Well, another month just flew by! We have been thoroughly enjoying our time in Majuro.
It’s been a busy time, with a good mix of work and play.
We spent a most pleasant week relaxing at Enemanot and Eneko island anchorages, 5 miles from the main anchorage in Uliga, where we dived from the back of DT in the crystal clear waters and explored sunken boats, helicopters and planes. We hung out with friends and generally relaxed and had a lot of fun.
Julie from ‘Manna’ gifted us a ‘scoby’ and taught Jo how to make Kombucha. Our first batch is currently fermenting and is almost ready to drink. Very exciting !
Alex and Andrew from ‘Offshore Haven ‘ hosted a large group of us onboard their beautiful catamaran a few nights ago, for a ‘pot luck’ dinner and we had a great night. Lots of fun and good food.
We also received a message from a guy called Henrik via our Facebook page. He is working with a project called W.A.M. (canoes of the pacific) and invited us over to take a look. They are working to train the locals to build traditional sailing catamarans and outriggers. The aim is that these can then be used for fishing in the outer atolls using sail power rather than outboards . We spent a morning in the workshop watching them build and then strapped the go pro onto one of the canoes as it went out for a sail. Video coming up soon on you Tube.
We are able to receive parcels here in Majuro via the US postal delivery service, which is proving very handy ( if somewhat expensive ! ) We have ordered several much needed supplies and boat spares on Amazon , which has kept us busy in boat maintenance .
We have updated the cabin strip lighting, (which is now so bright we can be seen from space ). We have also replaced the zincs on the sail drives. First time we have done this with the boat in the water, but pleased to report that nothing was lost to Neptune.
There has been a manufacturer recall on our Goiot escape hatches, They will eventually send us out replacement hatches, but in the meantime Fountaine Pajot have told all affected boats ( and there are many hundreds ) not to sail anywhere! A bit difficult when you live on a boat. There is however an acceptable ‘fix’ that will allow us to sail. Goiot offered to send us the ‘fix kit’, but we want to leave here next week and we have no idea how long it will take to arrive, so I have been trawling the local hardware stores trying to find the correct bits and bobs. I’m hoping to get that finished in the next couple of days, so that we can get out and start exploring the outer atolls.
Our wind-vane had a ‘funny turn’ on our trip up from Tarawa and decided not to work, so for 24 hours we had no wind speed or direction. I went up the mast a few days ago to give everything a check but couldn’t see an issue. Anyway , our VHF aerial and rigging is all looking good. There is a small amount of chafe on our Genoa halyard, so that’s another job to add to the list.
As well as boat jobs, we have updated our website and YouTube channels and added the ability for people to contribute to our journey. (If you’d like to do so then click the link below to find out more).
We’ve also had a bit of a spring clean on DT. We have taken 2 large bags of ’stuff’ off the boat and have a ‘treasures of the bilge’ pile that seems to keep growing…
Our laptop has been playing up for a few months, so we finally had to take it into the local repair shop. Hopefully it is not a major hardware issue, but unfortunately the salty air of life onboard is pretty harsh on all of our electronics. Watch this space.
So that about it for this update. Not much in the way of white sand beaches sand swaying palm trees, but hopefully that’s coming up soon.