We spent all of 2011 in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia.

We arrived in Majuro in December 2010. We enjoyed living here in Majuro amongst the active local cruising community. Lots of social activities here! Weekly cruiser’s dinner at a local restaurant (rotating between 3 restaurants) and every 3 weeks, we hold a quiz where the winner gets the pot ($1 each team participating) and gets to make up the questions for the next quiz. During the height of the cruising season, there is a monthly yacht race where the local crew are welcome to participate. Once in a while, the cruisers hold a meeting/workshop about a subject of interest, like geo-referencing between Google Earth and electronic charts, iPad and other tablets, passage west in the North Pacific and more.

The day before Xmas, we had a night boat parade with Xmas lights on all 12 participating boats. Majuro has Internet wifi access, but is frustrating to deal with, and is a source of constant moaning among the fleet… even so, I was able to download lots of documentaries and upload lots of new videos on our YouTube channels. The US Postal System let us order plenty of stuff for the boat too as well as ocean freight.

Mid-April, we cut our roots in Majuro and sailed to Aur atoll, the first of 7 atolls we visited during the next 4 months. Despite hearing reports of Micronesian shyness, lack of fresh food to trade for, and unfavourable winds, we experienced the opposite. We had great contact with the local population; we helped them with solar panels, electrical system repairs and more. We traded LED lights and other things for plenty of local healthy foods like coconuts, pandanus, lemons, papayas, bananas, lobsters and coconut crabs.

After experiencing Palm Sunday singing and local dancing in Aur, we visited Maloelap & Wotje WWII remains both on land (old Japanese guns, bunkers, …) and underwater (Japanese cargo wrecks). We then enjoyed the local sailing canoes in Ailuk and the remoteness in Utrik. We then spent 2 weeks in uninhabited Taka atoll where we saw birds and turtles nesting, giant clams and great snorkelling. Likiep was our last atoll offering more island experiences before coming back to Majuro. Few cruisers spend 4 months in the outer-atolls and it’s too bad, as they are the best part of the country.

We are now on Kwajalein, our last atoll visited in the Marshall Islands. Some islands in the atoll are off-limits as they are still used by the US military for missile testing & tracking. We got to spend some time cruising here with a long time cruiser friend who has worked here for 7 years already. We will soon dive on some WWII wrecks here too.

In January, we will sail west to new adventures … here we come the Federated States of Micronesia (Kosrae, Pohnpei, Truk lagoon, Yap) and Palau! As usual, we will take our time cruising these interesting islands and only leave when we won’t have any regrets to do so.

Luc Callebout

SY Sloepmouche

Noonsite Regional Editor

www.TropicalsailingLife.com (with more than 120 video clips available including the clips I made in the 7 atolls visited this year).