Monthly Archives: December 2024

Christmas in a Remote Atoll

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It is always hard being away from your family and friends on special occasions like Christmas.  However, we always try to make the best out of every opportunity and this year was extraordinary.

We decided to stay in Likiep longer than planned for two reasons.  One: our friends on Totem were coming from Majuro and they were bringing us a small bit of food (eggs, milk, some produce) and a few parcels. This might not seem like a big deal to you because you can run down to the local store.  However, Matt and I have been away from “stores” for 2 months and have not had fresh produce, milk, or eggs in almost 2.5 months.  So we are super excited about our pending delivery (and seeing our friends!).

Two: we’ve met several super cool locals and really wanted to celebrate the holiday with them.  

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza

My grandmother had a tradition of bringing the family together for cookie baking day. I loved it!  Not only because I love to bake but also because it just brings such joy.  So, I have tried to continue this tradition every year.  I would invite my friends over to help me decorate (as this is truly my least favorite part of cookie baking day).  We always had so much fun, usually with wine and always with great company and tasty cookies.

It is a little harder to host cookie baking day on the boat, but I’ve been able to continue the tradition.  This was the first year that I had no friends around to invite over so I was “stuck” doing all of the decorating myself.  So forgive the sugar cookie designs.

It took me 3.5 days to bake 200 Gingerbread cookies, 150 Sugar Cookies, 100 White Mice (or Mexican Wedding Cookies), 2 batches of toffee, and 100 chocolate brownie peppermint bark cookies.

I then assembled 7 Christmas boxes and filled them with a variety of cookies.  It was so fun sharing them with the locals!

Decorating the Boat

We have such a small space but I always add some Christmas cheer.  

Christmas Church Services

My friends on Totem (Jamie and Behan) attended church with me at the Holy Rosary Catholic church.  RMI flew in a priest from Majuro (who is actually Fijian) to provide the services.  Fr. Maurice is lovely and reminded us how much we missed the Fijians! 

Most of the service was in Marshallese, but a small portion was in English.  It was so nice to see everyone dressed up, most in green and red clothing.  We recognized a few of the songs (the melody) and were able to sing along in an English version which warmed my heart.

After services we all gathered for a Christmas photo.

The chapel was decorated with love and presented a beautiful setting for the service.  I just love the giant clam shell for the Holy water.  

They had the most beautiful nativity set on display.

The Christmas Feast

Several days of preparation, 6 kitchens, and every family were involved in preparing for the Christmas Feast held at the community center.  We (Totem: Jamie and Behan and Queen Jane: Kate and Jordan) showed up and were met with smiles.  They placed beautiful floral leighs around our necks and escorted us to the guest table of honor at the front of the hall.  We sat amongst the priest, the senator, the head of the Cappelle and deBrum families and other special honored guests.  It was very unexpected and a complete honor.

The program included speeches from Paul, the acting mayor Paul, Junior (PJ deBrum) the head of the deBrum Family, head of the Cappelle family, the senator, and several others.  Fr, Maurice gave a welcome and closing prayer.  And in between, they gifted each child with a present, sang many songs and performed many dances to entertain the village.

The very large feast was served on handwoven baskets and included chicken, ham, hot dog, breadfruit, potato salad, rice, cookies, brownie, coconut water and juice.  They served the guests at the tables first, then everyone else stood in line to get their plates.  Pretty amazing that they were able to feed 140 adults plus all of the children!

Present Time

The Christmas presents were piled high.  One for every child.  Each child was called up to receive their gift and then everyone celebrated their blessing.  The deBrum family gifted us a beautifully woven crown, a necklace adorned with shells, fresh coconut oil, and some coconut “hooch”.

A few of the children came up dancing and earned a very large round of applause!  It was really amazing and heart warming to see the pure joy of the other kids celebrating their friends as they received their presents.

What a truly a magical Christmas holiday.  It was a huge privilege to be honored and loved by all of the locals on Likeip.  What a blessing.

This blog post was inserted , out of order, to coincide with the holidays. I am sure you understand.  Our blog posts will resume in the new year in the order we explored.  In our last post we explore that absolutely amazing treasures in the sea in Enemonit.

Enemonit & its Sunken Treasures

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Enemonit (also known as Anemwanot) motu is a short 5 nautical miles away from the hustle and bustle of the main town of Majuro.  It is located on the east side of the Majuro atoll and has 5 moorings provided by the local yacht club, Meico Beach Yacht Club.

This beautiful motu owned by the Kramer family (who also owns the largest construction business in Majuro, PII: Pacific International Inc.)  They offer tours and day trips to their beautiful island for $25 per visitor booked in advance.  

We happened to pick up the mooring right in front of the community center and main dock.  The good thing about this location is that we get a nice breeze and are located right next to the artificial reef in the Enemonit lagoon.  The bad news is we get a swell (coming from between the islands),  we get all of the boat traffic from the visiting boats, and we get visitors from shore.  But we make due as this is such a beautiful spot.

Artificial Reef

I am not sure who decided to make the lagoon in front of Enemonit an artificial reef but we are sure glad they did.  Snorkelers and divers can find a DC-3 airplane, (2) Huey Helicopters, a large ferry ,and several mechanical parts strewn around the lagoon.  The depths of these artifacts range from 5-60 meters.

These items provide a place for corals, anemones and fish to flourish. 

Most of the artifacts are right next to our mooring (as you can tell from the image below).  The 2nd Huey is behind our boat about 100-150 meters along the ridge.  But you can easily partk your boat in the first mooring and snorkel to all of these sites including (2) Huey Helicopters, (1) DC-3 Airplane, and a large, double decker ferry.

These are shots taken from the boat looking down at both the airplane and the ferry – that is how close we are to them. The bottom photo has our swim ladder in the lower right corner.

The Douglas DC-3 Airplane 

The DC-3 transport aircraft is the world’s first successful commercial airliner.  It was easily adapted to military use during WWII.  The DC-3 first flew in 1935 and was a low wing, twin engine monoplane that could carry between 21-28 passengers or carry 2,724kg (6,000lbs) of cargo.

The sunken DC-3 here in Enemonit was acquired by Sea Star in the early 1980’s (a Marshall Islands company that operated for a few years).  The airline went defunct and the DC-3 sat at the airport for many years.  It had no engines and was finally scrapped and sunk in the Enemonit lagoon (a short distance away from a Huey Helicopter).

The DC-3 is sunk in about 4-5 meters of water which is really shallow considering its size.

As you can see, Matt can easily free dive down to the plane. I am about 3 meters (12′) deep and he is maybe 6-7 meters.  He is pointing out the name “Sea Star” which is partially missing.   There are six windows on this plane but most are missing.  The tail (top right) is completely missing.  Check out our svSugarShack Instagram page for videos.

Huey Helicopter

The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, aka “Huey” is a utility military helicopter.  It was the first turbine-powered helicopter in service with the U.S. military.  This helicopter had a single turboshaft engine with two blade main and tail rotors.

The Huey helicopter sits in about 12 meters (40′) of water on Enemonit’s sea bed. Visitors can see the Huey from the water’s surface.  Locals placed this helicopter here on purpose with a missing tail and propeller.  

It provides a place for many corals and fish and sits next to the DC-3 (C-47) and a ferry boat.

Matt was able to swim down to the Huey and took a great video. These photos were from the video (you can see the video on the svSugarShack Instagram page.  Pretty eerie to be honest.

There is a second Huey Helicopter with a little bit different design (you can see it only has one side door) and it was a little more intact.  However it was much further down so the photos are a bit grainy and blurry.  We hope to go back and dive this entire site and maybe we can get better photos.

Ferry Oleanda

The Oleanda Ferry was used as the main source of transportation at the Rongelap atoll (a Northern atoll).  The ferry was decommissioned and moved to Majuro. Oleanda was eventually added to the artificial reef at Enemonit. The ship is about 10 meters deep and was located right under our boat!  My photos (bottom two) are grainy because I could not get down close enough without my dive gear.  However, I was able to snag a photo from Sailing Double Trouble’s YouTube video, top photo.

Future Coral Pieces

We found several pieces of debris around the reef as well.  These are very large and could be used as a mooring.

The Reef

There are lots of vibrant bommies with tons of sea life including several beautiful Feather Duster worms. Feather Duster Worms (Corallimorphs) thrive on a specific amount of elevated iron concentration.  The high number of WW2 wrecks provide the correct percentage.

There are also loads of little fish all around the bommies and small amounts of grouper swimming around.

So many schools of little fish around each coral bommie.

We were here during a King Tide which brings really big tides, about 2 meters (over 6′).  You can see the dock before and after each tide.

Being at the first mooring gave us the best view to watch the beautiful full moon rise over the palm trees.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We visited Enemonit toward the end of October.  Don’t miss our adventures at Eneko which we shared in our last blog post.

Eneko, a Divine Motu in Majuro

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We finally get away from the main anchorage of Majuro and head 6 miles away to the beautiful motu of Eneko (also known as Enigtu).  It is a short one hour motor before we pick up one of the Mieco Beach Yacht Club moorings.  Since we are members, yes, we joined the local yacht club, we get to stay on the moorings for free.

To give you an idea of the difference between the “town of Majuro” and the more elegant motus check out these photos.  Majuro is densely populated with almost every square inch covered in buildings, houses, trash, and facilities (shown in lower left image with white covering the island.  Then you come to the motus where there might be one or two houses (and they are mostly solid green).

The actual photos don’t do it justice, but I think you get the general idea…

Eneko

Eneko is owned by the Reimer family which own several business and a lot of land in the main island of Majuro.  They also own the Robert Reimers Enterprises Hotel (one of two hotels on the island).   The hotel offers its guests “get aways” for a small fee of $30USD return shuttle or a day out.  It is far more beautiful than Majruo.

This little motu is said to have one of the most beautiful beaches in atoll.  Since we can’t go ashore to most of the other motus It is hard to say if we agree with this statement. However, we are the only boat here and enjoy plenty of sunsets to ourselves.

There is a pretty shallow shoal close to the shore so they have rigged the funniest mode of transport.  About 100 yards from shore is a huge mooring.  On this mooring is an upside, small catamaran that they have deemed suitable transport to shore.  When boats come in they tie tup to the catamaran and pull the line attached to shore.  Their guests can transfer to the catamaran or they can use the catamaran to guide their boat to shore.

Exploring the Other Motus

We take the dinghy out to go for a ride and check out the other atolls.  Usually, we are able to go ashore and walk around (in other countries), but here in RMI they don’t allow that since they are all privately owned.

The water is so very beautiful as it shimmers a turquoise blue so clear you can see the tiny feeder fish on the bommies.

There are just some of the motus we found we houses on them.  Some have cement retaining walls, some are hidden amongst the trees and vegetation, and some are screaming for a Texas BBQ party.

This place just puts a smile to my face and literally makes my soul sing!

Getting to Work

We actually came out for a little work.  We had not had a chance to clean our water line or the bottom of the boat since we left Vanuatu (about 6 weeks ago).  There was muck growing and it needed to be gone like yesterday.  However, Matt could not get in the water because he decided he needed to tear off the toenail on his little toe.  It then got infected so he is on antibiotics and has to stay out of the water until it is healed.

So, it is up to me to do the cleaning, ugh!  Normally we do this together.  I clean the water line, the SSB plates, the refrigeration plates, the rudders, and the bulk of the hulls as far down as I can reach while holding my breath.  He then uses the hooka (type of diving apparatus) to clean the belly of the boat.  I really don’t like using the hooka because it is very hard to breathe.  So, I do everything else over the course of two days and over 5 hours.  It was exhausting.  

We had some soft growth (the green beard), some brown muck on the waterline, some small barnacles and a few wormy things.  Known the less, they all had to go. 

The next day I went snorkeling.  I came back to the boat I noticed soft growth had already started to stick to my clean hulls.  The nerve!

Snorkeling

We were told there is a sunken ship behind our mooring, but it’s 20-30 meters of water.  Since we are not diving, we will have to check it out the next time we come back to Eneko!  What did I see? Schools of fish, a school of squid, a dog face puffer, lots of queen angel fish and some worm fans.

We really enjoyed our time in Eneko and did not want to leave.  But I had to go back to Majuro to attend an appointment at the U.S. Embassy to renew my passport.  So, we say goodbye to Eneko for now…we will return.

Out blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  We spent our time in Eneko during the first few weeks of October 20024.  Read about Majuro, the “big city” of the Marshall Islands.