[password] shipnavire1
[status]
:position 07 06.248n 171 22.386e
:image Bilgewater band
:image lobster for dinner
:image All dressed up for Constitution Day

David
It rained. Several times. We are restraining ourselves from believing the drought broken, the summer rains arriving. Our cockpit remains festooned with every available container, now brimming with water, glorious, delicious rainwater.
I tentatively regard the course I'm teaching to be going ok. Of the ten starters, seven attend regularly and more or less on time. There is much humour and fun and even more discussion, questions and stories. Cases are discussed and several have asked for supervision. We are nearly half way through.
The fleet is thinning, some heading south to Fiji, others south east to Tonga, one or two sailing west for Micronesia and the Philippines, the rest, about seven, taking on the vast North Pacific sailing for Hawaii, Alaska, Vancouver and California. Soon there will be just nine yachts, three of which are here long term and three are Jehovah's Witness missionaries who are relentlessly lovely and just a little scary. They don't proselytise for which I'm thankful although we had a bible pressed upon us early on. It remains on board on the notion that, well, you never know. It's a big ocean out there.

Janet
We are settling into a routine here. David works Tuesday and Wednesday, and has music practice on Thursday. I do laundry and shopping on Tuesday (senior discount day), and go to the university on Wed and Thurs. My one to one student work is slow to take off, there just isn't a culture of it here. However the students I do have are very pleased with the service. I continue to work on developing a business mentoring programme with one of the MBA staff. The rest of the time is domestics, the endless list of boat tasks and a remarkably buoyant social life, within the fleet and onshore.
David is rebuilding the galley bench. It was old and permanently stained. The stars aligned and a piece of good looking formica was going spare (someone had imported it, can't get anything decent here), and it transpired that the guy on the boat next door has installed lots of benches in his time (and is leaving soon), and is now David's advisor. So the time to do it was now. The new surface is transformative. Its clean!!! But God what a messy process it all is.
The boat is a total workshop. We are camping in the cockpit, washing dishes in a bucket. The bedbug fumigation man came for a second round this week too and so far things are looking good. We examine the formerly infested area with a torch each morning and are finding fewer and fewer bugs. Although I still keep imagining the bugs crawling on my skin. So by the end of the month we'll have a functioning galley, no bugs (fingers crossed) and maybe can reassemble the main cabin. Bring it on.
We celebrated Anzac Day at the Australian naval base. It was lovely gathering at dawn with a group of Aussies and one or two kiwis, and raising flags. There was even a bugle player.
Slowly getting to know our host nation. The few Marshallese we have got to know are mostly David's work colleagues and they are just lovely. They have welcomed us ribelle (white people) into their family.
Now if you are imagining coconut palms hanging over the shore, pristine sea water with brightly coloured coral gardens, and thachted huts thats not this place. Where we are anchored off is not very attractive. The streets are dry and dusty, not many palm trees. The buildings are ugly. There is an extrordinary amount of traffic for such a small place. Customer service is not evident, the best place to eat in town is Navire, good food hard to find on land. The newspaper is full of stories about corruption. Our neighbour has been hired by the police as an adviser as the police force is not functioning very well. We are truly in a third world country. But all so very very interesting.
In just over two months we wing our way to Canada for six weeks vacation. Imagine shops, showers, the trappings of the western world. Will I be overwhelmed or love every minute of it?
Send news of home. We love to hear about your lives, your families, even news of New Zealand. We haven't heard any international news for months, let alone about NZ.
Cheers
Janet and David[END]