Blog Entry 14 – 4th October 2008

JACK:

Hi Folks,

Well we have arrived at Fanning Island (‘Tabuaeran’ in the native tongue) this morning in the republic of Kiribati pronounced (khi-rii-bass) made up of the Gilbert, Line and Phoenix Islands discovered by US explorer Edmund Fanning in 1798 and annexed by Great Britain 1889. 

            Fanning is a little out of our way from the direct route Honolulu to Pago Pago however its isolation is its attraction being 1040 NM from Honolulu and 1250 NM from Pago, boy is this isolated.  So for the Burraneer bay crew mapping our progress we are located 03 51N, 159 22W.

            The lagoon is large and deep in places and reasonably protected although the sand and coral holding ground would require a constant anchor watch even in moderate winds.  Being fair minded we took a vote on this and Scott lost.  This said it’s a nice location to rest a while and being 5pm in the afternoon Roger is preparing his marinated steaks to go with red wine compliments of Erin and Leon so perhaps it will be a fairly relaxed evening and in air conditioned comfort watching some of our 300 movies thanks again Erin, Leon, Danni and Taylor for insisting that we take some entertainment. 

Bruce, thanks for the interesting email and yes there are now two radio masts although neither were of assistance when we attempted to contact the harbour master to confirm entry conditions and pilotage, the entry is narrow with an ebb tidal flow of 8 knots so dodging coral heads etc raised some sweat and my comments about the work ethic of the locals perhaps left something to be desired.

We had a look round this afternoon and I would like to get stuck into this place with a D9 to make way for a 5 star accommodation.  Tomorrow they have some ‘Teachers day celebration’ and the boys promised to attend a tribal get together to eat some pig.  Not seeing too much soap around the place or washing facilities, I am volunteering for anchor watch at this time.  That’s all from me as roger just called out the steaks are done.

All the best,

Jack.

SCOTT:

Hello all,

Today has been very long but also very interesting.  From 3AM we have been awake, negotiating the small and difficult entrance to this atoll with neither of the nav computers being any help because the maps were out by a few degrees which made it look like we were about to mount the reef yet we could see that we were clearly in the right spot.  After sliding through the 50-meter gap unscathed we found it difficult then to moore amongst the wrecked ships and large sections of coral.  All good fun and nice now that we are sitting in a still lagoon in the clearest most turquoise coloured water surrounded completely by coconut trees.  Tomorrow Brian and I are going to grab a couple of large sacks and get some nuts from a place out of the village a bit.  We will compare the colour and size of our nuts then Brian will share his nuts with Jack and I’ll probably give Roger a taste of mine. 

We went for a walk around today and the people are still living like they probably did 100 years ago.  They have pigs and chooks running free around the dirt streets with the young kids who live their lives free from clothes and worries no doubt.  It looks as though white man has had an influence from time to time with the odd brick building and lightweight truck that now have been abandoned and left to decay.  This tells me that they have no need or desire to use modern equipment, even the fish traps being used were made completely from natural materials.  Some of the pictures we have will blow you away…

Until next time.