We stayed aboard all day today hailing Solomon on the VHF to no avail. It is a holiday on Kapingamarangi and a big noon time cook out was going on. We were sad to be stuck on the boats.

In the afternoon Solomon hailed me. I joined him on an SSB channel with the folks in Pohnpei. They wanted us to come to Pohnpei prior to stopping in Kapingamarangi. I told then that we had already filled out the cruising permits and would be happy to forward anything they wanted through the chief here. I also told them that we came with an aid package of 100kg of rice, much flour, sugar, cooking oil, as well as books, tarps, and plastic drums for water and what not. I went on to mention that we had a similar package for Nukuoro. I also told him that we could not travel 1,000 miles out of the way to clear in and come back to drop off the aid packages. We all need to be in Singapore before summer comes and the weather changes. It seemed sort of silly to sail right by the islands we were trying to help.

He was understanding but not willing to go against protocol. He is going to check with his superiors to see if an exception can be made.

We kept busy during the day by scuba diving under the boat to check the anchor and to look over Angelique's keel and rudder. That boat is a tank. The rudder was nicked up a bit at the trailing edge, needing about an hours worth of glass repair next haul out. Otherwise, nothing. I couldn't believe it.

In the mean time I think Solomon felt bad that we were being held up so. He sent a lovely pandana leaf basket of fresh food from the feast to all of the boats. We got lots of yummy barbecued fish, taro, rice and fresh bread (kind of like what we call Hawaiian bread in the US). It was very tasty. Hopefully tomorrow we will get things sorted out.