February 19, 2018 - Emidj

February 19, 2018

Pete woke me up this morning at about 6 to begin moving the boat to the seaplane ramp for the big day of sanding and painting the hulls and keels of Miss Kiss. It was a very long day and being by the school we often had much company with curious children milling about the boat checking everything out. They were respectful and moved away for the most part when Pete shooed them off. I finally went below and got some balls and some packs of small cardboard discs that they kids in Majuro use to play some kind of flip disc game and threw them out to the kids who then wandered away to play with them.

Well into the afternoon, we had barely gotten one hull and keel painted as the tide quickly began coming in again. My arms were aching from the heavy paint on an oversized roller and Pete was covered in dust and sweat, just finishing off the sanding. Exhausted with still much to go, we were both cranky and for a moment it seemed tempers might flare. The thoughts running through my head were detrimental to my well-being and I had two choices; snap back and have a huge blowout in front of the school or rearrange my attitude, finish up the work together and keep our relationship in good order. Thankfully, I chose the latter choice and working together, we were able to hustle up and get the other hull and keel painted before the water covered the keels.

We had decided to skip rinsing the boat in salt and then fresh water in favor of just wiping it down well with dry cloths to get the dust off before painting and this turned out to have been a good choice with the time constraint, but time will tell. I’m not sure when we finished up, but it was long enough before the high tide, at about 6pm, would enable us to move off the ramp and so Pete offered to clean up and put things away as I scrubber down with turpentine to get rid of the paint covering my body. For most of the painting, I had to sit in the slime under the boat and as drops of paint fell into the water they seemed to cling onto my legs. 

While I was washing up, Pete told me someone was here to see me. I looked over the side and there was a woman standing there. She raised her eyebrows in beckoning and I climbed down the ladder to speak with her. We made small talk and she asked what was wrong with the boat, how much it cost and I asked her about her family and children. She was married and her brothers and sisters had lots of kids, 11, but she didn’t have any to which I mentioned, ‘yet’ and she smiled. As we were talking she’d turn her head and spit occasionally and I figured she was chewing beetlenut, but her teeth while several missing, looked white without the deep reddish brown stains of chronic beettlenut chewers. While, enjoying our chat, my skin was itching with turpentine, so, I finally cut to the chase and asked her if there was anything she’d like. She turned, spit again and said simply, “Cookies.” That was easy, so I hopped back on board and gave her a bag of cookies and a few extra limes to boot.

After finishing washing off the turpentine, I decided to cool off with a snorkel and headed off the starboard side toward shore. The maze of concrete under the water made by the Japanese was extensive and impressive and it would be interesting to know exactly the reasoning for this structure. The sea plane ramp came out about 375 feet off shore, that and the dock were easy to understand their purpose, but why the underwater structures that spanned the 350 feet between the ramp and the dock? No camera with me either!

I returned to the boat and Pete asked me to check the water depth under the keels, still not enough room on the port side, so it was a waiting game. We had unhooked and pulled in the starboard side anchor in preparation to safely get off the ramp and soon it was time to dodge the ramp and the balmies to get back to anchor in deeper waters where Miss Kiss would be safe. With a couple of usual hitches, all went well and soon we were safely anchored in the lagoon. Two boys had helped with the bow anchor and Pete dropped my kayak while I bagged some cookies and candies and brought them to shore. There were two girls watching me as I approached and soon the boys who’d helped us followed and I handed them the goodies saying, “Komool tata, thank you.” As I turned to head back to the boat, the boys were diving into the bag and yelling, “Jab! ” (no) at the girls. Smiling, I returned to the boat.

Neither one of us were very hungry and although exhausted from the long day and stresses, we weren’t ready for sleep, so we had a few beers and talked into the night taking some time to look at the stars between the clouds.

On the seaplane ramp and waiting for low tide to begin our work

Low tide and the work begins

Miss Kiss with a new paint job and waiting for high tide