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11 November 2013 | Pohnpei
Patrick
For months, Brick House has been in some of the most remote islands imaginable in northern Vanuatu and the southern Solomons. In those islands, villagers live in thatch huts with no electricity and little communication with the rest of the world. In fact, on the island of Uraparapara, Vanuatu, one villager had heard that Osama Binladen had been captured. He asked if it were true. I told him of the stealth raid several years ago by American forces which snatched the man from under the Pakistani governments noses. The good news brought a broad smile to the mans face and he translated the story to others standing near by.
Since supply boats might come once a year, the natives truly do live off the land as they have for centuries. This leaves a visiting cruising boat in the position of being asked for everything imaginable in trade for locally grown food. But how many bananas and coconuts does a cruising couple really need? We keep a store of "things" from towels to snorkeling gear on board for trading. Even old binoculars we have traded for an all day guided hike to a distant bat cave. But now, we are villaged out. We would like to find some islands where we can see colorful birds and wild monkeys and feed them bananas.
We have just sailed/drifted for 20 days northward to escape the approaching southern hemisphere cyclone, typhoon, hurricane, call it what you want, season. We will sit at the island of Pohnpei, at latitude 7 north, for several months and use the internet connection to gradually catch up on our sailing blogs.