After living onboard Sugar Shack for the past 8 years you’d think that we’d be used to living off the grid. We certainly have stayed in very remote places like Gambier, Vanuatu, Tonga, Easter Island, and Juan Fernandez Island. However, we have never lived “off the grid” for more than a month.
The above remote locations would get supply ships every 3 months so there was some produce coming into the islands. There was always a place to dispose of your trash. In addition, a few places had locals who had beautiful vegetable and fruit gardens. So, we were “roughing it” but we were not totally off the grid.
So, what does it mean when I say we are “living off the grid?” We left Majuro, the main island in the Marshall Islands in late October 2024 and did not return to civilization until mid-February 2025. Four months “off the grid” with no where to dispose of trash or recycling. Three months without fresh produce, milk, and eggs. And we spent 2 months without snacks. Are you getting a clear picture of this?
Shopping
That is a word I’ve learned to envy. I thought I had provisioned our boat for a four month journey, but boy was I wrong! Eggs are super precious and hard to come by even in Majuro. When you buy a dozen eggs you will most likely find between 5-6 of them are bad. So even though we left with 36 eggs, we ran out after 2 months. Probably my fault as I am a huge baker and most of my recipes call for eggs! We also ran out of milk and all of our fresh produce (carrots, cabbage, bell peppers, onions, potatoes, and cheese) in our 2nd month.
We met a local who ran a small store out of his house on Likiep. Lucky for us, he just got a shipment from Majuro after being empty for the past 4 months. He sold me a dozen eggs and powdered milk. And our friends on Totem came direct from Majuro to spend Christmas with us and they brought us 2L milk, 2 dozen eggs, cabbage, carrots, and a little cheese. A wonderful Christmas present for us!
Starting on our 3rd month, we ran out of snacks including (chips, crackers, cheeses, nuts, breakfast bars, etc…). To be honest that sucked!
Now don’t go feeling sorry for us as we have plenty to eat! We knew we would be living off the grid so we packed two freezers full of meats including chicken, pork, fish, burgers, ribs, and some frozen vegetables. We also bake lots of items including pizzas, english muffins, bread, cookies, rolls, focaccia, and more.
What Was Left?
By the time we head back to Majuro we had shut down one freezer and our frigerator only had drinks (tea, water) and condiments. We were out of all fresh produce, eggs, milk, snacks, cheese, and butter. Really limited as to what we could make and bake.
Disposing of Trash
As we explore the outer atolls of the Marshall Islands, we have to find new ways to stow garbage. We visit Maloelap, Wotje, Ailuk, Likiep, Rongerik, Rongelap, and Alinginae. None of these atolls have processes to dispose of trash.
Living off the grid means you have to be very creative when it comes to your trash and recycling. Well, truth be told, there is no recycling in the Marshall Islands. We divide our trash into paper and cardboard goods, cans and aluminum, glass, and plastic.
Now, please don’t freak out when I tell you what’s next. Under any other circumstances we would dispose of everything properly. However, the locals in the outer atolls do not have any way to dispose of their own trash let alone visitors rubbish. And there just is not room on our boat for 4 months of trash.
We stuff large plastic containers (juice bottles or peanut butter containers) with smaller plastics (cheese wrappers, foil, etc…). When I say we “stuff” the bottles, we really stuff them, using a stick to push it all the way down to fill it to the rim. We had dozens of these containers packed full.
Burnable Items
On every island we found these beacon stands that are part of the FADs (fishing aggregating device). We took a wide one and modified it. Matt cut out holes toward the bottom to let oxygen in and we used them as fire stations. All of the paper (toilet paper, paper towels, cardboard) is easily burned. We placed the beacon near the water line and low tide. This ensures that we leave no trace or ashes.
A close up shot of the personal incinerator.
Glass and Aluminum
Matt squishes all of the cans and aluminum using a heavy duty vice. We stow the crushed cans until we return to Majuro. I think we had well over 100 crushed cans.
For the most part, we stashed most of our glass containers on onboard. However, once, we removed the lids, and shattered the bottles. This was done while we were out in the middle of the ocean (not in the lagoon). This was a last resort as we ran out of room. But we did return to Majuro with a giant bag of our remaining glass bottles.
Summary
Again, please be gentle on us as this was the first time we lived off the grid for this long. We truly had no other course of action. Normally, we live to protect the environment and do all that we can to keep her clean.
It can be easy to judge when you sit at home with a bi-weekly trash and recycling pickup. But when you are out in the middle of the ocean on a small island with no way to dispose of your trash, you do the only thing available to you which is to either burn it or toss it in the ocean. We’d prefer not to have our trash floating in the ocean which eventually ends up on the very islands we enjoy visiting.
Hopefully this gave you a little idea of what it is like to live off the grid. Truth be told, I hope we don’t have to do this again – for this long. I am good for a month, but four months seemed a bit too long to me.
Our blog posts run 4-6 weeks behind actual live events. We were living off the grid from October 2024-February 2025. Did you read about what we have to pay to have internet access in our last blog post?
