carrying hundreds of pounds of fresh fish .... by the time Chris had checked in, the plane was full -- not of people but of fish!  Thankfully he was able to sweet talk his way aboard as the next available flight was five weeks away!

February

Our next stop was Scottsdale, Arizona to visit my sister and her family, and my mom.  I arrived on the 8th, with Chris spending an extra weekend in California and arriving on the 12th.  This time I was sick ... not sure what I got, but I arrived at my sister's with some type of stomach flu (too many germs in the States!).  It made it hard to try and get to know my niece and nephew (who last time I'd seen them were barely 2 months old).  Luckily it passed fast, and soon I was running around with them as if I'd never left.  This time Chris departed first, leaving for Massachusetts on the 17th, with me following on the 20th.  Time was moving fast, and none of our visits felt long enough.


We stayed in MA until the 28th, visiting with Chris' family.  In both AZ and MA it was extremely hard to say goodbye to our nieces and nephews ... they are the ones who are changing the most, and our visit home only stressed on what we were missing.


March

After three airline carrier changes, over 12 hours of layovers, and losing one day crossing the dateline we arrived back in Majuro on the 2nd.  The first thing that hit us was the humidity and heat, especially after the cold snowy temperatures of MA.  After the intensity of the States, Majuro felt unnaturally quite, small and even a bit barren ... which is exactly what we needed!  During our entire visit home we had both been on and off sick, at varying degrees, and upon returning Chris seemed to take a downward dive.  We believe that most likely he returned with Strep Throat, which we were able to treat, and finally a week later he was back to his 'ol healthy self.

The rest of the month was quite mellow.  Chris spent huge portions of his time developing and creating his own fishing lures and organizing all the new fishing goods he had purchased.  With the endless amount of sunshine, I spent a lot of time on the computer, creating our Year 2 DVD.  In between there were numerous happy hours with other cruisers, and bowling (yes bowling) every Thursday night.

On the 25th, the local yacht club put on the Coconut Regatta [boat race].  Chris crewed on our friend's boat (Navire), while I helped MJ as part of the race committee.  The local's raced their outrigger canoes while a good percentage of the cruisers raced their own boats.  As I'm not that big of a fan of sailing just to sail (I like to change destinations), and being within 2 miles of any other boats makes me nervous, we had opted to not race Billabong.

April

It seems we did a lot of eating in April.  We had dinner on Island Sonata with two young World Teach volunteers that we had befriended over the last few months.  We attended the yacht club BBQ, where we also participated in a soda pop boat race fundraiser.


The local children make mini sail boats out of cans, which are sold at the BBQ and then raced across the resort's pool.  The proceeds go to the local canoe sailing 'school'.  We dined out for Kim's (Navire) birthday as well as mine.  We had to experience Prime Rib night at the resort after all the rave reviews!  And couldn't help going back after discovering their awesome Tuesday night pizza & salad bar night.  We also had a couple of drink and appetizer nights on Billabong, and a few potlucks.  I don't know how we didn't end up fifty pounds heavier!

An extremely fun 'eating event' was the "sushi fest".  Windswept had won a huge tuna at the Coconut Regatta, and donated to a cruiser potluck/sushi party.  Three boats (Suka, Billabong, and ) competed in sushi making, while other's competed with their desserts and side-dishes.  Chris and I loved getting sushi tips from other cruisers, and enjoyed sharing our own 'secrets'!

Besides eating, there was more bowling, a swap meet, and a backwards dinghy race.  The race was an absolute riot.  Five boats participated, in a three heat race on a short route near the wharf.  Chris and I took on three local children as "crew" and had a blast.  Anything goes, and the more the water you can throw at the competition the better!  We won all three heats, but in doing so managed to "break" our engine!

Chris spent the next few days "re-building" it!

May

It was crunch time ... lots of small projects to finish up in order to get Billabong ship-shape and ready to move.  Fun stuff like cleaning the bottom and re-provisioning.  We had a few issues with the postal service, waiting for a package to arrive that we had shipped over six weeks early (from our visit home).  Finally, with a good weather window appearing, we the Marshall Islands, on the 15th.
Oh weather window where art thou?

Oh weather window where art thou?

Location: Majuro, Marshall Islands
Position: 07°06.30' N 171°22.39' E
Next Dest: Fiji (with potential stops in Kiribati, Wallis, or Samoa)

Apparently Mother Nature doesn't realize that we are ready to depart ... and have been for many days now. The wind has all but died; a nearby large system sucking up all the wind and spitting down rain. We've thought about leaving anyway-- motoring to the winds, but with the system nearby we don't want to chance beating into squall after squall ... especially not on our first nights of passage.

So we wait.

And since we are ready to go with not much else to do but wait, we just seem to aimlessly wander, typically ending up in the stores getting in more look at all the Yummy American foods. Billabong is busting at the seams with more treats and snacks then we've ever departed with. Of course that means that Chris and I are also busting, as we seem to both have developed an enormous sweet tooth that Majuro is all too happy to satisfy.

At least we aren’t yet bored; we still have friends here, Tuesday night salad bars, Thursday night bowling, and lots of internet time!
Waiting for weather

Waiting for weather

Seems to be the story of passages ... waiting for good weather. We are now quite ready to leave (even if we didn't yet get our last package in the mail), but now the weather for the next 180 hours does not look so good ... unless we want to spend lots of money on diesel and motor! At this point we are just taking it a day at a time and seeing what happens. We are still hopeful that we might get out of here on Wednesday or Thursday. In the meantime we continue to eat our way through the stores, getting our last "fills" before heading back into deprivation!!!

On Saturday our good friends on Island Sonata returned, so we are thrilled to get a few extra days with them before parting ways.

On Monday we finally left the mooring ball after 4 months of not moving! We took Billabong out for a test sail ... making sure that both Billabong and her crew are ship-shape!

Hopefully our next BLOG will be sent while underway ...
Almost Ready to Leave

Almost Ready to Leave

Location: Majuro, Marshall Islands
Position: 07°06.30' N 171°22.39' E
Next Dest: Fiji (with potential stops in Kiribati, Wallis, or Samoa)



Yippee! We just got some very exciting news … another package has arrived. Which means only one more to go! We may leave here yet! Apparently the package was first mis-shipped to the UK … now how does that happen? Way to go US Postal Service.

As for the last 10 days or so, we’ve managed to keep busy. Miscellaneous boat projects here and there (like cleaning the bottom, which seemed to have grown its own ecosystem since December, and a bit of sewing), and many social nights; including my (KT’s) birthday, a few sun downers, bowling, and a most excellent Prime Rib dinner at the Resort.

Last Saturday (April 29th) a cruiser’s swap meet was held, where Billabong left with more than they came with (once again having to go through the “where are we going to fit this” game). Following the swap meet was a backwards dinghy race. Chris and I were joined by three of the local children for the madness. Basically anything goes and lots of water is thrown. It is a hilarious fun time, and while Billabong took first in all three heats it was not without a price … the next day our engine continued to overheat and we had to be towed back from a local BBQ party! Chris spent Monday re-building the engine, which didn’t go very smoothly – thankfully we had just recently purchased a duplicate non-working engine (for its spare parts) … it is now that “spare” engine that is working!

The local BBQ on Sunday was great fun. Kim and Tony on Navire had spent a lot of time with a local family, and they threw Navire a going away party. What a terrific family … we had a fabulous time. I am just continuously amazed at the closeness of these island families; so intertwined that it is impossible to tell who is brother-sister versus cousin; mother-father versus aunt-uncle. Children from five to fifteen playing together and socializing.

We are now within one to two weeks of departing Majuro. It is going to be tough going to get enough Easting to hit Samoa (or even Fiji), so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for the right winds. A huge supply ship is currently making its way into the lagoon, so our timing is perfect, we’ll be able to stock up with lots of fresh goodies before leaving. We are very much looking forward to beginning our third cruising season … although I personally wish it didn’t have to start off with two weeks at sea!!!
Passing Time in Majuro

Passing Time in Majuro

Location: Majuro, Marshall Islands
Position: 07°06.30' N 171°22.39' E
Next Dest: Fiji (with potential stops in Kiribati, Wallis, or Samoa … sometime in May)

Another week or so in Majuro. Still just hanging around, getting chores done, relaxing, and of course, waiting for mail. Although utilizing the US Postal Service, the mail service here is anything but swift or consistent! As of today, a package we sent via AIR from the States has now taken longer than a package we sent via GROUND from the states … and I’m sure we paid twice as much. Even more ironic is we did receive a package today, and it was the third, of three packages sent by Chris’ dad … we still haven’t received the first two or the one sent by us weeks earlier! We aren’t too concerned that they’ll make it, they usually do … it’s just looking like we’ll be waiting for mail instead of weather for our departure come May!!!

There has been lots of cruiser socializing the last week or so. We joined in on the Yacht Club End of the [Racing] Year Bash, where we feasted on BBQ and joined in on the beer (or soda) can sailboat races. The local children make these cool mini sail boats out of cans and usually race them across puddles throughout town. At the party they sell the boats (as a fundraiser) and then we race them across the local resort’s swimming pool. Chris’ boat sank pretty quickly, while I managed to make it into the second round, but then, just inches from a second place finish, by boat stalled out and water came in from behind … I managed to pull her out just before she began to sink into the depths of the resort deep-end. While I didn’t place, I did manage to get my picture in the local News Paper (launching my boat)!!!

A few days after that we joined in on the sushi competition. It was more work then I think either of us expected, but we had a great time and shared some great sushi as well as learned a few new tricks and tips from the other two sushi teams.

And then a few more days later and we celebrated one of our friends birthdays at a surprise get together.

Friday, our good friends on Island Sonata finally departed to visit some of the outer atolls of the Marshall’s. There is a good chance that we won’t see them again until Australia, which will be weird since we’ve traveled so far with them and spent so much time together.

We had a good Easter Sunday, starting our first Easter breakfast tradition of Hazelnut-chocolate Crepes! Yum were they ever good … good enough that we motioned, voted, and passed the proposal to turn chocolate crepes into an Easter (and maybe other holidays as well) tradition. As I had forgotten to get to the store, I had to be a little creative with our Easter dinner, we managed just fine with a vegetable lasagna and garlic bread. The Easter Bunny seems to have forgotten to stop at Billabong this year, but lucky for us he had managed to find us a few weeks earlier, on our visit to the States, at an early Easter Celebration with Chris’ family in MA!
Still enjoying Majuro

Still enjoying Majuro

Location: Majuro, Marshall Islands
Position: 07°06.30' N 171°22.39' E
Next Dest: Fiji (with potential stops in Kiribati, Wallis, or Samoa)


After all this time, you’d probably expect us to have moved on and be god knows where … but nope, we are still hanging in Majuro! It hasn’t been boring though – after the new year, we made an impromptu decision to head home for a much desired visit with family and friends we hadn’t seen in two & a half years. We spent six great, but hectic, weeks in the states, visiting CA, AZ, and MA. The states were a shock to our systems, especially after all our time in the remote atolls of Kiribati … we were overwhelmed by the mounds of cars, people, and noise. Never had a place seemed so loud! While it was cold back East, the temperature change was a nice variety to the hot, humid climates of the tropics. Unfortunately, both of us were sick with one type of illness or another almost the entire time we were home! Most importantly though, we were finally able to spend some quality time with friends and family, reacquainting ourselves with barely known nieces and nephews. It was mixed emotions when we left the states … extremely sad to once again be saying goodbye, but very much looking forward to the slow relaxed (and quiet) pace of the boat.

It’s amazing how six weeks can change your entire view of a place. When we first arrived in Majuro, the consistent winds in the anchorage made the temperature decent and quite livable. When we first hit the shops we stood mouths agape, huge smiles forming at all the goods available. The major grocery store in Majuro, Payless, was amazing with multiple rows of American goods, rather than one measly shelf of tinned products.

THEN WE WENT HOME. I guess two and a half years had downsized my memory of American grocery stores. WOW! Three different colors of bell peppers, vegetables that weren’t rotting or covered with flies. A WHOLE aisle of cereal! Oh and don’t even get me started on the cheese and meat sections. Every grocery store we entered I felt obligated to walk EVERY aisle, sometimes multiple times! So clean, so full!!!

The first thing that hit us on our return to Majuro was the suffocating steamy heat engulfing us. Within seconds we were dripping with sweat. Was it always this humid here? What a bummer, we’d finally acclimated to the intense heat and massive humidity of the tropics, only to have to go through the entire torture process over again!!! Next up, we visited Payless … how depressing. How had I been so amazingly happy over such a pitiful store? Wilted veggies, no cheese other than cheddar, no multi grain breads, oh I could go on and on….

It wasn’t all painful though, on our first morning home, I was thrilled to wake up and get back into our leisurely morning pace. And so quiet here! And it didn’t take long before we’d re-acclimated, both to the weather and the shopping facilities. As a matter of fact, just yesterday, after Payless had restocked with the arrival of a ship, I once again found myself running about extremely pleased by the availability of certain foods here in Majuro … I even scored Mozzarella and Parmesan … both in the same day!!! You can’t beat that!

As for what else has been going on in the weeks since we’ve been back, there isn’t a whole lot to report; It took Chris a good two weeks to get healthy again (we believe he may have ended up with Strep Throat). We’ve been working on miscellaneous projects, both fun and tedious. I’ve spent a lot of time on the computer (working on websites and videos) and Chris playing with all his new fishing gear (of which we now own mounds and mounds of thanks to his over zealous shopping sprees in Majuro including the purchase of 1/5 a fishing store for $100). We’ve been bowling every Thursday and attended a variety of cruiser social events, including the Coconut Cup Regatta, which Chris joined in on as crew on Navire, and I attended as part of the Race Committee (everyone wondered why we didn’t Race Billabong … easily explained once they learned I don’t like to sail!). This Sunday there is a Cruiser Sushi Fest, where Chris will be competing as one of the sushi chefs. While we miss our families and friends, we are thrilled to be back on Billabong and back to our normal routines (the question that remains, is how will we ever manage to live back in the States!!!)

We are entertaining a variety of ideas for our next destination; Samoa, Wallis, and/or Kiribati. No matter what, we will definitely return to Fiji. We’ll probably depart Majuro in the beginning of May. At this time we aren’t sure what, if any, outer atolls of the Marshall Islands we’ll get a chance to visit. We’ve heard a LOT of good things about the other atolls, but the timing just might not work out. As we’ve learned, you can’t always see everything, and it was well worth it to give up time in the Marshall’s for our visit home.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Location: Majuro, Marshall Islands
Position: 07‹ 06.30' N 171 22.39' E
Next Dest: Nowhere ... gonna spend some time in the
"big city"!



After some relaxing time in Abaiang we returned to Tarawa for a quick check out and then headed on to Butaritari. Butaritari is amazingly different from the other atolls of Kiribati with colors of green that jump out at you and dense vegetation. Of course there is a reason for all the green -- RAIN! We didn't do much while there, as squalls seemed to endlessly travel through the area bringing rain and wind along. We were ready for Majuro.

While the passage to Majuro was not one of my favorites, I think we really lucked out and it truly
could've been multiple times worse. We departed early on Sunday Dec 18th and lucked out with not a single squall hitting us until 3pm. We had 10 foot confused seas, so the ride was a bit bumpy, but the wind had shifted (as predicted) just enough that it was always aft of the beam (so much better than trying to beat into it). Our first night included lots of rain and squalls, with a max wind of 40 knots (YUCK). We couldn't believe our eyes when we woke up to BLUE SKIES! And were even more pleased when a HUGE Mahi Mahi hooked on at 7am ... even I (KT) didn't complain about having to get out of bed to help bring in the fish! We quit fishing until later in the day when we decided to catch extra to share with the large fleet waiting in Majuro. We really didn't expect to catch anything else, and couldn't believe it when a massive yellow-finned tuna hooked on. He was so big we probably would've thrown him back, but due to his weight the only way we could get him on board was to
kill him. Cleaning such a monster of a fish as the sun set and the seas rolled was not easy; it seems
every part of the cockpit was covered in blood and guts. We just managed to finish about 20 minutes
before a squall hit ... lucky again! It was another rain filled night, and unfortunately the wind died
around midnight, so we had to motor-sail the rest of the way to Majuro (about eight-ten hours). On the plus side we were able to crank up our refrig thermometer to keep all the fish nice, cold and fresh!

We ended up sharing the fish with SEVEN other boats, and we've been eating it for three days straight -- now that's a lot of fish!!! We arrived along with Island Sonata and SawLeeAh ..
and with our arrival Majuro hit its all time record for the number of yachts in any one year (somewhere around 30)! We've spent our first two days wandering around in a haze ... so much STUFF! And mostly American! For the first time in two years we recognize the brands and are using the american dollar. In addition we watched NFL Football via ESPN while drinking a cold beer. Christmas music, advertisements and decorations line the stores. We've been shopping shopping shopping. Also the weather has been a bit crappy (rain and wind) so the temperatures have been down at least a bit. All this combined and it finally feels like Christmas. And the best part ... United States Post means we are getting all kinds of yummy goodness sent in from the states -- we are
like two kids in a candy store.

We wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season and Terrific New Year!