9-18-18 Pictures...of random great times and places and peoples

Its a grouper.  Add a little rice, some coconut oil and Cajun, and wowowwoowwow

The campsite has been cleaned up a little.....

Oceanside of Torruji, or Tonleli, depending on who you ask.  Doesn't mater its gorgeous.

This would be lagoon side of Tonleli/Torruji….shallow for hundreds of yards out which makes it tough to bring the fish you spear back.  The sharks are shy until about a foot or two of water.

So hermit crabs run around on this little sand filled island like ants.  Thousands upon thousands of them.  The big area we cleaned up with the rakes was empty when we arrived the next time.  Word got out six hours later and they surrounded us.  We bring food.

Normally you would see hundreds of black spots on this beach, I'm not sure why they aren't there in this pic

Hows this for a campsite?

It looks like a field.  That little white spot with the green on top at the end of the brown is an island normally.  This is a super low tide (read big moon).  All that brown is the reef.  You can walk (albeit a slippery ankle breaking walk) nearly two miles to Ebeye, three islands away.

So from the Helicopter they do these things called "reef sweeps" where they run most of the way around the Atoll and check things out.  Pilot whales can be checked out too.

So this is the a common site while camping on the islands out here.  They are full of plastic.  Maybe "full" is a bit of an exaggeration.  There are bands of this type of thing everywhere on all of the islands I've been to out here.  This is just the stuff the island caught.  So much got blown by, or washed over.  Please don't use single use plastic bottles....or $2 flip flops at the beach.

Cole, Liz, and I....camping is good

 This is Ellep.  24 miles up the lagoon.  Farthest I've been with the little Hobie.  The lagoon side on top of the water was just ok.  The Ocean side, however, was the most beautiful canyon filled reefs I've seen out here.  We need to return to this place....a complete 10 hour session of snorkeling could happen on the oceanside in those beautiful surge channels.

The surfboard was brought up in the hopes of some surfing, where the waves ended up in the deep pass, as opposed to on top of the reef.  It made a great table.  Ok so this is Bikenell.  THE most beautiful island and water out here that I've seen so far....and in case my return doesn't happen....the rest of the pictures on this post are from there.....incredible

so its been a while.....9-11-18

It's not completely that I've lost enthusiasm for this place.  It's more like a cross between being slightly, I hesitate to use the word mundane.  I had a pretty good definition of "mundane" in my head.  "Boring" was the synonym, and also my one word definition.  "Lacking interest or dull" is what google had to say.  Neither really fit.

Life here now is a cross between being way too busy to post anything and a sort of view of it all as daily life.

Guys would reply when you asked them how's it going at work (back in the states in my former life)?  There were many replies to give without giving much thought such as " another day another 52$", or some other fake number that might elicit a response.  "Another day in paradise" was also a common one.  "Same old, Same old" seemed to be popular.

My reasons for not posting as much as I used to aren't that I've taken life for granted here, it's quite the opposite.  Life here is so great that there is no time to sit here and add to this blog.  Lately, when I do have time, I spend it meaninglessly watching some Netflix or Amazon movie cause "needing to do nothing (ie read watching a movie)" is perfect.

For example: I was recently back home.  After returning on September 1st, which was a Saturday, there was a camping trip already planned leaving Sunday morning for the weekend.  Camping involves getting some stuff together and looking at the forecast to decide which boat to take (yes both small boats, but who get's to say that?!).  It was labor day weekend, so two nights were spent on a deserted island in the south pacific.  Camping also involves not a single connection to humanity either with a phone, a computer, a smoke signal, or a radio.  So Tuesday we sail back, returning around 5 pm.  I get back to my place around 7pm or so after rinsing all our stuff and so forth.  Wednesday night was surfing, Thursday was a recovery day probably watching Netflix, Friday was Ultimate frisbee, the best game on the planet.  Saturday, after work, of course was packing to go camping again on Sunday, and come back on Monday.   Tuesday was spearfishing, Wednesday surfing.  Thursday rest/pack to go camping.  Friday frisbee.  Saturday ...after work of course...get the boat nearly ready to leave at the butt crack of dawn to go camping.

You see....life is good...and I'm incredibly fortunate to be so incredibly busy doing amazing things to post on here...

However, I will be attempting to add some pictures off all this nonsense...

June 8th.....2018...finally a light wind weekend.

Most of what I type here is a little cross between "I'm excited and happy about all this and need to tell someone"..............and not wanting tell someone ie Facebook.  So I type it here, where I think its all for me, a diary of sorts with the knowledge that it is public.  That being said....

The plans for this weekend are to sail up beyond where I have been on this atoll.  I feel completely fortunate to even say...to write that I've been on an Atoll, let alone going past previous boundaries.  It's completely amazing and bewildering to me every time I head out on a trip with this little catamaran sailboat.  Who, who the hell does this?  WHO....who is as fortunate......

SO AWAY WE WENT.......

I'll step in again with the word "fortunate".

The forecast was perfect.  South east winds about 12 to 15 mph ..maybe knots...I should pay more attentions to that.  Leaving Kwaj with south east winds when you are heading to an island north west is a great thing.  It means a nice down wind journey.  It's really hard to explain how nice "downwind" is to someone who hasn't spent much time sailing.  Its just easier.  It's drier, it's less combative, it's calmer, it's quieter, it's not fighting nature.

So we had a downwind sail to the island 24 miles away.  Again, to someone who may not have much sailing knowledge or experience, that sentence would quickly be brushed off, comparing it to the car ride to your friends house in the suburbs or something.  Most in the states have no way to compare that to anything.  There are a few (who may read this) on each coast that may have gone day sailing in waters where they could just head to shore if things got out of hand.  This is (the Kwajalein Atoll) the largest lagoon in the world.  " a stretch of salt water separated from the sea by a low sandbank or coral reef."  That is how its defined with googles dictionary.  So this particular lagoon is kind of boomeranged shaped.  The widest part is maybe 30 miles wide....and from one tip to the other maybe 55 miles directly, or 70 if you stayed inside the lagoon.  It's big.  

I would guess, of the folks who have a boat as small as the Hobie Getaway, less than .5% will ever experience the love I have found from mother nature in this lagoon.  Mother nature shows you love, sometimes it's tough love.

We left as planned at ten in the morning Sunday.  Liz, Alex and I set off from the ramp.  Alex was new , but experienced with the water and with mono hull sailing.  He mentioned something about having a bad experience in his youth with the hobie catamaran sailing.

The thing about leaving Kwaj to spend the night up on the west reef is, that you can always pick the weather you leave in.  Work/life beckons and you have to return the next day.  You don't get to choose that weather.  Sure you can try.  You can look at as many forecasts as you can find, but it's still...….a guess.

Getting out of the Kwajalein harbor in southeast winds is a bit of a trick, but we managed nicely.  It's important to make a good show of sailing out and into the harbor here.  Lot's of eyes are watching, and I've not seen more than one sailboat a year try it.  It's a challenge that I love.

We made it 24 miles up the west reef of the Atoll just fine.  4 hours meant we managed 6mph.  A Hobie is capable of 15 to 16 mph, but not in rough water.  With 3 adults averaging 175lbs and basically another adult in the crap we brought, the boat was overweight.   We made good on time going downwind.  I studied a bit the images google earth had of the island we were going to.  There was a little inlet where a boat like mine could sail into.  Very shallow, but at high tide it appeared (on google earth) that it was possible.  It was possible, I just didn't do it quite right.  I grounded the boat on some loose coral but all was good.  We all jumped off into waist deep water in the lagoon side inlet and walked the boat to the south side guarded by the wind.

We found the Marshallese campsite, complete with D size batteries scattered about and palm fronds stacked up against a rope tied between trees with some on the ground for sleeping pads and various pieces of plastic trash they found useful or that found its way there.  Everyone sees this stuff on the news or otherwise regarding the amount of plastic that is in the ocean.  All of the islands out here are covered with it.  It's kind of depressing.  It's extremely depressing when you work with a bunch of people who seem to think water out of a plastic bottle is the only way to consume water out here, when Kwaj has drinking fountains chilled everywhere and the water from the tap is just fine.

From 200 or maybe even 100 yards you cannot really see the amount of plastic and trash on the island.  They all look pristine from Google Earth.  Just like I was excited about camping on this island.  Google earth and the other satellite images had me believing the island was surrounded by sand.  It wasn't.  Oceanside was covered with the same softball and larger sized coral chunks as most the other islands Oceanside.  Lagoon side many of them are a cross between cut your feet coral and sand...but no chunky coral "rocks".

We went spearfishing lagoon side in the evening.  This was my total way of getting food, outside of some stuff I had guessed Liz would bring.  We braved the breaking waves and got out there.  I didn't really like what I saw initially.  There was a lot of broken coral.  I brushed it off enough to take a shot and a miss at a nice grouper.  We spent a little more time out there in the rough water  seeing a few more good eating grouper, but I made the call  and said let's not take any fish off of this side.  Ciguatera is a reef born toxin.  Naturally occurring in the coral, ingested by smaller fish which are eatin by larger and so on.  I'll leave it to you to look up the symptoms and remedies and all.  Its not good.  The Marshallese don't eat reef fish off the Oceanside part of the east reef because the wind and the waves batter the coral breaking it up.  This reef looked a little tore up.  We had some rice and a few oranges we also had some extra fat our bodies could use to get by....except for Alex....he was a little thinner.  We also had Beer.

The rice Liz had brought was just fine.  Monday morning we woke up with the boat sitting about 30 feet from the water at around 7 am.  High tide (ie getting going...ie getting the boat out of the little lagoon) was going to be after 2pm.  I expected enough water would be in the lagoon to let us get the boat out by noon. We fooled around a little bit packing things up, then later sat in the shade to the east and read books.  The book I picked, well, didn't hold my interest so I asked the other two if they wanted to go snorkeling on the oceanside of the island.  Alex sat out and decided on a nap.

Liz and I headed west from the lagoon side of the island to the oceanside of the island with snorkeling gear and spearguns in hand.  I don't know why I took the speargun, maybe to poke a too curious shark, or maybe I thought a little breakfast of fish might work out even though there would be not much time to cook it.

On the "rebelle" map the island is pronounced "Ellep", the Marshallese call it "Eller".  Either way it was the most beautiful snorkeling I've seen since being out here.  The sunshine helps and it was sunny.  I've recently heard them called "surge channels".  This island had a ton of deep channels cut into the reef on the oceanside.  Deep channels cut with white sand infill.  Some places there were underwater "ponds" of sand.  The contrasts between the sand, the coral and the stunning blue water made it amazing.  Absolutely amazing.

Time drug us back from what could have been an entire 2 mile island snorkel. We could have easily just spent an entire 8 hour day just looking at the beauty of that reef.  We headed back to walk thru the "jungle" of what is the interior of a barely above sea level island.  Its full of small spider webs for one.  Not big spiders, but annoying webs as you try to find your way thru the mostly thin vegetation.  Sometimes there are piles of dead rotting coconuts covered by palm leaves.  Sometimes it just coral rock ranging from softball size to marble size.  It amazes me always that there is very very little soil.  Its all coral rock.  I don't get it.  Those palm trees we walk past, maybe ten in an area the size of  30 by 30 feet had to have been dropping fronds and coconuts for 30 years.  Why are there only rocks below them, it should be a thin layer of soil.  On our way thru we see many of the red "land" crabs that are always on the islands.  We passed one larger coconut crab.  I say "larger" but that is entirely in reference to what I have seen outside of Kwaj.  This one was about half the size of the largest one I've seen on Kwaj.  I'll admit, crabs kind of creep me out.  I know they taste good but picking them up with my hands even with gloves on, creeps me out.  So the little guy lived.

We messed around a little bit more somewhat taking our time breaking camp down and loading the Hobie.  I was pushing for a noon departure.  Directions were given on how we needed to depart and we started walking the boat out.  We got to a point where I just needed to stay in the shallow water and pull the boat out into the oncoming/very small chop in 2 to 4 feet of water.  Liz and Alex got on the boat and got the sails rigged and ready to go while I walked the boat out towards the lagoon full of smaller waves.  We all noticed the dark clouds coming on the horizon.  They meant at the very least rain, but usually always an upgrade in wind speed and sometimes direction.

This time it was only a change in wind speed and rain.  It was a bit of a harried exit given the rain and the increased wind speed and the rocks just downwind in the direction we were heading.  The thing about squalls is they don't immediately seem to effect the water or wave height.  The wind comes first, and it makes you a little tense.  The churned up water shows up about 5 minutes after the wind stops, and maybe ten minutes after the rain stops.

So we hit some heavy water.  It was no worse than any other water encountered on the return from a camping trip out here.  The nose would dig into a 5 to 6 foot chop and throw all the stuff on the front trampoline in the air and send water all over everything else.  It was confused 5 to 6 foot chop and we were at full sail making about 6 knots of progress at best when we weren't slamming into a wave.  It was no worse than usual, but it was bad.  Bad, considering we weren't 2.25 hours away from Kwaj, we were 4 at best if the wind stayed nice and in the right direction. 2 hours away and something happens, it's somewhat easier.  4 hours away and you'd better pray you can make an island.  "Make an island" meaning get to one of the downwind islands on the downwind side (read west reef).

We had no problems with the problemed water.  We had problems in the smoothish water less than two miles from the Kwajalein small boat marina.  Hopefully I can explain this right.  The forward rigging on the Hobie includes two small 3/16" stainless steel wires that form an eqalateral triangle with the front spar between the two hulls as the base.  The top of the triangle would be the roller furler that holds the same diameter cable that holds the Jib sail to the top of the mast.  So picture a small triangle of cables as the "legs" and the bar ( the spar that seperates the two hulls) as the base of this triangle.  Then at the top of the triangle another 12 ft or so cable goes to a point 75% up the mast.  The forward sail (the jib) is anchored on this shroud.  Let me simplify.  The mast is held up by two side wires called shrouds, and one wire that splits into two wires close to the bottom.  If any of these break, its bad news.  If any of the 3 long ones break it could mean death to those below.  The mast is 25 feet tall and weighs around 80 lbs.

May 2nd, Billy.........

I got to work today, early as usual, gave my breakfast to the guys, and then tried to figure out where I left off in the office.

The phone rang from an outside number.  I assumed it was one of our Marshallese workers letting me know he wasn't coming in.  It was Billy B.

Billy is a slim, silver grey haired Philippino guy probably near 70, at least mid 60's. with a kind face and attitude and very easy to talk to.  He made a decision to leave at the contract change in February this year.  He must have decided that after 37 years on this island he didn't want to deal with another contract change, or maybe it was simply a good time to leave in his mind.  He had been here on Kwajalein since 1990.  He must have been an American citizen, because he lived and worked here.  I only had a month to get to know him while we worked for Chugach, and that was just a few brief encounters at work in the morning.  There was another at "Camp Hamilton" where I kept the Hobie.  One morning a few of us were heading out to go sailing there.  He had a throw net and was wearing a pair of blue jean shorts looking at the water.  He told me that dark spot in the water was a school of sardines.  I'm fairly certain earlier I had mentioned in this blog my former workmate "Tiny" had told me about them.  He said they were "out of reach".  I didn't really get it at the time.  He didn't want to get in the water because he was afraid of sharks.  He never went in above his calves...

I asked him this morning how life was for him in California.  He said he wants to come back home, Kwajalein is his home.  37 years does pretty much make a place a "home".  He talked about coming back to work but there were no job openings.  He said where he lived if he wanted to go somewhere, like the beach, he had to drive.  On Kwaj he said, it was easy, after work if he wanted to go to the beach, he just got on his bike and peddled for a few hundred yards and he was on the beach.

I don't understand how people have problems with this place...

March 10th, 2018 spearfishing with Tim and Dave.....more

The last post didn't really touch on what was intended.  The three of us got in Tim's boat sunday morning with our snorkel gear, and Tim and I with our spear guns.  Dave was just out to enjoy life and see what he could see.  Actually, that could be said for Tim and I too, we just wanted to add spearing a fish to the menu.

The forecast was for 10 knot south to south east winds.   The lagoon was as smooth as it has been for a while during this windy season.  Tim had his forty horse 2 cycle at its peak with us screaming across the lagoon north to the second or third island up on the west reef. His boat is a "RIB"...read ridged bottom inflatable boat, a zodiac as most of the world knows it.

Kwajalein is pretty much the elbow of the atoll.  From Kwajalein, in the lagoon you go either northeast (going up the lagoon side leeward side of the atoll) or you go sort of northwest(heading up either the inside of the atoll (read lagoon) or go Oceanside of the atoll)).

It was nice in the morning, we sped up to south pass with very little bouncing around, very little violence.  We made it to Gea just south of that island and the pass and started there.  Most of the atolls out here on the leeward side have these beautiful canyon ladened reefs with white sand at the bottom of the canyons and spectacular  coral formations lining the shallow 10 to 20 foot canyons.  

From the surface, you approach from this deep deep blue water.  It is where the base for the color "blue" comes from.  As you approach the atoll, the island or reef, the deep blue from where the atoll depths go from a thousand feet to 80, and then quickly to 40, then within fifty or so yards its 20 or so feet deep, the blues turn into a hundred other colors of green and blue.  Its beautiful from above, just looking at it from the boat.

Once in the water snorkelling, the leeward side of the atoll in many places is incredibly beautiful.  Its like the wind came thru and dug small canyons into the reef, then nature filled them with sand.  The sand looks green from above, and slightly less so from below.  Its a beautiful contrast to the coral that surrounds it.  The coral is much darker, but much more alive, much more textured with the slow crazy growth of various other corals on top of it.  It's a hundred different types of lime, all completely beautiful and all completely different.  All thru this beautiful underwater landscape are hundreds of different fish species, incredibly beautifully different.

We got busy hunting.  Well Tim and I did, and Dave took the lookout position snorkeling around as Tim and I dove down to get some fish.  Grouper seems to be the fish to be gotten when out with Tim, (and when his brother Steve was here).  It's like the "fallback" fish if no dogtooth tuna, or trevally, jobfish, or larger mackeral show up.

Grouper is a reef fish, as opposed to a pelagic fish like the tuna, or trevally.  Tim (along with his brother Steve, now living in the states) did their research and have their opinions on what size and type of grouper should be harvested (yes, read shot).  Once you spend a little time hunting grouper on the reef, their profiles stick out like a sore thumb.  Easy to spot from a distance, even against the dark colored reef, which they camouflage themselves with.  Most times they are easy pickins.  They see you coming, stop, face off to you and then slowly turn broadside.  Most of the reef fish are more shy than this, but maybe the grouper is near the top of the food chain and has little fear.  We usually take them about end of fingers to elbow in length.  Much bigger, and the risk of the dreaded ciguatera, according to Tim and good logic, increases.  The bigger ones (I've seen up to 4 foot and around 35lbs), are even less shy then the already less shy smaller ones.  This is something I learned after swimming down to face off with one.  He won.  His large underbitten bottom lip with the fangs hanging out, his size, and his confidence made me decide going up to the surface for air was a good choice.  

March 10th, 2018 ..Spearfishing ocenside with Tim and Dave and pics of GPS tracks

Not having the opportunity (read guts) to go Oceanside much given the fears of taking the 17' Hobie Camaran to a place that offers no room for mistakes.

A snapshot of the route we took with Tim's boat on Sunday March 9th maybe.  

So this may not be the best spapshot to explain the fear or maybe respect that is needed while venturing out one of the pass's to Oceanside west reef.  The wind nearly always blows from east to west down here, this time of year its normally fairly strong, around 15 to 25 knots.  So, in the snapshot above from the  GPS tracks app on my phone, the wind comes from the right and goes left.  Any time  a boat is to the right of the west reef -still in the lagoon (ie the land mass in the pics which is the lower western part of the Kwajalein Atoll), it is somewhat safe.  If something were to go wrong with ....whatever is driving your boat, be it sails, motors or whatever....there is always a shallow spot to catch an anchor on if one is on the right side, the upwind side of the reef.  It's a failsafe.

Writing about it now, kind of makes me realize I shouldn't be so fearful.  There are many other "failsafes" other than catching the anchor on the reef as one gets swept out to sea beyond the west reef.  The regulations out here, which aren't always followed, but are by this boat captain, contain many failsafes.  

A float plan is filed before you take your boat out.  You carry a radio, and many like myself, have an PLB (personal locator beacon) which once its been wet for a while, or activated by you, its sends a distress signal to the coast guard.  It works, I've seen it in action, from a PLB 6 years old.  It works, I was there when the coast guard from Hawaii called Jobe.  The regulations also stipulate that you have a "second form of propulsion" if going Oceanside west reef.  The regulation is vague on what that entails.  It could be oars, fins (read flippers), or it could be a second motor, or second sail.  Most people with respect to the danger (read: not many of the Marshallese (that do not of course, fall under our base rules)) have a second motor, or in the case of a sailboat, a motor in case the sails fail for some reason.

The thing is, you don't want to have to be rescued, especially as a private boat owner.  It's tantamount to military justice.  YOU mess up and everyone pays.  You don't want to be that guy.  Also, its a very big ocean, if you screw up late in the evening, the helicopter doesn't come out until the next morning, so there is that.

Ok, now I'll find some more pictures of GPS tracks....

So these are two screenshots taken from my phone with the GPS deal on.  The first one shows a broader view of the second one.  We sailed the Hobie up to go kiteboarding.  If you follow it right, you can see the tacking required with both the sailboat, and the kiting.

THIS place.............

It's a U.S Army Garrison.  I have no idea what that means, except that there are more rules than in most places.  When you arrive (from the states) you are sort of escorted into a block structure within a fence.  Its about the only place that gives one the "feel" that it is an Army Post.