Savannah

Chillin' out in Palau

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Tue, 14 May 2013 05:32:00 +0000

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything and you would think I had a good excuse, but I don’t. We’ve been staying busy with T-Ball, Judo, and exploring Nikko Bay. We participated in a Cinco de Mayo cook off (and won third place!) and we met some new friends who are vacationing here and have been spending a fair amount of time with them. We've found our own little "jellyfish lake" and even had more fun play dates with Charlie and Carla. Sadly, no pictures of any of it (it might have something to do with my new haircut).

But the big thing we’ve been doing is preparing for our first ever non-family visitors (and our first visitors at all since Mexico)! My friend Jennie and her son Jett are making the long, boring, and expensive flight from the US to Palau…just to play with us! We are so excited and not sure we can actually wait the 6 more days until they get here. Jake has all kinds of activities planned for Jett and I have a zillion different ways to show Jennie how to relax and break free from her hectic world (at least for a week). Andy is all ready to play with the kids and cater to us women. Next week promises to bring lots of pictures and stories, so bear with me…

Little League in Palau

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 02:27:00 +0000

Everyone is always asking questions about Jake and his interests (blowing things up, dinosaurs, legos, blowing up dinosaurs and legos) and does he like the boat(yes) and does he know how to ride a bike (sort of), and the big one that I always dread (no, not do we homeschool him), does he play any sports? Why do I dread that? Well, because no, he doesn’t and quite frankly, it doesn’t bother me a bit. So please don’t mistake this post as a hidden insecurity, it’s meant to be strictly informational and slightly entertaining. He’s an excellent swimmer, snorkeler, and he even has some bottom time. I can go on and on about his accomplishments, but to the sports fanatic, it seems like he’ll never survive. How will he learn to work in a team environment? There are many other types of teams…one he learns from a lot is us…it takes a lot of team work to run this thing we call home. How will he learn self discipline? Let me see, his father and I saved for 10 years, planned and actually executed said plan to quit our jobs/retire and sail around the world (and we weren’t even 40). I think we know a thing or two about discipline. I don’t blame them or get mad at them…what we’re doing is just so foreign to them that they can’t fathom how he could have a normal life without America’s favorite pastime. I get it.

To all those people…you’ll like this…Jake has started T-Ball. And wait…hold your breath….he’s enrolled in Judo, too. Why, you ask? Why not? I never said I was against it. It’s just not usually something that we have an opportunity to do.

So for the past two weeks, every Sunday morning, Jake gets his glove and we walk about a mile to the community baseball field where he’s learning the basics of baseball. For all you parents who have kids that play or have played T-ball, I’m sure you can relate when I tell you that this is the most humorous part of my day. The first time he hit the ball, he made it to third base! Of course he skipped first and second, but hey, he’s just practicing his knowledge that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. They put him in the outfield and after about 10 minutes, he decided to sit down. He must have been pretty tired from our walk because not long after that I saw him lying down with his feet up in the air. The second week went much better (a few discussions were had about the “nap” time) and he actually started to blend in a bit. One little kid passed another one on the bases and they both made it "home" at the same time. Apparently, they’re getting uniforms in a few weeks, although I have no idea who they’re going to play. Maybe the other states here have teams too? That’s going to be a long walk…

On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, we walk the same route up to the community gym where he’s learning Judo from one of the Palauan Olympic athletes. The first week was awkward because he didn’t have his Gi (uniform) yet, so he stuck out like a sore thumb and I noticed everything he could or couldn’t do (I was a very coordinated child so his late blooming in that area baffles me). Last week he got his Gi and sure enough, he blended in and demonstrated to his mother that yes, all little people are goofy. I can already tell a difference in his mouth (he has a big one…wonder where he gets that from) and patience level…the old school sensei helped with that. A little slap in the back of the head never hurt anyone, right?

The cool thing is, he loves it. And, he loves to learn. You can tell he’s concentrating really hard when they try to teach him something. Something he doesn’t necessarily do when learning from his parents. So, go ahead and ask me….does Jake play any sports? Yes, why yes he does.

The Elusive Mandarin Fish

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 03:22:00 +0000

Palau is known for its mandarin fish, these tiny little colorful things that like to hand out in the rocks and shun the sunlight. We've looked for them since we got here and have seen a few but inevitably Andy either doesn't have his camera or they run and hide. Until yesterday. Here are a few of the pictures Andy took on the rock behind our boat and at Sam's dock. Enjoy!

Flatworm

Jellyfish and buddies

Crocodile Fish

Hermit Crab

Cuttlefish

Gobie kicking the nudibranch out of his yard

Gobie and shrimp

shrimp

Nudibranch

Nikko Bay

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 03:23:00 +0000

We were getting tired of the same old scenery on our mooring ball, so we decided to move the boat over to a little place called Nikko Bay. It’s still right here in Koror, but it feels like you’re in the Rock Islands…for free!

We stocked up so we wouldn’t have to go into town (although it’s just a dinghy ride away) and we stayed tucked back in a little hole for the last 6 days. There’s a world of things to do back there. This is a big area for WWII stuff…there’s a channel called Pill Box Channel that has, well, duh, pill boxes guarding either side (pill boxes for anyone who doesn’t know, are concrete fighting positions used by the Japanese). We climbed up there and took a little peak into the pill boxes. They’re so tiny and dark, they kind of freak me out a bit. Just imagine those guys sitting up there waiting for something to happen. Also on the WWII front, we hiked up a little trail to an old Japanese camp. We found some old bombs, fuel barrels, pottery, batteries, etc.

Our next major discovery were the caves. Palau is covered with caves. But they're not the big huge ones with lakes in the middle and tour guides. They range anywhere from tiny little holes to big enough to walk around in easily. There were a few we knew about and then one Andy discovered while paddling our new SUP. I’m not a huge fan of caves so Andy and Jake went to check it out. It turns out it’s a large cave with several small caves in it. Jake said I just had to see it. So I went. Now, I’m not a chicken. I try new things. I go out of my comfort zone. But I hate caves. I went anyway and while I did climb around in the main cave, much to the disappointment of my son, I declined to crawl down into a deep hole with one flashlight between us to see the giant mutant crickets. The day was a bust in his mind.

While I wasn’t able to keep up with my running, I did manage to make a routine out of my morning paddle. Andy got into it a bit, too. We may see a second paddle board in our future. Jake even took a turn and I have to say, he’s not bad at it. He envisions being able to paddle to his friend Charlie’s boat the next time they come to Palau.

We have a relaxed dress code on Savannah :)

When we weren’t exploring, we were just lazy and enjoyed our “break” from the hustle and bustle of the anchorage. There are a few tour boats back there, but not nearly as many as the Rock Islands. You don’t see many sailboats back there either as it’s kind of a pain to get to. You have to wait for high tide to go through a little man made cut in the islands and most anchorages are either really deep or have really shallow reefs to cross. We’re back now – we ran out of waffles and juice – but I for see many more trips to our newly found “vacation” spot.

Easter in Palau

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:35:00 +0000

The Easter bunny brought kids! Jake got almost a full week of just play, play, and more play. There is a family from Guam that has a boat here and they come once a month to work on it, getting it ready to sail. They have a 6 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. We finally met them on their trip this time around and Jake and Charlie pretty much spent every day together. They were here over Easter, so we had an egg hunt up at the Yacht Club/Sam’s Tours. The kids ran around with so much energy as if they’d already eaten that candy, trying to find the eggs. Jake is a trip to watch…he couldn’t find his own head if it wasn’t attached. He gets so excited and runs around looking left and right, up and down and never actually sees anything. But he did manage to find a few eggs (with a little help) and one of them even had a dollar in it (He’s saving up for his very own iPad…he says he only needs $700, so every little bit helps). They did a second hunt and Charlie’s dad hid one of them in the water. Jake came running to Andy and said, “Daddy? Can I jump in and get it?” Andy said, “Sure” and off he went. He never missed a beat…ran right down the dock and into the water to get that egg.

Throughout the week the boys spent time swimming, “pulling” (they lay on the paddle board and hold onto a ski rope while we pull them with the dinghy), playing on each others boats and then we topped it off with a huge play date with both Charlie and Carla as well as Selma (6) and Magnus (3) from another boat, Hero. If anyone knows me, they know I’m not exactly the kind of mom who usually invites 4 kids over to play…but these kids are really sweet and well behaved and they all played well together, despite the age differences. The boys played Hero Factory while the girls decided to set up shop and “sell” the parts to the boys so they could make their creatures. This is a typical scenario for boat kids. They meet, get to know each other in about 8 seconds, then play as hard as they can because they don’t know when they’ll get to do it again. Unfortunately, Charlie and Carla were headed to the Rock Islands, we were headed to Nikko Bay, and Selma and Magnus were leaving Palau for adventures elsewhere. The good news is, Charlie and Carla will be back next month (and the next, and the next), so there will be many more play dates in the future!

The Making of a Lava Lava

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 06:26:00 +0000

I wrote this in Yap but have just now gotten around to getting the pictures ready...hopefully you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it...

Through our travels in Yap, I’ve obtained quite a collection of lava lavas. I’ve paid for some, I’ve been given some. Some were very pretty, some were kind of out there and some were said to be “cheap.” What they all have in common is their origin. Women in the outer islands of Yap are known for their intricate patterns and creative use of colors in these hand woven skirts. Traditionally they were made out of thread made from hibiscus bark and dyed in colors derived from natural elements. Over the years, the process has simplified and they have begun to be made out of colorful threads found at the local store, similar to the thread we use to sew or embroider with in America. I use the term simplified loosely as this is no simple process. I was soon to find out how difficult it was first hand.

I expressed an interest to my Yapese friend Agatha, originally from the outer island of Wolei, in seeing how these lava lava’s were made. I had seen the various parts of the loom and the threads in the stores, but I had no concept of how it was actually done. What started out as a simple curiosity, soon turned into a project for both Agatha and myself. She was going to help me make my own lava lava.

I met her at her house on a Sunday morning to start the experience. She had laid out all of her lava lavas and I was to first pick the pattern that I liked most. The patterns appear to be very similar when you’re out in town admiring others, but when you sit down and try to pick one out, you start to recognize all of the small details that make one stand out from another. Fortunately for Agatha, I’m a pretty quick decision maker, not one for too much pondering, and we were on our way to the store for step two…picking out the main colors. Yap is a small place so it didn’t take long to find what I wanted despite having to go to two stores. Now it was time to prepare the threads in the pattern I had chosen and get it ready to go on the loom. Agatha and I made a date for later in the week to get started.

Our first session was an eye opener for me. The preparation of the thread involves a piece of wood with 5 small poles attached perpendicular to the wood. There’s lots of knot tying and lots of looping of the thread around the poles. Agatha started and after a few dozen rows, she offered me a turn. It took a few tries but eventually I got the hang of it. There was so much to remember; which pole to wrap the thread around, keep the string loose but not too loose, don’t forget to go ALL the way around the back, etc. It was apparent after about five minutes that if I were to be the one making this lava lava, we were going to have to move to Yap. Since we were planning on leaving in a week, Agatha was generous enough to offer to make it for me, “I enjoy this. Please let me do it.”

The weaving itself was fascinating, but I quickly noticed that this is a social event as well. All of the women in the house gathered to watch and help and offer opinions. Girls are taught from a very young age how to weave lava lavas. Lava lava is actually the English name for it. In Yapese it’s called a toeru (pronounced tear, as in rip, with a little Yapese twist that I’m unable to reproduce with this southern drawl). Each woman develops her own manner of weaving. They might add a little to a pattern or take some away, but it’s a small way to show off their personal style. The newer generations have even figured out how to weave their names into them.

After all of the details are sorted through, it comes down to good, old fashioned hard work. While sitting on the floor, a belt is strapped around the waist of the weaver and attached on either side to the loom. Several rods are pushed through the threads to hold it in place and differentiate between sections. After each pass of thread, a large wooden board is used to tighten the weave. It’s back breaking work and I, for one, was glad Agatha wasn’t holding me to my naïve notion of “making my own.”

Working at night on the lava lava, after an already long day at her job as a nurse, Agatha spent a long hard week finishing up. I went to their house the day before we were to leave Yap to pick up the finished lava lava and was overwhelmed with the dedication and work that went into this gift for me. What started out as a kind of cool thing to have turned into a bonding experience that left me with a friend for life. I hope Agatha felt the same way. I will always cherish my experience and friendships made in Yap and while I don’t think I’ll need reminding of how much I enjoyed it, it’s nice to have this beautiful, hand woven, one of a kind lava lava to help bring those images up whenever I please.

The Rock Islands, Palau

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 03:11:00 +0000

We’ve spent the last 10 days finally exploring the Rock Islands here in Palau. There are over 300 islands, some originated from volcanoes, others are limestone. While the islands themselves are stunning, the real draw here is underwater. Palau has some of the most beautiful dive sites in the world, and fortunately for us, we had a rare moment where Andy and I were able to enjoy them together.

Our first few days were spent buddy boating (yes, Monica and Andy actually had a "buddy boat," totally against our way of life) with our friend Captain Ron and my new running partner, Nadeen. Because we had other people with us, we were able to dive the famous Ulong Channel (more than once!). It is by far the most beautiful dive we’ve ever done. It’s a drift dive (pretty swift the first time or two) that takes you across this amazing false channel (i.e. it doesn’t go anywhere) full of soft corals, hard corals, sea fans, sharks, turtles, trigger fish, grouper, you name it… Later in the week, Captain Ron came back with the owners of his boat and we were able to do it again, along with another dive site. We were truly lucky this week as not only did we have great company, but Andy and I haven’t gotten to dive that much together since the Marshall Islands with Naomi and John.

I have some of my best hair days underwater.

Notice the huge grouper under the coral.

The prettiest soft corals I've ever seen.

The dive shops here have come up with an eco friendly "dive hook."
You can just clip into the coral (to avoid fighting the huge currents), put
a little air into your BC and just hang out.

Yes mom, that's me in the background :)

Capt. Ron and Nadeen on Shalamar II

The rest of the week that wasn’t spent hanging out with our friends, was spent snorkeling, playing on the beaches (they filmed Survivor here years ago) searching for caves and exploring the vast area by dinghy. We just scratched the surface of the islands but are eager to go back again.

On the surface, it’s kind of a pricey gig…they charge $50/person for a 10 day permit, $100 if you want to do jellyfish lake (more on that later…we’re saving that), and $40/month for the boat permit. If you compare it to the price of a day’s admission to Sea World, it’s actually a bargain. But if you want to go back over and over, as we do, then it starts to add up. The good thing is, you don’t spend a dime while you’re down there so even with our super provisioning exercise (you know we didn’t go unprepared), we still came out even. After we’re here three months, we can apply for temporary residency (being American’s) and then it’s all free from there. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

It's amazing that the islands and coral are still in such good shape as there are thousands of tourists here. It is clearly their main industry. There are no less than 8 dive boats at any sight, any time. We passed by a snorkeling reef called Cemetery Reef and I kid you not, there were 8 boats with no less than 10 people per boat there - and it was raining! Going on your own yacht is by far the way to go... I'm just saying.

We have tons of small stories from the week, but they just don’t seem to do it all justice. I’m going to just leave it with some pictures from your favorite travel photographer (no, not me silly).

This was actually in a cave. Jake has a new obsession. He's
absolutely fearless when it comes to crawling around in these things.

Jake and I on the "Natural Arch"

We look really tiny....

Be careful what you ask for...

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 08:49:00 +0000

When we arrived in Palau and made it public that we were staying for a long while, everyone immediately began asking if we were going to get jobs and put Jake in school. My answer was "no and no." Andy's answer varies a bit but he always leaves the window open if an opportunity should arrive. It didn't take a week here in Palau before he was asked to help film Shark Week here at one of the dive shops. Thinking it would be a good opportunity to meet people and make some contacts, he agreed. While he did make some fantastic (and interesting) connections in the diving and photography community, after working 12 hour days for a week (for almost free), I thought he had it out of his system. Seeing that he was easy going and professional, they asked him to take a day and follow the Prince of Monaco and the President of Palau around and snap a few (hundred) pictures (but make sure you don't get them eating or drinking)...for what might as well have been free. I'm not sure what they were to be used for but Andy managed to score a nice meal out of it and bragging rights for hanging out with the big guys. Andy, not being one to let people down, then said yes to being a "dive guide" (much like herding cats) for a day for said dive shop...I still don't know if that was free or not. Then finally...finally...we got him back.

And now we're on day 4 in the Rock Islands...life could not be better. There's no internet down here so when we arrive back in another week, I'll post details and lots of good pictures. For now, pardon our absence...Jake, Andy and I are getting re-acquainted with each other.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Palau

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 05:34:00 +0000

A big tanker crossing across our bow, reminding us
of the law of mass tonnage.

Believe it or not, we finally left Yap. I have a few pictures and stories I’ve yet to tell, but for the most part, we’ve moved on. We had a really rough passage to Palau where I got a jump start on my new diet…it’s called “purge and fast...then purge again.” We had 25 knot winds (which is actually good, made for a fast ride) and 10-12 foot seas. It’s those 10-12 foot seas that seem to get me every time. For some reason I still can’t explain, I chose this passage to go all natural on everyone. My normal sea sick medicine gives me an enormous headache, so I decided to drink the ginger tea, chew on the husk of a baby coconut (yet another use for the mighty coconut), stare at the horizon, keep busy, etc. It didn’t work. Just ask Andy. He had to do all the cooking, dishes, and taking care of everything else…again.

But that’s all behind us now…we are in beautiful Palau and having a great time. There are endless places to explore both on land and in the water. Our first stop was the grocery store, which overwhelmed us. It’s almost like being home. You can’t find everything you want, but there’s so much more than what we’ve had that it seems like we’re walking into a Harris Teeter. Everything seems fresher and brighter and tastier. We actually had certified Angus beef the other night for the first time in who knows how long with fresh brussel sprouts and garlic bread. It was wonderful.

Not the gourmet counter, but it sure beats what we're used to!

We’ve seen some Japanese guns from WWII, explored a few caves, snorkeled some neat little coves… but we have plenty of time. It looks like we’re going to be here for at least 6 months, maybe a year while we figure out where we’re going next. That’s right….a long time. So all of those friends we have that told us they were going to fly out to visit us in exotic places and have yet to leave their home state…here’s your chance! It’s only 36 hours and $2,000 away!

In all seriousness, we do need to sit down and figure out where we’re going from here. Since this was never on our list of places to go, we’ve kind of gotten ourselves in a little pickle. We could go west to the Philippines. We could go south to Indonesia. We could backtrack a bit and then head south to the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, then Australia. Each has their own pros and cons and we just need to make up our mind. Little Jake is going to be seriously disappointed if we don’t go to Australia (as will some of our family I think). Andy will be disappointed if we don’t go to Rajat Impat (sp?) for some diving. And I am trying to figure out how to get us to the Caribbean in this decade. So we have some work to do. We’ve given ourselves a year so we can have time to get distracted by the sheer beauty of this place and the friendliness of it’s people; locals, ex-pats, and cruisers. No matter what we decide, I think it’s going to be a good year....

Some of Andy's pictures from his cave dive this morning....

Homeschooling aboard s/v Savannah

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 01:11:00 +0000

After three years of experimenting, worrying and occasionally patting myself on the back, I think it’s time to evaluate Savannah Academy.

It’s one of the things that actually keeps many women from cruising…. home-schooling. I was nervous as I could be and in the beginning I had more questions than answers. How stringent should I be? What is this un-schooling thing? Should I buy a curriculum? Am I supposed to make it all up? What if I miss something? What if he turns out stupid? I decided, given my personality and the million other things we had to worry about, the best thing to do would be to buy one of the schools in a box type things and go from there. Calvert Home-schooling has graduated many cruisers so we decided it was a good place to start. Jake was just in Kindergarten so I knew that if it didn’t work we had plenty of time to work things out. We tried it for a while and I found it to be too rigid and many times irrelevant ( learning his address and phone number for example….ummm. Sailing Vessel Savannah, Channel 16?), which was rather surprising given my type A personality and the need to check lots of boxes. Eventually, we donated the whole box to a local community in Mexico and just focused on basic reading, writing, and math while I went about finding another approach.

Our second go round was based on the book The Well Trained Mind, by Susan Wise. This is sort of a ‘how to’ on Classical Education. I love the way it’s laid out and it provides several different choices/suggestions/resources for curriculums. While I never really followed this guide to a ‘T” (it, too is very rigid), it addressed all the things that I was concerned with. Specifically, I liked the way it laid out History and the different phases of education. It just made sense to me.

So today, we do a combination of many different curriculums, all loosely based on the Classical Education concept. We use The History of the World, as suggested by the book and Jake absolutely loves it. We (I) like Math U See and we use Spelling Workout books for Spelling. For reading, we started with Hooked on Phonics, but since we’ve finished those through second grade, we now read whatever books we have on board, trying when we can to link them to our history lessons or something pertaining to wherever we may be geographically. Writing is all over the place, but we use Handwriting Without Tears to fill in the blanks. We use Susan Wise’s book on Langugae/Grammer (we’re on book 2 at the moment) and so far, I’m impressed with the results.

We’re much freer with our schedule than I ever thought we would be. I find that we spend about 2 – 3 hours a day (depending on the attitude of the student and patience of the teacher) on the basic subjects; math, reading, writing, spelling, grammer, history, science. Science gets the least amount of attention, as I really believe we cover that day to day via our hikes, snorkels, sailing, etc. If we pull into a harbor and see kids…we take every chance we can get to play. If we are underway and the seas are too rough, we ditch school until the conditions get better. When we got to Tahiti, we took a “Tahiti Break.” This summer when we went to the east coast of the US, we took a “summer break.” I find that we are able to stick to our plans most when we’re in a place where we have sort of “settled down.” Our typical day is for Jake and I to “do school” in the a.m. while Andy goes diving. In the afternoon, we do boat projects, go shopping, hiking or whatever. One day a week, we usually take a break and go hiking or sight seeing as a whole family. Sometimes I have Jake write about our trip, sometimes I don’t. I find if I connect all the fun things to school, he no longer thinks they’re fun.

We’ve run into attitude problems along the way…we’ve developed a system. Andy and I have a mantra: We will not raise an idiot. If Jake doesn’t want to learn from me (nice cozy atmosphere in our underwear joking and laughing), he can learn from daddy (sit up straight, put on a shirt, “I’m timing you!”). If daddy can’t motivate, we’ll put him in school where ever we are at the time. If that doesn’t work…. we go home. Mommy and daddy get jobs, Jake goes to school. We’ve found we rarely get past putting a shirt on for daddy. The threat alone usually does the trick.

While I’m 100% positive that he’s thriving in this atmosphere, as I said above, I do find that he isn’t always as enthusiastic as I had hoped. And while we have a plan, I find that I get extremely sad when he doesn’t want to learn. I think many of us mom’s who have followed other cruising kid blogs over the years envision our kids sweetly skipping through town picking up strange languages, politely sitting down with elders asking intriguing questions, begging to make the grocery list and add up the cost, while fitting in time to learn a new instrument or skill like carving or basket weaving. Well, that just doesn’t happen. So the less you beat yourself up about it (as a mom and teacher), the better the day goes. There are times when you can squint really hard, have a beer and convince yourself it’s happening, but more often than not, you’re better off just trying to find out how to make learning fun while still getting the job done and not killing anyone. At the end of the day, somehow, through all the fussing and fighting, you find out they really did learn that language (at least hello, goodbye, and cheers!), and while they may not have learned how to carve a shark out of a breadfruit tree, they did learn how to climb the coconut tree and provide you with a tasty coconut to go with your rum.

I find that as a home-schooling mom (on the ocean or on land), you just need to cut yourself some slack. Whether you’re un-schooling, or you keep the strictest of schedules, the point is you’re together and you’re both learning and NO ONE cares more about their education than you. ...that can’t be a bad thing.

Splash....she's back in the water.

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 04:54:00 +0000

Savannah is safe and sound back in the water. What a relief. We repaired a few spots, put 5 coats of paint on her, and flipped our chain. She’s mighty pretty!

For those coming this way that are a little curious as to the details...here they are. We were charged $500 to go in and out of the water (the prices on their wall say differently, so not sure if we got a deal or if that was old info), $150 for two days hydro-blasting, their guy did the work. We were there from Tuesday p.m. - Saturday a.m. and were able to do our own work. They may have been able to do it for us, but we didn't ask. There are bathroom facilities (i.e. toilet, sink, shower), but only Andy slept on the boat. Jake and I got a hotel room out in town. Andy would have come with us, but we thought it best security wise for him to stay as there is no fence or gate. They do have a security guard but either he was really sneaky or he didn't stick around too much. We wanted to be dropped in the water on a Saturday and they came in free of charge, even though they don't normally work on Saturday. They say they have hauled out four monohulls although we didn't see any stands. I'm not sure how they did it, but according to them, it's possible. We were the first catamaran and all in all, it was a pretty good experience....better than ok. Not great because well, it's an old rail and our hearts were beating pretty fast.

We found a one legged grasshopper.

It hasn’t been all work and no play. Before we hauled her out, we spent some time hiking and celebrating. There are a few trails around here and we’ve enjoyed trying to make our way through them. We got lost a few times and survived a few mean dogs (and Andy has some sort of rash, resembling poison ivy) but all in all we had some nice adventures. There were some traditional stone paths as well as some really nice views.

LOTS of steep stone staircases.

We celebrated my birthday with the other boats here as well as our friends on shore. One of the danish guys on Mie was having a birthday too so we doubled up and had a few parties. Vincent was able to get the local men’s house here for us to have a barbeque and everyone came to celebrate.

Andy had some help with the grill.

Casper and Rasmis from Denmark, onboard Mie.

Three different countries represented on that bench! Yap, Phillipines,
and Denmark.

Trevor and Jake had some deep conversations...

It’s been a nice stay here in Yap, but we’re ready to move on now. We’ll fuel up with diesel on Monday and try to check out soon.

Happy Birthday to me! ...and Savannah

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 06:32:00 +0000

I had an exciting birthday this year. We hauled Savannah out, here in Yap. I can’t tell you how nervous I was. First off, it’s a railroad type device that goes down into the water and then pulls the boat out. I’ve never seen that done, so having no experience, I’m automatically nervous. Secondly, it’s not wide enough for us, so we were going up sideways. And third, we’re in a place where they’ve only hauled out four sailboats…ever. There are fourths, fifths and sixths (no insurance – us or Yap in general for example), but you get the idea.

We had lots of volunteers to help us and Andy had done some very careful planning on exactly how we were going to get this thing done. With the winds blowing while trying to get into some tight spaces combined with people from four different countries (and languages) helping, communication was key. We had a few missteps along the way, but they weren’t major. In the end, it all went pretty smoothly. So we’re up out of the water now. She’s been hydro-blasted and Andy and Jake are in the process of sanding now. Hopefully we’ll start painting tomorrow and we’ll be back in the water by the weekend.

Happy Birthday to me!

Hydro-blasting

Andy's measurements were spot on for not running into the wall!

Hanging out

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:24:00 +0000

We’ve finally found something that keeps Jake from asking to play on the iPad. We had a late Christmas present arrive from Amazon last week…remember the board game Risk? Me neither, but Andy did and told me he thought Jake would like it. That’s the understatement of the year. It’s perfect. It’s all about world domination with hundreds of armies. We bought a newer version that also allows you take over water territories and territories on the moon. They have cards that allow you to drop bombs on your opponents, go into stealth mode, and gain more territories. While I can’t say it’s my favorite game, I can say it’s really fun to watch Jake play. It’s totally a strategic game and is more complicated than any child’s game I’ve ever seen, but he grasped the idea right away and hasn’t stopped playing sense. The other cool thing about it, as that it has so many pieces and parts that he’s perfectly content with making up his own games as well…which means I don’t have to play it every day. His Yapese friend, Trevor came over last weekend and listening to Jake try to tell Trevor how to play was hilarious. He actually did a pretty good job for a 7 year old but in the end, they just made up their own game. After all, it did take Andy and I two hours to figure it out and we had the directions right in front of us.

This is Jake's "I hate school" face. I get it about once a week.
Today, I was lucky enough to get a note. His spelling had him
writing a note to his teacher telling her what he liked most about
school. His said, "deer mommy, I do not like school. luv, Jake"
I'll cherish it forever. :)

So, there you have it…that’s what we’ve been doing for the past week and why I have no exciting pictures of us doing cool touristy things. Andy’s foot pain actually got worse and was so swollen he couldn’t get his flip-flops on. It looked like a giant sausage. So he started his own round of antibiotics. For obvious reasons he didn’t leave the boat and Jake and I just got lazy. Between the board games and school, we just haven’t really done anything. But we’re all healed up now and are re-motivated to get back out into the world and participate. Hopefully our next update will be a bit more exciting.

Andy did go diving yesterday, so I’ll leave you with his latest…

Anenome shrimp

Nudibranch

Flatworm

Tropical Infections

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:19:00 +0000

From the day we left California we heard nothing but warnings about how the tiniest of cuts could get infected in warm, tropical climates. We always took care to keep things clean and bandaged up (or whatever was appropriate for the wound). Andy, having had EMT training back when he was in the Navy, is our resident doctor and has kept us fairly healthy since we left. So I am happy to say, we have never had a crazy infection from a tiny little cuts or even those nasty sting ray attacks back in Mexico….until now. And now every one of us is a member of the club.

These pictures show us all on the mend now, but imagine
this with puss and goo.....ewwww.

Andy’s started with a mosquito bite on his big toe that he scratched until it turned into a sore. Then, while in Lamotrek, the flies made a meal out of him mostly every day. He tried covering it with a Band-Aid when we went to shore, but has anyone used a Band-Aid lately? Remember when we were kids and tearing a bandage off would take all the hair off your arm or leg? Remember how your parents told you to do it really fast so it wouldn’t hurt and then it still left a huge red mark for days? Well, we must have whined a great bit, because they don’t make them like they used to. We have four different brands on board and not a one of them sticks. So, Andy eventually abandoned them altogether and went to burying his foot in the sand to keep the flies from eating on it and then when he got to the boat he would clean it up. Pretty soon there was puss and redness and well, a month later, he’s still whining about it. To top it off, he now has a mysterious sore on his other big toe and it’s turning red.

He's still cute...but ewwww again.

Jake is a nasty little creature. He’s a booger picking, nail biting, rear end scratching petri dish. He’s your typical little boy. He’s been using those same fingers and touching his face so much that sores have developed on his nose. Once the sores came up, then he started picking at them until we finally had to tape a bandage over his nose to keep him from touching it and making it worse. It’s beginning to heal now and just looks like a sunburn gone bad…let’s hope it continues to heal and he doesn’t have to have the whole thing cut off (something I keep ensuring him is going to have to happen).

The purple stuff is actually medicine, but the rest is just
gross.

I was feeling appropriately sorry for my two men, yet was getting tired of the whining until… I got my pedicure at the local spa. I went running a few days afterward and my second toe started hurting. I assumed it was my running shoes making a callus on my toe (I’m one of those freaks who’s second toe is longer than the first). Since I had toenail polish on, I didn’t consider it might be my toenail. Eventually, I noticed there was no callus but the pain was worse. I took the polish off and my toe was totally white. The rest were pinkish (as in, blood was present). But this one was white. As the days went by, the toenail started to come off and puss started to ooze out the tip. Then my toe started getting red and hurting really bad. Yesterday morning, there was a huge build up of puss at the bottom of the nail bed. Andy lanced it and I decided to start a round of antibiotics. Now some of you nature people (I really don’t know what the official name for folks who are opposed to antibiotics is) are starting to moan at me, but I’ll tell you this. You do not want to have to deal with a severely infected toe at the local hospital here. That’s where you go to get sick. I rarely take any medication but I felt strongly this one was needed. I can do without a stub of a toe, but I can’t do without my whole foot, which is what I was afraid would happen if I didn’t take some drastic measures. Last night I told Andy my toe was feeling a lot better and brought it up for him to look at. I almost gagged as my toenail was hanging by a string. He pulled it off for me, doctored me up and all looks pretty good this morning (day 2 of antibiotics) – or so he tells me. I can’t bring myself to look at it. One more day of the meds and I think we’ll be back in business.

I can’t say as we’ve learned our lesson because well, we haven’t done anything differently, so...the moral of the story? If you’re cruising in the tropics, stock up on sticky band aids, keep your hands off your face and poo poo the pedicures.

Sight seeing in Yap

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:30:00 +0000

OK, I look like a cow and you can barely see the Manta,
but it's me and I saw it! Andy went to get Jake so
pictures were at a minimum today...but Jake was on a high!

We finally got the chance to come up from grocery shopping and laundry and actually play tourist this week. We rented a car and drove around the island for a few days and today, we dove with the giant manta rays! I'll start with today and move backwards.

One of the dive resorts here (Manta Ray Hotel) has given us the local rate for diving and agreed to let Jake sit on the boat so Andy and I can both dive. Today, they picked us up at our boat (that's service!) and then we rode through the mangroves at break-neck speed to our dive site. There is a manta cleaning station in the channel and after a short swim, we were perched on the side of a reef ready for the show. It took a while for them to show up, but once they did, it was incredible. Due to the weather recently, the visibility wasn't so great, but these things fly right over your head so close you could touch them....visibility didn't matter! The mantas that live here range anywhere from 9 feet to 13 feet in size (wingspan). If you've never seen one, it's almost like a ballet in the water. They are simply amazing. We saw one from our dinghy in the Tuamotos, but I've never been in the water and up close to one like today.

So, apparently, I wasn't the subject of today's photography (only an afterthought)
as you only see one shark behind me. There were at least a dozen,
but I just got in the way of the flash....

I could go on and on, but I won't...I'll just check that one off my list of cool things to do in life!

In addition to the diving, there are other interesting things around here to see. The main one being the stone money. Yapese have used stone money for centuries and according to the tourist brochure, it's found nowhere else in the world. Here's what it says...

This is probably very disrespectful, but the hole seemed the
perfect size for Jake's head...made for a cute picture, I think :)

"The first stone money quarrying in the Palau Islands may have begun as far back as 125 A.D. The sparkling rock is a form of crystalline calcite that is found primarily in the colorful glistening walls of limestone caverns.

Hundreds of voyages followed the initial trip to Palau. Many men attempted the hazardous passage and more than a few perished in the process. The 360 mile canoe journey took about five days one way if the weather was good and required skillful sailing. The larger pieces of stone money that are now a familiar fixture in most Yapese villages was an arduous task to make and return to Yap, increasing its value greatly."

Kind of interesting, huh? Anyway, it's still around and used in some villages today. It's not exchanged anymore, but sits in "banks" (the side of the roads in the villages) called Rai. We snapped a few pictures as we drove along.

There were also a few Japanese zeros left over from WWII....and a Continental flight gone bad....

It took a while, but we finally found it... a japanese zero.
Jake was ecstatic. He loves this stuff.

U.S. Hellcat...apparently, it was hit by enemy fire, then
collided with another US aircraft in the bay.
There's a memorial set up for the young pilot.

Continental gone bad....

In between our touring, a miracle has happened aboard Savannah. Jake has shown an interest in sports. I know...Dad, Cary....hold onto your hats and don't get your hopes up too high, but yes, my son has asked to "go play some sports." We took the soccer ball (there goes Cary's hopes...), a baseball glove and some balls, a frisbee, pads to practice his Tae Kwon Do, and his new bike to shore a few days this week. He says he isn't yet ready to focus on one thing, you see, so we try to cover the basics that you guys at home may laugh at... Remember, we don't get TV so he isn't showered with college games all weekend long like he might be at home. Let's take the rules to kickball for example, a favorite of every elementary school age child in America....it's kind of difficult to play a full game with only three people. Do you know how hard it is to explain to a six year old what "man on first" means when you need to come back in and kick? Or why he can't move the bases into a rectangle instead of a diamond? Or, when Andy rolled him a "ground ball" with the baseball and instead of throwing it back, he rolled it back....to "practice" his ground balls. We already covered basketball back in Lukenor when he was playing with the local kids and tried to kick it to them.

My family is either laughing hysterically right now, or they're crying... It may sound like I'm making fun of my child and well, I guess I am. At his age, I was twirling the baton (pretty well, might I add), cheerleading, running track and tap dancing. My brother was playing baseball, basketball and football. We were coordinated kids. I can't help but laugh when I watch Jake as he is not very coordinated at all...he'll get it, I know. He's already improved immensely and me not really being a sports freak myself, I really have no concern (or even care if he ever improves). But I know others do and I thought I would give an update. Good news is Andy says he was a late bloomer and he is a very coordinated adult....there's hope. But not too much hope for team sports...aside from Jake growing up on a boat (which limits your options), his dad is a solo kind of dude...Tae Kwon Do (blackbelt though...see he is coordinated), sky diving, kayaking, scuba diving...you get the picture.

Now we're getting ready to go have some cocktails on a new cruising boat that pulled in yesterday...it will be nice to have some folks to hang out with after going such a long stretch without other cruisers. We still have a few weeks here as we're waiting on our bottom paint and then we're going to attempt to pull Savannah out and give her a fresh look. Cross your fingers.

Advise (or philosophical ponderings) on preparing for your crossing

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:00:00 +0000

It’s that time of year again, where boats from all over Mexico, California and Panama are thinking of doing the Pacific crossing. I’m part of a group on facebook where we women can chit chat about all of our questions, worries, and experiences and I’ve been seeing a lot of questions pertaining to provisioning lately. It’s made me stop and think about what I’ve learned over the years, not only about provisioning but cruising as well. I’m much more comfortable than I was when we left Mexico, yet and I can hear myself asking these same questions just a few years ago. I’m going to try desperately not to repeat what I said last year, but in an effort to help out with those still reading, I thought I would post some of my own findings over the last few years. Remember, I’m not a writer and I tend to stray from my original thoughts…hopefully you can stick it out to the end.

There are people who live to eat and there are people who eat to live. Those of the latter, will do fine with stocking up on whatever you need for a few weeks and then take the over used advice of “everyone everywhere has to eat…there’s always something to eat.” Ramen noodles are cheap all over the world and surprisingly popular in the south and west pacific.

Then there are those of you who live to eat. These are my peeps. While it is true that everyone eats, what they eat varies greatly from what you’re probably used to eating. You will find some dishes that are absolutely fabulous (poison crue comes to mind for me) and then you will find some stuff that you’d rather not try again (pig knuckles anyone?). Aside from the what, is the how much. Mexico (and from what I hear, Ecuador), is the cheapest food you will find until you reach southeast Asia. I went on a rant about this earlier in Pohnpei so I won’t repeat the whole thing, but if you know what you like to eat and they have it in Mexico, stock up. Particularly in meat, specialty items (roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, olive oil etc.), and booze. Not because they don’t have them where you’re going, but because they will be twice as much, if not three times as much (I just paid $13 for a small bottle of olive oil in Micronesia). And once you leave French Polynesia, in most cases, it gets more expensive. Not to deter you from going, oh my, no….it’s totally worth it….just plan ahead if you like to eat. There are places along the way where you can stock up again…Tahiti (you just spent weeks crossing the pacific and cruising the Tuamotos, you’ve saved up), American Samoa (best place we’ve been for provisioning, other than Mexico), and the list goes on….just be honest with yourself about what you can live with both food wise and budget wise. That meat place in Buceria sounds expensive now, but it’s a bargain once you’ve crossed the ocean. After saying all that, stock up on recipes for bananas, coconuts, fish and breadfruit.

One thing I’ve looked back on and realized about myself as well as looking at some of the newbie questions, is that if you’re new to cruising, you tend to ask questions about and try to figure out how to recreate your life on land, on the boat. I’m not sure that there’s anyway to avoid this as experience is the only way some of us learn, but my advice would be to just be open minded. You won’t have as many friends as you do at home (or in Mexico). But look at it as an opportunity to explore new interests or get closer to your loved ones on the boat (did you think that was possible?). If you’re used to shaving your legs every day, blow drying your hair and smelling good…well, get over it (or have a powerful watermaker, generator and lots of bug spray on board).

If you have soft skin, toughen up. I found that once we crossed, we met more foreigners than not and well, not everyone has the US filter distributed to us at birth (yes, believe it or not, I have one). They say what they mean and it’s refreshing. Don’t get offended, just listen. You’ll find yourself looking at things you thought you had a handle on in totally different ways. I got fired up in Mexico more than once. I can remember a conversation in Suarrow that I wasn’t sure either of us was going to get over. But now, years later…I get it. I don’t agree with a lot of it, but I can appreciate a different opinion. You’ll be amazed at how many experts there are out there about your country’s culture, politics and how you should change (I know this to be true for the US, but I’ve seen it happen to everyone). Just smile and nod.

I asked Andy to contribute his two cents and he said “Spare no expense.” If you’re not on a quest to rid your life of all of the nice-ities of home…movies, gadgets, generators are your friend. They are expensive elsewhere. Spare parts…hard to get, sometimes impossible. Your dinghy is your car. If you drive a Mercedes…you might want to get a good outboard motor. If you don’t mind pushing your Pacer down the road to get it in gear, then rowing might be your thing (just remember, sometimes you’ll be rowing to shore against winds and waves…might want to have a tiny motor on hand or a good workout program).

OK, obviously, we’re not purists. Never claimed to be. But we think we’ve struck a nice balance between comfort and reality. Reality being that everyone doesn’t get to live the way we do in the US. We’ve earned our lifestyle and worked hard for it, but I think it’s important that we stop and remember that it’s not a given. There are people all over the world living a much humbler existence and they are no less worthy than us of a good life. We’ve learned to put things into perspective. Air condition is a luxury, as is a washing machine. Living together every day, being in charge of my child’s upbringing, getting close to others…that’s why we’re out here.

So maybe this wasn’t an advise column after all…I got a little too philosophical. But after reading my Facebook for the last week or so, I had a lot on my mind that I felt like sharing. Hopefully, you can take a word or two and get some use out of it. Overall, just know, that you’ll grow and it will more than likely be for the better.

Happy New Year! Yap Style...

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 03:08:00 +0000

Andy went diving with the giant mantas this week!

Happy New Year to everyone out there! New Year’s here is a bit different than at home in as much as there are fewer people and fewer places to go and things to do. The hotels and restaurants here in town each had something going on, but we opted to make it an early night and spend it on the boat. As Andy and I sat on the front of the boat (Jake only made it to 11:15, then he was pooped), we watched people shooting off flares as opposed to fireworks. It was pretty, but we held our breaths as each one was fired off and the wind would blow it over Savannah. “Please don’t fall on us, Please don’t fall on us,” we chanted. We were lucky enough not to catch on fire but we worried even more as we saw one being carried right over top of the fuel depot behind our boat. Lucky for the small town of Colonia, it passed on by. We were energized by that time and ended up staying up way too late calling people in the US (it was morning time there). We paid for it when Jake jumped in our bed at 7:30 with his usual “Get up! Get up!”

Yapese fireworks...aka Flares

A few mimosas later and we were all in the spirit of things. We had been invited back over to our friend’s house for a New Year’s barbque so I spent the day making deviled eggs and crab cakes. We were trying to think of something American to take over and with the limited selection of food here, we opted for the deviled eggs again. They were a hit in Lamotrek, so why not? Andy went over to see what time we should arrive and they gave him two mangrove crabs. So he cooked those up and I made them into crab cakes (my favorite food of all time). Both items turned out to be a first for everyone and they loved it. I’m always worried about taking food over to people’s houses because while I think I can cook, you never know what other people’s taste buds are like.

Just like last time, we had a great time with Vincent and Agatha. Jake got to play with Trevor again and it seems like we’re all old friends now. It’s really easy to talk to these guys. They’re very open and eager to share with us how their culture works (and their turtle), yet they’re still interested in us as well. I got to ask some questions that sometimes I’m not always sure I should ask. I’m also able to be myself and wear my little filter on my mouth, as opposed to that big fat one I’ve grown accustomed to putting on. I learned some little things like the outer islanders are the only ones allowed to wear lava lavas here in Yap. The main island Yapese women wear a special Yap skirt (not sure about this yet) and they are the only ones allowed to wear that. The part I never did figure out is who are all these people walking around in western clothes? Can both types of people wear those? I also learned that they talk differently to their uncles, aunts and cousins than they do to their friends and immediate family. It’s much more formal. And if it’s the wife’s family, then the husband is expected to use the same tone and words as she does with her family as a sign of respect.

Random child running around, but he was cute.
He got dirtier and dirtier as the day went on, covered in
sand, soda and whatever that blue stripe is on his
head. Agatha said he looked like something
from Avatar.

I was trying to describe the atmosphere to my mother and the best way I could describe it is like being out at my granny’s house when I was little or at my Aunt Jean’s house with her 10 kids and their 100 kids (and some of their kids). Everyone is family but no one really knows who belongs to who. But it’s all very loving and welcoming and feels like home.

Jake, sanding his sword he and his daddy carved.
Getting ready to take it to play with Trevor.

So today, Jake is having a little play date over with Trevor since it’s his last day off of school (Trevor’s). I can see them from the boat running around with their wooden swords and stopping to chat every once in a while. It’s really nice to have someone for Jake to play with that enjoys his company and likes similar things… I know I say that every time we find a friend, but it really is important to me for him to have things to do besides hang out with us all day.

I’ll do a little year in review post later, but wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may this year be better than ever! Enjoy a few of Andy's photos from his dive this week...

Merry Christmas from Yap!

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 03:51:00 +0000

The view from our hotel room...Savannah right in the middle.

Christmas came and went in a whirlwind! Santa found us and brought Jake a bright, shiny, new bike (yes, this is his third bike and no, he can’t ride it yet…bikes and boats don’t mix but we’re going to try one more time). He also brought just about every dinosaur Lego set possible. We spent the entire morning putting together legos and our main salon has been taken over (I can’t seem to find the pictures of Christmas morning so I’ll have to post those later).

As for Andy and I….Jake and I bought Andy some new filet knives and lures and Andy got me a massage, manicure and pedicure at the local spa here. As a gift to the whole family, we spent a night in one of the resort hotels, used their stand up showers, swam in the pool and watched cable tv!

Jake enjoying the iPad with free wifi in the hotel room.

Ice cream at our friend's house on Christmas Day.

I got up early Christmas morning and made homemade cinnamon rolls, chocolate milk (for Jake) and mimosas (for us). After Jake opened all his presents and we had breakfast, our new friends here in Yap came and picked us up. This is the couple that we brought back some stuff from Woleai (where they’re from), so to thank us, they had us over for a bar-b-que. Their house is literally behind our boat and it’s a good representative of Yap; a strange mix of old, new, and somewhere in the middle. They have a stove inside their house, but they prefer to use the old cooking house outside. Vincent and Agatha (our new friends) wear western clothing while others in their family are more traditional (lava lavas sans shirt). They have pigs and chickens, but the chicken we ate off the grill came from the grocery store. It’s indicative of most of what we’ve seen in Yap. Some people have spent much time away in Guam, the US, or some other country and have adapted their ways. Others are holding tight to the old traditions.

Vincent and Agatha have a 10 year old son, Trevor. He speaks perfect English and seems excited to have met Jake. He and Jake played together well and we have future plans for Trevor to come out to the boat.

All in all, it was a great day. We did have the chance to eat more turtle, but after a few bites, I decided to call it quits. It’s one thing to try it, but another all together to get a taste for it. Plus, the dogs pulled it off the grill and then Vincent rinsed it off and put it back on…I’m not sure how many times that happened before we got there. When it was all picked over, he gave it to the pig. The dogs snuck in again and took off down the road with it. Quite the comedy.

We really like it here and have decided to look into getting Savannah hauled out. We are in desperate need of bottom paint and we heard rumors it’s cheap to pull out here. We would also like to take a look at some of those leaks we’ve been fixing along the way and see if there is any welding to be done. There is a trolley that would be fairly easy to go up on, but we would have to go sideways…and then there’s the chore of trying to get the paint here. I don’t know how feasible the whole thing is, but we’re going to look into it. If it could save us a few thousand dollars, then I certainly think it’s worth it.

The weather is starting to ease up a bit, so it looks like we might get to go diving next week and not have our tails handed to us. We haven’t done much in the way of tourism at this point, so lots to see and do in the next few weeks…

Final Picture update - Lamotrek and Woleai

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:37:00 +0000

I finally finished uploading the pictures from the outer islands. Now we can focus on Yap :).

Click on the links for updates (or you can just scroll down)
Going Native
Culture, Culture and more Culture
Turtles and Taro
On to Woleai
Wolei and Beyond

For all of you geographically challenged people who still don't know where Micronesia is, I've updated our map at the right of our page as well. You can move it around with your mouse, or click on the larger view at the bottom to see exactly where these islands were.

I've been seeing everyone put their Christmas pictures up on facebook, so I decided to add ours here since we're so close to Christmas. We spent a day making ornaments and putting up all of our decorations. It's not Macy's Window quality, but we like it. There aren't too many pictures as well, we only have a small space to decorate....sorry.

Making tiny reindeers out of closepins, pipe cleaner candy canes,
and paper snowflakes. If you're not impressed, you should be.
I don't do crafts very well.

Updated Pictures from Pulawat (and a few more from Lukenor)

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:39:00 +0000

As you can guess, we've arrived in Yap. We've been here a few days and so far, we're really enjoying ourselves. Check in was a breeze (less than 1 hour) and the people are extremely friendly. I've already had an old guy stop me in the middle of the grocery store and tell me if we need any bananas or coconuts, to let him know....just let John know.

The weather is acting funky though. Today, we've had winds up to 40 knots and lots of rain. Not sure how long it's going to last, but at least we know our anchor is secure. We haven't moved an inch. And good thing too...we have a reef directly behind us and a giant mega-yacht (actually, two) on our port side. It's a tight anchorage when you're next to million dollar boats and you have no insurance!

I've updated the pictures for Pulawat...hopefully you like them. Click on the posts below to see the latest...

Anchored in Pulawat
More on Pulawat
The Other Village
Coconuts, Bananas, and Typhoons
Underway for Lamotrek

We also found a few pictures we forgot from Lukenor, so I'm posting them here. If you wonder why we have so many pictures of Mariel, besides the fact that we love her, we told her to tell her mom to check in on the blog so she could see how she was doing....hopefully the message got there! Enjoy!

Mariel with one of the many little ones.

The night time celebration for the Bishop.

Simon's grandsons

Jake playing with the kids after they paddled to the boat.

Jake in his swimming pool (Andy was shark fishing....hehehe).

Updating pictures from Lukenor/Lekinioch

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:35:00 +0000

We have a ton of pictures and I've finally started loading them. I've decided to go back and load them on the pages with the stories as I thought they would be more interesting that way. Internet here is extremely slow so I'm only able to do one island at a time....this free internet here at the restaurant has cost us 3-4 beers a piece...expensive password.

Check these links out for the latest...

Underway day 1 and 2
Land Ho!
Leaving Lekinioch

And here are some of our other favorites...everyone had to have a coconut tree shot....

Woleai and beyond...

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 06:05:00 +0000

These kids were practicing for their Christmas party, but
they were really hamming it up. The little boys in the front
were gyrating and moving around like nobody's business.
They had everyone in stiches.

We arrived after lunch in the Woleai lagoon and did our usual meeting with the chief. This island is much bigger than the last few, but the people are just as friendly. The chief was also very welcoming but did ask us to pay a $10/person fee. Andy and I had talked about this before. On all of the other atolls, Andy spent almost the entire time fixing things and we gave away hundreds of dollars of stuff. We had decided that we weren't going to pay a fee here because it would more than likely be the same way. So we told the chief we would be more than happy to help the people and give them things they need (like the school supplies I brought for the elementary school), but we weren't going to pay a fee. He was very nice about it and said we could stay. Now normally we don't buck the fees, but well... we just don't feel they're justified in this case.

So, we knew we weren't going to stay long as we want to get to Yap before Christmas and before they start charging overtime fees for checking in. On top of that, we are almost completely out of vegetables and anything good to eat (we have plenty of food, just nothing that we want to eat). We decided to watch the Christmas drop and then leave the next day.

Cool, huh?

The Christmas drop was pretty neat. A C130 from Guam did a few fly by's, the people here put out a bright pink target, then they flew by again and dropped two big boxes with parachutes. There was one small problem. There was a mix up about wether the target was where the boxes were supposed to land or where the plane should actually push out the boxes. The result was that the two boxes ended up in the jungle. Guys with machete's were running through the woods trying to see who could get there first. Apparently, the parachute and plywood that the boxes come in are the most valuable things around. We followed them and Andy got some pretty good pictures of it all (although after he edits them all, he only gives me a few. I told him he could just say I took them, but for some reason he thinks he has a reputation to uphold).

Carrying one of the boxes out of the woods.

I don't know the details behind it, but I imagine there's a squadron in Guam that puts a box out and the people bring in donations of "non perishables, clothing, etc." Then they pack it all up. It's all done with genuine, heartfelt, charity in mind from a lot of people that probably don't have much themselves. The problem is, no one is told what these people need. I saw one box opened and it had t-shirts and down comforters in it. They don't wear shirts and it's mighty hot out here. Now they're resourceful people and they'll figure out something to do with it, but it wasn't the most appreciated gift. When I was home, I probably would have had the attitude of "well they should be greatful for anything we send. Something is better than nothing." I still harbor some of that, but after seeing it close up, not so much. They don't have a place to put things they can't use, so it ends up just sitting around rusting/rotting/stinking up the place. And they have limited space... Not to poo poo Operation Christmas Drop, but just a different perspective. Maybe they could send flipflops, fabric, thread, knives, machetes, etc. For us though, it was quite a treat to watch, especially coming from a military background ourselves and knowing the types of people giving.

The high school

We toured around a bit more seeing the schools and power plant (the whole island has electricity) and went back to Savannah to start getting ready. We're underway now to Yap with semi-rocky seas and good winds. It should be a fairly fast trip, if not the most comfortable. 360 miles to go...

The high school kids watching the Christmas drop on one
of the other islands in the lagoon.

Sailing canoe

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

On to Woleai

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 21:15:00 +0000

Aren't they adorable? They followed us all over the island.

It turns out the Christmas air drop by the Airforce was postponed until Friday. Not wanting to get into Yap next week during "afterhours" (= to big bucks), we decided to go ahead and go to Wolei. We would have skipped it all together but we already promised some folks in Lamotrek that we would take some letters and food to their kids at school there.

Tuesday afternoon, we went in to collect the stuff and say our goodbyes. It was so much fun. Everyone wanted to shake our hands and tell us "Merry Chirstmas. Have a safe trip." It made us feel like they really enjoyed us being there. Michaeila and her family made us some snacks of breadfruit, taro chips, and coconut candy for our passage and more leis. Another woman, Augustina, gave me another lava lava in thanks for taking her son some food/mail. We were sent off with stalks of bananas and lots of coconuts. In the end, I like to think we gave more than took. I know Andy fixed a ton of stuff and we gave away everything from movies to batteries to old sails. They invited us back "anytime" and said they would miss us. We'll miss them too. A very nice place, indeed.

We left yesterday for Wolei and are now about 30 miles out. We should get there sometime after lunch. We found out right before we left, that there is another plane doing a Christmas drop in Wolei on Friday as well, so we might actually get to see that after all.

It's been a nice sail (motor sail, last night), though we did see a few long liners in the night. One passed pretty darn close to us and we're still not convinced he saw us. Andy lit up the sails with a giant flashlight and we pulled the motor back as he passed in front of us. After almost three years sailing out here, I've learned, there's only one law of the sea out in the ocean....the law of mass tonnage. They rarely see you (as they've got it on autopilot and are sleeping), they rarely answer the radio, and they rarely change course. Always important to keep a good watch. You may go months without seeing another ship, and then, like last night, we saw two and the one went within a mile of us.

So, we're almost Atoll-ed out, but we're going to give Wolei a few days, then head on to Yap...and buy some vegetables.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Turtles and Taro

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 22:14:00 +0000

I was going to start this blog with what a wonderful day we had and how we were treated as royalty and I've never met so nice of a people (which is all true). But after the last few hours, I have to say that I am going to show how shallow I actually am and make the beginning of the blog be about me...yep, after weeks without any female friendship at all, I finally got an hour and a half by myself to be a girl and watch a chick flick, while Andy and Jake went to shore for the drinking circle and for Jake to play on the beach with the local kids. About 15 minutes into my chick flick (while sitting in my underwear drinking a coconut...fabulous day), Andy came back and told me he was taking not only the computer, but the generator AND THE TV!!!. Yep, he had made a copy of Act of Valor ("Andy's MOVIE") for one of the guys, and while they were "testing" it on a tiny portable dvd player, he offered up our TV for a movie night. They sent him back to the boat quicker than he could say NO!!!.....seriously, I wasn't happy. You can only imagine what I was thinking, but I'm going to really try and let it go...

Not letting my own issues get in the way... this was a wonderful day. I've never met a nicer group of people. We went in this morning for Mass and we were met at the door with fresh lei's for our heads from our friends Michaeila and her daughters. After Mass we were whisked off to our friend Sasario's house for his daughter to fry up some fish for us and give us some taro. They also had lei's for us and every time I looked at Andy I thought of that lemur on Madagascar with the flowers poking up out of his head... spitting image.

As we waited for the party to start, I suggested we go say hi to Michaeila and her family. When we got there, they asked me if they could decorate me in tumeric, as in the spice. I had seen a few people in church all dusted up, so I said sure. Saralee (or Juralee...not sure), made me take my shirt off so I was just wearing my bikini top and took a HUGE can of tumeric and covered me with it. Did you know tumeric was yellow? I do now. It's yellow (and takes more than one shower to come off). I'm not sure what this had to do with Mary's Ascension, but everyone seemed to really like it. Jake and Andy were wondering if it was just "seasoning." I assured them I wasn't fat enough, and it was just for local entertainment. They wanted to paint my face with lipstick as well, but I kind of drew the line. I have an aversion to lipstick, even in my own culture.

Quite attractive, don't you think? Matches
the flowers on my head nicely.

Turtle meat from one turtle (and the fat too).

We went and waited with our other friends while they divided the turtle up between everyone as well as the smoked fish they had been preparing for the last few days. They each drew a name from all the island households and prepared baskets for each one (think "dirty santa" without the dirty). The island had actually gotten together and made a basket (two, actually) for us as well! It was really neat to hear our names called out, but I can't feel but more than a little bit of guilt for taking so much from them! We had a basket of 4 land crabs, a bunch of bananas, two curried fish, a papaya, and a huge amount of taro. Then we had another basket full of taro and rice and on top of all of that, we had about 8 coconuts and a pound of smoked fish. Oh yeah.. almost forgot...we got our share of turtle. And it was good. I have so much to say about that, that I just don't have the room or the time.

This is the fire that's used to loosen the shell from the turtle.
If you look close you can see the tail sticking out on the right
hand side of the picture.

Smoked fish to be rationed out.

People starting to bring their gift baskets.

Starting to hand out the baskets to everyone.

Everyone waiting to hear their names called.

The men mostly picked up the baskets and the women watched.

Our name was called! Look at that elaborate basket.
It had a top and bottom put together by some sort of
woven hinge.

I think Andy looks like King Julian on Madagascar
with his headdress on.

We ended up having two baskets, but this one had the
best goodies...crab, fish, bananas, papaya.

After many swims in the ocean (tumeric kind of stains the skin), a chick flick later (on a VERY small computer screen), and watching my son eat turtle, I have decided we really live an extraordinary life.

We have decided to stay a few more days to watch the "Christmas Drop." The US Airforce flies from Guam to many of these small islands and drops a Christmas package (with a parachute) full of stuff for the islanders. They're scheduled to come here on Wednesday and we thought that would be a site to see. Should be interesting.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Culture, Culture and more Culture

noreply@blogger.com (The Crew of Savannah) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 09:22:00 +0000

Everyone always says, "What a great opportunity you're giving Jake...to see the world and learn about other cultures..." Well, I'll tell you, he's learning culture now. And so are we...

A young boy with his ration of fish.

It's hard to sum everything up in a cohesive story so I'm not going to try. Andy has spent a fair amount of time with the men, and I with the women...so I'm going to try to just summarize what we've learned (with a little bit of my opinion, of course :) ).

There are four clans on the island. They're not necessarily family, but "like family" is what I was told. As a matter of fact, the chief's stepson, Mannuel, is in a different clan than he is. Not sure how that happens, but it does. Each of the clans control a different part of the island; one controls the sea, one the land, one the tuba (remember the coconut toddy?), and one does the administrative tasks (not quite clear what this entails yet). There was a meeting the other day (and apparently, days after that), to discuss the tuba. Since the holidays are coming up, they want to decide if they're going to let the men drink the fermented tuba, or make them drink the sweet tuba (non-alcoholic) that the women drink. They want everyone to have fun and be happy, but they don't want them drunk all the time and useless. One night, the meeting results were handed out and it was a yes, you get to drink the tuba (interestingly enough, the women have a large say so in this), but last night another meeting decided that no, you don't get to drink the tuba. I don't think it's much different than our politics at home, actually....

The fish to be divided among the various families on the island.

Michaeila (I totally spelled it wrong in the last post, sorry. Pronounced, Mi Kay La, very common at home, I just don't know how to spell) told me how women get married here. I was very curious as there just doesn't seem to be a lot to pick from. She said a boy decides he wants to marry a woman and goes to her parents and asks permission (much like we do in the south, right?). If the parents say yes, the boy and girl go "away" for a few days to get to know each other and basically to let the girl decide if she wants to marry the boy and "how" they want to get married (I don't know what "how" means). If she decides she likes him, they go back and tell her parents, yes. Then they go to each of their family's houses and tell them they're going to get married and "how" they want to get married. Then they wait for the priest. On this island, there is a deacon, so they can get married anytime they like. If they are from two different islands, the man moves to the woman's island. I like that they get to say no if they want to...

Mannuel and Andy

Mannuel, the chief's step son, paddled out to the boat yesterday to give us our ration of fish (the clan that controls the water, divides the day's catch up among the men based on the size of family. They included us in this process, therefore we received more fish than we were ever able to eat in a given meal.). He stayed and had a few cold beers (his first since being in Yap in June) and we started to talk about their traditional dress. As I've described, the men wear the cloth tied around their nether-regions, called a "thu" here and the women wear lava lava's that they make here and go shirt less as well. While I've read numerous blogs and tour guides that will lead you to believe that they are bucking western traditions, I heard it straight from the chief's son's mouth that it basically comes down to soap. Yep, soap. Only a hand full of people here have jobs....teachers, doctor, dentist, etc. No one else has any money unless they sell the occasional lava lava or basket or what have you. So the people with money, tell the people without that they don't have the money to buy soap so they shouldn't wear the shirts. If you can't afford to wash them, you shouldn't wear them. I can't make this stuff up, people. For the older generation, this really is just how they dress, but for the younger generation, it's a restriction. If we're carrying a camera, you can see the young girls put their school books up to their chests. If you do see a young man wearing a shirt, he has written on it and cut it up into his own design...trying to make a statement. Not unlike any other culture we've ever known, including our own (I remember numerous mid-drift shirts and short skirts driving fathers crazy all over my hometown back in the 80-90's). But I thought Mannuel's explanation was worth noting.

Kira and Jake playing. Kira was afraid
there were sharks in the water so we couldn't
get her off the ladder, but she had fun
anyway.

Every night we've been here (with the exception of the one night I didn't go to shore), we've had dinner cooked for us at Michaeila's house. They fry up the fish and put some taro in for us. One night they even found some breadfruit and instead of eating it themselves, they saved it for us and fried it up with our fish (breadfruit is out of season right now, so to find one is very rare). At the same time, the men are giving us our "rations." We have more fish than we know what to do with. To show my appreciation, I invited Michaeila out to the boat. She was so giddy it was like a teenager. She brought her granddaughter, Kira with her and they had a blast. Kira, of course, played with Jake (it's amazing how kids can play even when they don't speak the same language), while Michaeila and I chatted on the bow. I baked some pumpkin bread for them and made some deviled eggs...I was trying to think of something "American" that I might have the ingredients for. Turns out she loved both. We sent her home with a ton of goodies and a nice color picture printout of us on the boat. It was so funny and fulfilling to watch her so excited. She's a large woman and wasn't sure if she could climb on board, but in the end, she couldn't pass up the opportunity. And I think it made more than one woman on shore jealous...I think she liked that :).

Tomorrow is the big celebration. It's the day of Mary's Ascension. After Mass, they're having a big party, complete with turtle. The poor thing has been laying on it's back for two days huffing and puffing trying to stay alive. We thought about secretly letting it loose, but we think they harpooned it in the neck. We'll have to go for the "we're not going to waste it" attitude and have a taste tomorrow. Then on Monday, we're off....

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com