So, it turns out we aren’t quite pioneers. When we arrived we inquired about other visiting yachts, and apparently a single hander had just left. But they don’t get many boats; they don’t even get one per year, so I think when all is said and done this just might be the most remote place we’ve visited. And we loved it.
After navigating through the pass and anchoring near the main village, we were immediately visited by a local fishing boat (small fiberglass skiff, in Mexico we would call it a panga). On board was a man called Martin who spoke very good English, and we soon learned that he was the sitting MP (Member of Parliament) for Aranuka. He stopped by to welcome us and to invite us to shore to his house and then to watch some dancing at a New Year’s Day celebration. We quickly accepted, and when we pulled the dinghy up to his house, we sat around relaxing, drinking coconut water and talking; and we also met Martin’s wife Tamere. There was a group of men drinking kava, so we asked about it having just come from Fiji and all. Apparently, they love to drink kava there, but they don’t grow it, rather they purchase the powder in a bag in Tarawa. We told Martin we still had some dried Yaqona from Fiji on board, and we’d love to give him some, but he said they don’t have the tools to grind it. That’s why they buy the powder. Too bad. (Spoiler alert: we will end up carrying that bundle of Yaqona all the way up to Marshalls and back, but it won’t quite find its way back to Fiji.)
Then Martin took us on a tour of the village. We met many people that day and felt very welcome in the village. We were invited to not one, but two New Year’s Day church celebrations (more about that to follow) and overall it was a fantastic day, although Brenden did spend some time in the jail. Alex didn’t go with us to shore that day, because he was sick with a sore throat and a fever.
The jail clearly doesn’t get used very often
In fact, our entire 10 day stay in Aranuka was pretty fantastic. The people there were very welcoming and very generous, although the kids were a bit shy.
The next day we went to shore in search of internet, onions, and any sort of fresh vegetable we could find. First, we found the onions at one of the little shops, well, that was easy. Next up we started asking people about how to get internet, and we were eventually directed to the government building, where we asked some more people, and we were eventually guided to a woman named Keekee. Keekee is the treasurer for the town council, and she matter of factly told us that the internet isn’t working because they haven’t paid the bill. OK, well at least we got to the bottom of it relatively quickly and didn’t spend more time trying to figure it out. Keekee was very nice, and when we asked her if she knew anyone we could buy some vegetables from, like a pumpkin or anything, she turned to a man nearby and spoke to him in Kiribati, and he was off. He soon came back with half a pumpkin that was from Keekee’s house, possibly to be used for her own dinner that night. We accepted it graciously, but when we asked if we could pay her for it, she insisted on no, and would we like to come to her house for dinner. Of course, we accepted.
The next evening Tim and Brenden went to shore (Alex still didn’t feel very well) and they made friends with a man named Ruteru who had just had a foozeball table delivered from Tarawa, and they had a fun evening playing and hanging out. Tim also made a friend who picked him up the next day in his tiny outrigger sailing canoe to do some fishing. They had a great time, but sadly, no fish.
Tim had a great morning out on the water
Ever vigilant about the volatility of the weather forecasts near the equator, on our way across the lagoon we scouted a potential spot to anchor on the other side where we would have some protection should a westerly kick up. And a few days into our stay we had a whopper of a westerly, which was totally un-forecast. It blew up to 43 kts for a little over a day, however, we didn’t have to move after all. There was just a hint of north in the westerly, so we didn’t have much fetch at our location tucked up near the village. We just hunkered down on the boat and filled our water tank and jerry cans from the torrential downpour that accompanied the wind.
As the days started to tick away in Aranuka, we (OK mostly me) grew concerned about our ability to get back up to Tarawa before our 10 days were up, but more importantly, before our 1 month Kirbati visas were up. The forecast was for NW winds and since NW was the exact direction we needed to go, this made things very difficult. I even went so far as to email the immigration office back in Tarawa and explain our situation. They surprised the hell out of me by actually responding, but then they didn’t surprise me by being vague about what would be the consequences if we came back to Tarawa after our visas expired. Our friend Martin told us he’d be willing to help us if needed and that he’d be back in Tarawa around the same time. Luckily, in the end we were able to depart Aranuka in order to get back to Tarawa in time.
We were there exactly 10 days, and we easily could have stayed for a couple more weeks and had a lot more fun.
Gresham Family Exodus 