Tag Archives: motu

The Motus of Wotje

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Wotje is our second atoll that we have visited in the Marshall Islands.  We spent a large part of our time at the Wotje motu discovering their WWII remnants.  However, we also spent a lot of time exploring their beautiful motus.

A motu is a small, low-lying island or islet. It’s often used to describe islands made of coral and sand in tropical regions, especially in the Pacific Ocean.  

We start our explorations with the neighboring motus. There are 4 that we circumnavigate over several hours.  We have to work with the tides as it can be challenging to cross between motus.  So, we leave an hour before low tide which gives us about 3-3.5 hours of exploring.  Perfect for these 4 little spits of lands.

Normally Matt and I prefer to walk in flip flops, but with the terrain on the motus we have to resort to wearing shoes.  About 1/4 of the islet will be sand with small pebbles.  But at least 1/2 of the motu is made of sharp coral and reef which is difficult to traverse in anything but shoes.

The water is so clear it does not even look like it is there.  In the top photo, there is water from me all the way to the dinghy.  The 2nd left photo is one of our crossings between motus.  The water is about knee high with a current coming from the ocean to the lagoon.

We meet some new friends including a grasshopper, lizard and lots of crabs.

The Unfortunate Truth

We come across this recently beached boat from Ecuador.  Highly suspicious and probably a drug boat.  It is over 6,000 nautical miles from home.  Parts of fiberglass were strewn all over the beach.  Drugs are rampant in the Marshall Islands and some drug runners use this as a transition spot into Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii.

I would be remiss if I did not show all aspects of motu walking.  Unfortunately, across every country, every island has trash.  The windward side being a collective area for everything plastic including tons of flip flops.  Marshall Islands are no exception.  

One thing we have never seen before in any of the countries we’ve been to over the last 8 years is a half melted mannequin. Of course Matt could not just leave her on the rocks…he had to position her sitting up.

We also take the opportunity to burn some of our trash.  We have been away from civilization for about a month now with nowhere to dispose of our trash.  So we take our paper and cardboard trash and burn it in an old FAD beacon.  We leave no mark on the beach.

In the end, we walked about 15 motus within the Wotje atoll.  Not very many considering there are over 75 motus around the perimeter of Wotje.

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred around mid-November 2024.   In our previous two blog posts we showcase all of the WWII remnants we found on Wotje including more anti-aircraft guns, coastal guns, bunkers, and several sunken planes and ships.  Part I and Part II.

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.

Boobies in Paradise

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A boobie is a type of bird, so get your mind out of the gutter!  We discover several motus where many birds are mating for the season.  There are nests high up in trees, on the ground, and at eye level – basically everywhere!  But we of course focus on the boobies.

In the southeast corner of Toau, there are many little motus and spits of land that don’t even qualify as a motu.  We explore many of them in search of sea treasures and good photo ops.

One palm motu:  this beautiful spit of sand has one lone palm tree thriving on it.  There is not much to this motu other than the tree, but it is fun to share its small piece of paradise.

Toau Motu

Toau Motu

Three palm motu:  from afar, it looked like there were only three palm trees on this motu, but as it turned out there were about 8 bunched together.  Clearly someone is caring for them as they were well trimmed and the dead palms were removed.

Typical Motu:  covered with brush, trees, palms, and more.  This little motu had a small reef around it, lots of coral and rock.  And a surprise to us a tall wifi repeater (getting wifi from Fakarava and sending it to the pass anchorage).  Of course, we couldn’t get any wifi as we were not at either end of the repeater.

On the same motu as the wifi repeater are tons of mating birds including lots of boobies.

Boobies

We found lots of white, fuzzy baby boobies in the trees.  They are pretty easy to spot as they stick out against the green leaves.  The top left photo is of a mom still protecting her egg.

Baby Boobies

Baby Boobies

On the ground, on some bushes, and between the rocks were lots of baby bird eggs.

We were clearly disturbing the birds so we gave them a wide birth.  But even with our best efforts, they were unhappy so we left the boobies alone.

We had great fun exploring a lot of the motus in the SE corner of Toau, but it was time for us to continue SE.

Passage Toau to Fakarava

It is only 15nm from the Toau pass to the Fakarava North pass which should technically take us about 3-3.5 hours to sail.  However, the wind was not cooperating and we are had tack several times making our 15nm sail a 40+nm sail and taking well over 5 hours.  Lucky for us it was not a problem as we were trying to time slack tide at the Fakarava pass and our longer than normal jaunt worked out perfectly.

We get the hook down in time to enjoy a quick dinner at our favorite tapas place in Fakarava called Hirinaki Lounge and then we were off to bed as it had been a long day.

The  last blog we sail to and arrive in Toau and search for sea treasures.   Events from this blog post occurred mid-November.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.