Marakei

We anchored at the northwest tip of Marakai, and the first night it was reasonably calm, since the wind had more east than north in it. In the morning we were visited by the man who owns the boat we rescued, and he gave us some bananas and coconuts and invited us to shore. His name is Taukarawa, and his English was very good, since as a young man he worked on merchant ships. In fact, when he was telling me how to spell his name, he used the phonetic alphabet (tango-alpha-uniform, etc.)

Taukarawa said we could stay at the island as long as we wanted, even though we didn’t have formal permission to be there. He said it didn’t matter, since we brought back “some of their own”, we are welcome. Unfortunately, by the second night the wind had shifted to have more north than east in it and we were bouncing and rocking and rolling pretty much as if we were underway. So, we pulled away from Marakai and said goodbye to the Nation of Kiribati at about 10 am the morning of 18 January.

We anchored near the “Council Guesthouse” icon. No, that’s not a hotel.