Sailing to the Rim of Bravo Crater
25 May 2014 | Bikini Atoll
teri
Bikini atoll is silent except for the lapping on inside of Blue Bies
hulls and the crashing of waves on the windward reefs. We've arrived at
the most famous of all the atolls, Bikini put Marshall Islands on the
global map, and unfortunately in the process it also removed the people
from their local map.
It's nearly June and the heat is humbling. 30-33 degrees Celsius with the
usual humidity in the 80 percent range; one of those really feels like hot
as hell kind of days....which has turned into weeks. A fine time and place
to be on anchor with the cool blue waters at your doorstep. We've been
cruising through the Ratik chain for the last 4 weeks, in the next hour we
will be at our final northern anchorage, Bravo Crater, and it looks like my
wish to kite ground zero will be fulfilled, the wind is 18-20 knots which
is perfect. We will be anchoring alongside Cherokee Rose and Mariposa,
Cafe Mariposa for those that are familiar with Michas 5 star cooking.
Besides the overshadowing of the historical events surrounding this leg of
our journey there is something extra special about being on deserted
islands, even if the desertion is due to conscienceless human induced
events. The ubiquitous paradox yet again
Strange to be in such a beautiful place and find yourself in the tidal
scrap pile for hours on end. The hunt for historical glass balls from the
Japanese fishing fleet is currently obsessing me. Buoys slippers, and
tons of plastic water bottles form a straight line along the high tide line
on most of the wind ward beaches. Refuse, Reuse, Recycle mantra came
decades to late, especially for the bird brains who mistake bottle caps for
food, dying in the process. Sometime in the not so distant future the
beaches will be multi colored as the plastic breaks down into granulated
pixels and mixes with the nature-made sand.
In preparation to enter the Bikini lagoon I just watched 'Radio Bikini,' a
well done documentary by Robert Stone, nominated for an Academy award in
1988 for best documentary feature. There are no actors re making the past,
Robert Stone has taken the past and brought it forward, splicing and
editing the footage into an easily digestible and emotionally charged film
summarizing the essence of all the facts besieging the atom bomb testing.
Human error, moral injustice and bureaucracy amongst others. Goggle Radio
Bikini to easily find the film, unless of course you are receiving this via
satellite email similar to the one I have just sent this from, then you may
be a bit more challenged.
After 5 days of experiencing more of the Bikini essence and having just
watched Radio Bikini for the second time the impressions have left a crater
in my mind similar to Bravo crater. The beautiful sights of my current
surroundings are in great contrast to the images from the documentary. 42K
men were here in this atoll occupying the sustainable amount of the local
Bikinins homeland. It's quite here now with only the three yachts in the
anchorage, we have just left the third island, Romuriko Island, a picture
perfect uninhabited island, with a huge cement bomb shelter on the
peninsula. We found 5 inch thick walls, multitudes of electric cables
going out to the lagoon, copper insulation and port holes looking out to
ground zero.
After visiting Rongerik atoll, the first island the Bikinins were
unsuccessfully relocated to in 1946, then Rongerlap where the American
dollar was hard at work on the backs of skeleton crews building a village
that resembled an American Suburb, which most of the Bikinis now refuse to
move to because of the still toxic levels of radiation, and now in Bikini
where we wander the beautiful beaches, snorkel the waters and land our
kites next to the Atom shelters, has left this whole World Heritage Atom
Bomb site in a more sullen place, somewhat like a hangover.
Penance is that what the Americans are trying to buy their way out of.
It's really a very big sad mess.
I don't have atomic eyes, I cannot see the fallout in the particles of the
sea or in the juice of the coconuts. I swim in the lagoon looking for two
headed fish, comb the beaches for past evidence while daring it to prove
itself as the mistake it was. The silence poison remains or so I've read,
the beauty stands still before my eyes inviting me in.
The Ghost Fleet is buried under 60 meters of water in the middle of the
lagoon, the 23 military ships including Nagota the flagship of the Imperial
Japanese Navy which ordered the command for Pearl Harbor to be blown up,
and just like here Honolulu too has its own Ghost Fleet, the US Arizona
sits still as the water buries the evidence of mankind’s insistence on war.
I am crossing my fingers that I will be able to scuba dive this World
Heritage Site (is Nagasaki and Hiroshima a WHS too) Most of the wrecks lie
in 50-60 meters of water, and this is the main reason why I want to dive
here, it's deep! I'm sure there will be some historical relevance decaying
at the bottom of the lagoon.
The resiliency of nature is insistent, this beautiful Bikini atoll stands
as evidence to that, but beautiful spaces are much easier to digest than
the half-life of radiation. Can we allow our senses to remain unscathed
focusing just on the beauty and leave the Ghosts of the past lie buried
just under the surface of the subconscious carrying the weight of knowing
on our collective minds Nature certainly cannot refuse the pasts mistakes
we've left on her doorstep. Is recycling and reusing the main ingredients
in resiliency. The fame of Bikini is in the eye of the beholder, the life
here shines with the paradox and I am once again grateful to be privy to
witness.