The solution to our dry dock found
20 May 2012 | Faraulep, State of Yap - Federated States of Micronesia. The Caroline Islands.
David
Being Sunday, today was slower than normal day here in Faraulep. It is pronounced locally as Fachaula. I went to the catholic mass - which is now twice in one month. The other time being at Bruce's funeral. And it was the first time to go to mass in Yappese and as well as with topless women. The alter had a small canoe facade with "Saint Joseph" inscribed on it and there were no seats. Everyone sat on the floor. About 40 inside and 15 outside. And for the record - I have not changed my beliefs on any divine power but had to admit I still feel part of the tribe.
After church I returned to the boat and proceeded to load 3 laptops with about 60 movies each and charge their batteries up. The laptops have been supplied by the education department out of Yap I believe. Some of them needed a bit of work. I was able to show one of the teachers how to use excel too. There are no generators out here - aside from Yarramundi's engine - so the only way to charge the batteries is with the limited supply of solar panels. They are not setup ideally. 12volt batteries are charged from solar panels on roof tops with long wires going down to a battery. (I've explained how it is important to reduce the length to increase the charge). Then they use an invertor to convert to 110 volt to charge a 12 or 20 volt laptop. The result is it takes about 2 - 3 days to get a laptop fully charged. Tonight with 3 laptops fully charged and with 60 new movies to watch we don't expect to see many locals out fishing.
Thomas has one of the laptops but relies on his daughter to work it. After about 30 minutes of some basic training however he has picked up some skills and left the boat very excited about watching a documentary Andrew left me on the Hunt for HMAS Sydney. Oddly he knew that an Australian warship had been sunk by a German boat in WW2 and could not wait to take the laptop back to the Mans House to watch it with his mates. (Especially now that he does not have to ask his daughter to get it to work). The things these people know about just continue to stagger us.
As I've been working on the boat, on repair plans and on the logistics for getting parts here since the accident I decided it was time for some R&R and go and explore the 3rd island which in uninhabited and also do some snorkeling while at it. In the process I found the solution to the creating our dry dock. The west end of the island is covered with big rounded coral boulders. Big and heavy but not so heavy that they cannot be lifted and handled. Within 15 minutes I was able to create a 1 metre high wall 2 metres long. Given the boulders would have to be transported to an area to build a dry dock and we would need to build two strong walls at least 6 metres long I think it will take about 3 days of hard yakka to build. We can carry a lot in our inflatable dingy if we tow it with one of the kayaks. There are coconut tree fronds littering the island everywhere so we will use them as cushions for both Yarramundi's hull as well as on the dinghy floor. I also found a place which should be just deep enough at high tide to get Yarramundi sitting on her keel so we can build the structure. After we have done so the idea is to motor in at high tide wait the tide to drop and then order on repairs while the damaged section is out of the. Well that is the concept which I'll mull over for a bit.
The photo is of me, tieing up a local canoe Yarramundi and our dinghy which is about to become a coral boulder barge. Glad it was something I got out of the garbage and did not pay for it!
Now time for a beer - still a couple left.
David