It has been a while since posting a blog and we do sincerely apologize for that.

All 3 of us are back on the boat and have just returned after spending just over a week on the West side of Abemama near the island of Bike. Craig and I had many fun days of surfing and fishing around the reef. I'm still the only one that eats most of the fish.

Regarding the block house on base camp that needs to be finished. We are still waiting for the block to be made so that we might have a chance to finish that project. I'm not very optomistic about it getting done before we leave in one month. It's a shame that we have wasted much time here and not gotten anything done with base camp. We just do what we can do and leave it at that.

The trimaran, Sugar Blues has been another concern. We were able to block her up on the beach but unable to get her out of the water all the time due to the tides. There are hundreds of blisters that need work and I've determined that she needs a boat yard and we have haulted any work on the bottom of the boat. The interior of the boat has been cleaned except for the aft cabin.

An opportunity arose and we missed out on the majority of it. There is an evangelistic team of 12 students that are touring some of the islands South of us. We were going to transport them and make some money doing this but we had such short notice that we couldn't do it. But I think we will have the opportunity to take them back to Tarawa from the island of North Tab at the end of their trip.

Yesterday Craig and I went into shore to buy some sugar. There is a little store no bigger than a small bedroom. About 8 children followed us to the store and we bought all of them a lolli pop. The tore off the plastic, threw the plastic on the ground and began enjoying. Most of the small kids will walk anywhere with you, grabbing a hand to hold as we walk anywhere. They are always happy to see us when we come ashore.

Local News: There was a town meeting at the Mwaneaba yesterday. Takamaiti is the town leader and he presides over the meetings. A local man was found guilty of drunen and disorderly and fined $50. The man was walking up and down the only road being loud and rude in the middle of the night. That kind of behavior here is widely frowned upon. Not to mention, $50 is a very steep fine here for anyone. I don't know how they enforce those types of fines either.

Caelestis is doing fine but has a problem with her exhaust on the generator. There is a small leak that has formed on the mixing elbow. A few pinholes. We've put muffler tape on it for now but it needs replaced. We should be able to make it back to HI. We depend on that little generator. It supplies the power to run our refrigeration and our watermaker. Very critical.

In early October we plan to make our way back to HI via the Phoenix Islands and then North to Oahu where we will dock Caelestis and then come home for the holidays. It will take about 6-7 weeks for the return trip to HI.