February 21, 2018 - Emidj

February 21, 2018

Pete spent the day working on electronics like the autohelm, trying to figure out some power issues, making water as well as a few other things that needed doing. I did a load of laundry, baked focaccia bread and mixed grain bread and finished reading a good book. I also cooked up one of the breadfruit as it was quite ripe and it really smelled bad with a strong odor, but it tasted just fine. Not sure why that happened.

It doesn’t seem like much work for a day and it certainly wasn’t a strenuous day, but also there is no dishwasher or washing machine on most boats.  For us, clothes are washed in salt water we bring up from the ocean in a 2-gallon bucket to dump into the five-gallon wash bucket. The clothes are then hand washed, wrung out, rinsed in another bucked of fresh salt water, wrung again, more salt water, all again and finally put into a fresh water rinse. The dishes are pretty much the same process with only one salt water rinse and then fresh. All this is done in the cockpit outside because there isn’t room in the galley. We also shower with a camp shower in the scuppers of the cockpit as well. If there’s no rain, then we have to make all the fresh water from salt water and keep track of time so the water doesn’t overflow the containers.  If there is rain most of the water is collected from the solar panels and drips/pours into a bucket below to fill the boat water container and 2 other water jugs. There’s also a couple of other buckets, but they don’t gather as much as the solar panels. We do have to make all of our drinking water from salt water. Pete used to do all this by manpower – his- but luckily now has a water maker. The solar panels and wind generator are the means of powering the boat and if there’s no sun or rain, there is a gas generator that Pete will run to power up the batteries. So, boat living is not exactly luxurious, but you sure can’t beat the experiences with people, scenery and wonderful adventures.

As we were sitting around at cocktail hour (about 5:00), we heard voices calling to us and looked out to see the only motorboat on island – there are no cars here, no roads, only footpaths – approaching with two women and a man in it. It is a small, brightly painted wooden motor boat with and outboard engine and didn’t seem to quite fit all three people. Pete and I waved hello and motioned we’d be back in a minute as we wanted to put on T-shirts as shoulders should be covered to show respect. I should have put on longer shorts, too, but was hurrying trying to get back to greet them. They handed up the largest bunch of bananas I’ve ever seen and a small bag of drinking coconuts before the women came aboard. The man left in the boat and we were told he was going fishing for us. We all sat down for a chat and discovered that the one woman was the same one who had asked me for the cookies on Monday. She’d brought her mother along who is a councilwoman here. The mother had 12 children, 4 boys, eight girls and over 50 grandchildren. She was 62 years old, but looked to be in her late forties with a lovely face, clear complexion and beautiful smile that sparkled in her eyes as well.  I got together a care package for them with some thread and needles, cookies, a pair of goggles and a few toys for the kids along with some money for the bananas and coconuts. Pete asked them if they’d like to see the boat and they jumped at the chance. As he was showing them around, he noticed the mother looking at herself in the mirror and smoothing her hair, smiling. So, he asked her if she’d like to have it and she was thrilled. It was a 12 x 12 mirror, the kind you buy in packs and he had more stored away. It was held onto the wall with small holders, so he twisted them, took out the mirror, brought it to me and I went down to find some cardboard so we could wrap it up for safe keeping during their boat ride to shore. Pete had also put the coconuts below to empty the large, woven rice bag they’d brought them in as he knows how valuable they are to the people and they were grateful for his thoughtfulness. We talked about the school and the children, how lovely it is here and thanked them for letting us visit and stay a couple of extra days. They were interested in our life in Majuro, our families, where we were from and where I’d stayed when working at Assumption and Pete told them stories of his visit here before and other travels. They were quite interested to know about us and we asked them questions in return. Often the daughter translated for her mom and there was much conversation and laughter all around. After about an hour or so, the older man returned and we assumed he was the mother’s husband. He hadn’t had any luck fishing, but we thanked him for trying and for the lovely things they’d brought to us. Pete helped the ladies back into the boat with a bit of a struggle, but no one fell in the water, so it was good. They were very grateful for all the gifts we’d given them and with ‘thank yous’ all around they headed back to shore.

Neither one of us were too interested in dinner by that time, so we had another glass of wine and talked about the ladies’ visit with smiles of enjoyment, planned our day tomorrow and read our books before deciding to get some sleep.