Palau

We finally got to go around the rock islands!! In Palau you must purchase permits for everything....fishing...diving...sailing and all that goes with that. It's quite expensive so we have been waiting for the boss to arrive to take the boat out. The boat has been in great condition some we came back from our visit home.  We had the engines checked out by a real mechanic! Not island style mechanic haha. Turns out they are both fine but we have a to replace the fuel pump in the starboard engine. 

We took a tour around the rock islands and they are beautiful!! We have done a lot of diving this week and have so many great shots!! Here are just a few and more will be added soon:)

Clear water. Coral rock bottom. Soooo pretty!!!

Lil rock corals stickin out everywhere!

Swim spot around the corner from the boat 

Rock islands

My favorite color of blue!!!! This was at German Chanel which is a top dive spot in Palau

This poor lizard was tied up inside an aquarium at a resort :(

Made some friends from TEXAS!!! Jess and Frank from Backwoods Bar and Grill in Cleveland 

Love the colors at sunset here

Lunch on Ulong Beach Inbetween dives

Our dive boat. We dived 3 sites that day. Amazing!!

The Capitol. Which has been built but vacant for a very long time but now I think people work there...

Mysterious rocks...

They don't know how they got here. The rocks aren't from this island. 

Sashimi every day!!!

Our friends The Squids play twice a week and we are happy to be groupies! Their amaZiiing. 

Made a couple bracelets for some friends

Cave Dive

So Ty went for a cave dive here in Palau. Turns out the cave dive the dive company does is right next to where we have the boat moored....so he was able to just tag along when they all came in for the dive :)

Solomons Dive Video

There's not too much going on at the moment. We are still just hanging out on our mooring at Sams Tours here in Palau. The boat is back in good shape. We still need to find someone to take a look at our alternator for the starboard engine to see if it can be fixed or if we should just order a new one. The batteries seem to be working great!

Ty went on his first cave dive and loved it. I did not go because quite frankly it scares the crap out of me! I will do it soon though. I saw his video from the gopro and it doesn't look that bad :)

I put together a couple of videos from our dives in the Solomons and dolphins we sailed with but the internet here is almost non-existent so I am having to spend a whole day at the yacht club just to upload the video.....
Here is Diving Solomons

and here are some dolphins :)

Starting the 11 month vacation…

It was soooo great to be home finally after 2 years!!! We had the best time and so glad we got to see everyone….well almost everyone…and all the new little ones!!! We certainly are grateful to everyone who opened their homes to us and also those who made a little bit of time for us in the chaos of the holidays. Sad that we did not get to see everyone but there is always this Christmas! We will be back in about 11 months if all goes according to plan with our job.

We are back in Palau and the flight was ok….United Airlines is NOT the way to go in case you were planning a trip….the flight there was stressful since they couldn’t seem to be on time with their own schedules and we missed our connecting flight which almost made us miss Christmas….but on the way back we got this crappy cramped plane that didn’t even have screens with movie options and they didn’t have a plug in for you laptop or whatever device to charge it. They just recommended that if you have a device you download the United app just before boarding so you can connect to their in flight wifi and watch their outdated movies. The only enjoyment we got out of our 40ish hours of flying was the last 7 hour leg from Hawaii to Guam where we got the most awesome stew…she hooked it up! She served us like we were #1 priority (and she may or may not have hooked us up with chex mix and an extra baileys) woohoo! ...anyway she was the only pleasant person we really encountered and she deserves better than United….but we arrived safely so I guess I can stop crying about miniscule stuff.

So we had someone look after the boat while we were gone… nothing major just check the batteries and make sure the bilges were emptied…he also scrubbed the bottom of the boat which he said wasn’t actually too terrible. He did say there was a lot of water under the kitchen sink so he cleaned it up but what he didn’t know was that it leaks down to our cabin where our closet is…so we came home to a fuzzy forest of all sorts of mould on the boat. There was mould I have never even seen before growing in places where I didn’t even know it could grow! He was kind enough to wipe down our cabin and the saloon (our living room/kitchen area) for us before we arrived. I didn’t know mould could grow in the oven let alone the cabinet where our pots are….my cutting board!! cutting board!! is fuzzy!!! groooosssss. anyway we cleaned a lot of it yesterday. We used lots of exit mould and pledge and knocked out a lot of it…just a bit more to do today but I need running water before I can wash all the pots and pans and stuff. oh yeah since the pipe broke we don’t have running water. That’s fun to come home to. We went to the hardware store and got the part to fix it but its not working for some reason. The store is closed for the weekend now so we are going to try to rig it or wait til monday to go back and ask what we should do. I’m sure we will figure it out.

It’s nice to be back. We made some friends before we left and they are happy to see us so it takes the sting away from leaving everyone back home…We are planning some diving for this weekend or early next week and we are getting to know the town and where we can find everything we need. Its hard not having transportation but we are thinking of renting a couple of bikes for 2 months if they can give us a decent price.

They JUST got 3G in Palau!!! lol its funny to listen to people talk because they are all excited about being able to get emails while driving!!! hahahaha …….oooohh I guess that means we would need to be extra careful on our bikes…now that I think about it….

The owner of Sams Tours where we are staying is from Seattle so we will be able to see the Seahawks play…at 5am on Monday morning….gotta love this time difference geez…

We are excited to get out there and actually explore Palau for the next month before the boss gets here. Lots of diving and places to see so we know where to take him. The only thing is that it is pretty expensive at the good places and you can only stay for 10 days at a time. Like this one place where we are taking the boss..we have to pay at least $150 and we can only stay for 10 days…but the boss wont stay in one place for 10 days since he is only in town for 10 days at a time so we will only be there for a couple days max….so I wonder how much they would charge for that… But its beautiful here and fishing and diving galore!

The grocery store has a small produce section so I must find out where all these locals get their produce. The meat is all frozen and flown in which is nothing new to us by now…there are a lot of American products which is good and bad at the same time considering some of the ingredients we try to stay away from but for the most part awesome!! Lots of hot sauces and salsas and bbq marinades and and and ok I need to stop and breath…..

Our view from the RBYC….Sams Tours…Our boat is moored in the back but will soon be moved up closer for more exposure to wind! Its pretty stifling back there….

So here’s where we are in case you were wondering where the hell is Palau?!?!

Passage from Papua New Guinea to Palau

 

Monday December 8 2014

The boss left us a day early so we could get a head start on the passage. This passage is not expected to be easy since we will have the current, swell and wind against us and we must be conservative with our fuel. We ended up taking about 700 something liters but at the moment we are using both engines at a mid to high RPM and we are only making 3-3.5 knots….not cool….its been rainy and wet and bumpy so far…but hopefully that clears up at least for a day so I can do some laundry and dry out all our cushions and carpets.

Some things we experienced in New Britain…We also spent time in New Ireland

This village had just had a huge party the night before so they were cleaning up a bit but they showed us their shell money. Those big round things by the pole are covered in tiny shells woven on the circle. They use them to buy women for marriages!

We paid someone to drive us around to the villages and we stumbled upon an engagement party otherwise known as the Bride Prize. The bride to be hides out in a house and the husband has to come and find her. His whole family comes dancing down the street while her family waits at their home. They put up a money tree in the yard and people start putting gifts on it so the bride can sell the gifts for money later. There’s also a pig they can sell for money and food that was donated like rice and fruits.


There is the bride in the blue dress sitting with her momma

I was told they sell the pig for money…instead of eating it…craziness!!

They put baskets and stuff like that on the money tree so the couple can sell the items

Brides side of the fam

She shared her umbrella with me

All the men are hanging out in one spot while people dance and do the money tree

My camera flips forward so you can see yourself while taking a photo and this lady loved it!

Rabaul in the background. The volcano erupted I think in 94 and the town was destroyed so they moved everything over to Kokopo which is where we stayed

They call this the hot springs but its definitely not the kind you swim in…..more like boil eggs in….

One of the day trips the Ropopo resort offers is a stop of this aussie cemetery


Sad to see some of them don’t even have names

We stayed in Kalili Harbour but getting in was tricky. We sailed all day long and finally made it in around 4:30pm but the chart was off by about a mile so we had to guess where to go to get into the narrow channel and where to drop the hook. It was a little nerve racking but Ty wasn’t worried

and I am hanging on for dear life

Part of New Ireland.

Wednesday December 10 2014

Whales!!! We saw huge whales today!! Its been very calm with hardly any wind so we are motor sailing and we have been cleaning the boat and doing laundry all day. Boring I know but then we had whales come up in front and behind the boat! close enough to get your heart pumping but they went around us wow……stuff like this never gets old.

 

Thursday December 11 2014

We just sailed across the equator for the 2nd time!!! The first time it was around 4am and we were on our delivery from cape town to Nice. This time it was around 4pm from PNG to Palau. We sipped a celebratory drink and we are making good time at the moment

All the zeros mean we are at the equator

That’s not apple juice….

Our little gecko we kidnapped from Liapari in Solomons is still with us! That means he has been eating lots of spiders and bugs!

Our sunset was amazing last night and got even better after the sun went down…

Monday December 15 2014

Wow its about 1am and I just came on watch an hour ago. This is one of those nights that makes the whole “sailing thru a typhoon” thing worth it! We have been beat up and wet the past couple days and nights because of the cyclone that just passed north of us. It was good wind but it carried us north when we needed to go west so now we are able to head west and be downwind which is the most comfortable point of sail for us. But anyway! The night! There must be some kind of meteor shower or something going on right now cuz I have seen like 2 shooting stars every minute for the past hour!!!! Some are small but a few of them have been super bright green with a tail behind them!! boom boom boom one after another after another and then the moon…looking like a ghost ship rose 30 minutes ago…it was getting so bright I thought the sun was coming up but then I remembered it was only midnight so yeah … that’s how bright the half moon is right now. this might be a little cheezy but when I see a shooting star I feel like it’s the Big Man sayin don’t worry I havent forgotten about ya…always makes me feel better. We are about half way right now and the heavy weather has passed and took all our wind but its almost time for the spinnaker so no worries! light winds just downwind and strong enough to fly the chute. I also just found a couple of good ole texas country songs that I used to listen to on my iphone! been a great night so far

Sunday December 21 2014

We made it in yesterday! everything we read said the charts are way off but they were spot on. We docked at the Q dock and got all checked in and then we came over to Sams dive shop where he has a bunch of mooring in front of his place. We are leaving the boat here while we fly home so it should be really protected and safe. This place is soooo pretty! There is nothing but coral under our boat and crystal clear water. We picked up a mooring and then backed the boat up against a rock wall that has a line tied off to it to keep us from swinging around. I cannot wait to get out and dive here. There are like 25 different dive spots and they are all supposed to be the most beautiful dive spots in the world!

It’s not always so pretty out….

Palau reminds me of Tonga where there are just like huge rocks coming out of the water

Just coming into Palau….Land!!!!!!

Beginning our travels home

The boss has been with us for about 2 weeks now so we have been busy busy busy. We had an awesome time in Papua New Guinea! We got our new batteries. We got our starboard engine fixed and it's almost running like a champ now. The main bearing needs to be replaced but that's about it. Maybe a new alternator since it's not charging the batteries anymore... But we will sort all that out in Palau. We just sent the boss to a hotel for tonight, picked up the hook and now we are off! This passage can take anywhere from 9-15 days depending one wind and mainly swell and current. We have a route for the path of least resistance so we will do our best to keep on that track and get there in 9-10 days. PNG was amazing and we really wish we could stay longer. We found this perfect little surf camp that we seriously could have lived at for months!  We heard so many bad things about PNG but I'm glad it didn't deter us from going. The people are wonderful and the villages very welcoming. We never had a break in or robbery as many other boats have had. But we kept everything locked inside and all hatches and doors locked at night so we took precautions and we were fine! The coming typhoons shouldn't effect us so much and we have Bob McDavitt the weather guru guiding us and keeping in touch every couple days with the sat phone so no worries :) see you in 2 weeks!!