Our goal was to sail the first of March from Fanning to Kanton Island but my mom passed away 012614 so I flew out of Christmas Island 020514 and Scott and Celeste sailed back to Fanning where they have a lagoon vs. the road stead at Christmas. They decided to head straight for A. Samoa and just left 030514; they were watching some storm conditions off of Fiji and Samoa but felt it was ok to go.

Scott and Celeste are in radio contact with a boat in Fanning. He said they have crossed the equator this morning (3/6)and as of 1600Z they were at 00 06S and 161 35W. So after their first rainy night they have been making good progress with fair weather and clear skies. The weather looks good in the near future although may get a little light further south with a semi stationary high NE of Samoa.

The picture is Victoria, our tortoise crawling out of my frying pan. Due to rough weather going from Hawaii to Fanning, I placed her downstairs to roam and my pan fell out of its place below the stove so 'they met'.

Here's a few blurbs from Celeste's reports:
Island life is certainly set at a different pace than when you're in
the city. Instead of hurrying off to school or work or the department
store, Capt'n and I work at a relaxed pace, he on his limitless
projects about the boat, and me on my art, books, and games. Seeing as
this trip is in some ways a sabbatical for me and my art, I feel
mostly justified in spending more time on my art rather than fixing up
the everyday problems on Celestial.

Yesterday I went for a swim, checking on our anchor and
investigating the sunken tug boat not too far from Celestial. Almost
as soon as I got in the water, I felt an odd pain in my ankle, a
mixture between an itch and a sort of molasses-y burn. I figured I'd
probably gotten stung by a jellyfish (there are an insane amount of
jellyfish varieties that you'd never see or notice), but it wasn't so
bad that I felt I couldn't keep swimming. I saw that our anchor
was nicely buried into the sand and partially behind a coral
boulder, with only the shaft showing above the sand. The water
visibility wasn't good, but when I was over at the tug, I saw a new
butterfly fish that I don't have in my photo collection. So I'll have
to go back and dive on the wreck again with the underwater camera one
of these days.
And for those of you worried, the jellyfish sting seems to have been
from a much milder variant than the one that stung me back in Hawai'i.
There are a total of 3 welts, two on the back of my ankle and one
along the outside, but after about an hour out of the water, the pain
was gone and they seem largely inert now. Last time I got stung, the
small red welts would inflame, itch, and hurt terribly any time they
were bumped. Just heard about using Vick’s Vapor Rub to stop a mosquito itch, would it work on jellyfish stings? Can’t wait to try it out. Also a new trap for mosquitos: Cut a two liter in half, place 1 cup warm water, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast in there. Invert the top half and secure with duct tape. Mosquitos are drawn to the mixture. One person even suggested putting holes on top to hang it on the boat.
An interesting fact, the reason I wear my full body lycra suit isn't
for modesty; but the thin membrane of the lycra is enough to fool a
jellyfish that I'm not warm, tasty skin to sting. Sadly in this case,
my ankles are one of the very few areas not covered by my suit. I
generally am wearing socks as well, to help the fit of my flippers,
which are just slightly too large for my feet, and gloves to guard my
hands as I'm often holding onto coral to get my fish pictures. So you
can see how it would be mildly irritating to still get stung with all
that protection.
CRUISE SHIP IN FANNING.
It was quite a surprise to poke my head up outside and see a tender at the pier, unloading passengers from the cruise ship just visible outside the pass. They must have ferried some two hundred people ashore, as the small village near where we anchor was flooded with white-skinned, often elderly and overweight people.

The Fanning Islanders put on a great show for them, setting up tables
with their handmade wares (decorative knives of shark teeth,
hand-woven pandanis mats and bags, jewelry with local shells, etc) and
dressing up some of the youngsters in grass skirts and white
shirts. Capt'n went ashore before I'd woken up, so he related what
he'd seen in there, taking some pictures to document the rather rare
event. You see, Fanning used to cater to several cruise lines, one of
them being Norwegian Cruise Lines. However the Fanning Islanders
didn't uphold their part of the deal, which was largely just
maintaining a dock that would be safe enough for old biddies to be
brought ashore. The current dock they have has... seen better days.
Plus the tender of this latest cruise ship actually hurt the dock
more, not too hard to do to semi-rotten wood. But within 4-6 hours they were all back on the ship and the excitement was over.