As we were approaching Majuro upon arrival I had been coordinating with Ariel IV just in case we didn’t arrive before dark. Erik had told us where they had moored for the night near the pass when they arrived, and he even offered to dinghy over and help us find the mooring and tie up. As we got closer and we were in VHF range I gave him a shout out and he very mysteriously asked if we could switch over to SSB to our “usual channel.” The conversation that followed was confusing, as much for Erik as it was for me, because he was trying to relay to me what some other people were telling him about the rules in Majuro and how Customs officials might be listening to VHF traffic.
And that was my first glimpse into the Majuro Expat Cruiser Community. We’ve been in places with a community like this before, mostly in Mexico like La Paz or Puerto Escondido, where there was a group of ex-cruisers and wanna-be cruisers living on their boats inserting themselves as a buffer between the actual cruisers and the local community. Don’t get me wrong, they can be extremely helpful with information if you need help but they can also be a bit pushy and self-important when you don’t. And this was never more obvious than when we were in Majuro, because we had just spent months in Tuvalu and Kiribati where no such help was available, and guess what, we all did just fine!
The small town politics was just too much for me to stomach. Again, reminiscent of places we’ve been in Mexico, or even Neiafu (Tonga), where people are backstabbing and two faced and grievances get aired in a passive aggressive way over the radio net when someone starts the net too early, or too late, or whatever. The pettiness would be comical if it weren’t so annoying. These people had an over-inflated sense of their own self-importance, I mean, I stopped listening to the radio nets altogether and somehow I still managed to figure things out. Luckily we eventually escaped Majuro for a visit to Ailuk where we got to meet and spend time with the real treasure of The Marshall Islands, the Marshallese people!
Gresham Family Exodus 