Old Dinghy Dies

Two days too soon! The seam gave out today. When I came back from school today the motor was almost in the water! The replacement is supposed to be here day after tomorrow about noon.

The neighbors on Hawkeye said they'd give us rides to and from shore till it gets here.

I went to customs today to get the new one cleared in, but the master paper work for the ship isn't done yet. They did decide that I do not have to pay import duty on the new one though. Maybe tomorrow I can get the final clearance so that I can actually gt it delivered on Good Friday.

We still want to leave Friday night to go up to Aur. It is about 80 miles from the anchorage, so if we leave in the evening, we should arrive in the next morning.

Majuro Race Sunday

Trinda and I crewed for John and Linda on Hawkeye again last Sunday. It was dry most of the day.

It iss always fun to race, especially when you come in FIRST! Notice all the other boats in the background.

Web Site Up Partly

Well, almost. I moved the network information about my website, www.tcls.com,
to a new home and put up the front page only. I have mailed backup
copies of the old site to the new one, so in a few weeks it may all be
back to normal and my photographs will all be back.

The tribe mailing list should be back as well as the other email addresses at tcls.com.

My internet class looked at blogs and net Groups today.

Still Here

It is difficult to keep up the blog when working at a daily routine. It seems that nothing worthy of note happens.

Trinda is feeling better most of the time. It seems that every Thursday (Ladies cards day at the restaurant)she feels bad Friday morning. This week she didn't eat or drink anything but ice water and still felt a little down. Maybe its the air conditioning. They keep it cold in there.

The new dinghy is on the ship due to arrive Thursday, container to unload Friday morning and be checked by Customs by noon, BUT no one knows it they believe in Good Friday!!! We had planned to get the dinghy and head up to the atoll of Aur for the week on Friday night. Well, 'the plans of mice and men'....

Teaching is still fun. They have nearly all sent e-mail now.

Trinda has been making 'flag pins' where you put red, white and blue beads on safety pins and hang the pins on another pin to look like a flag. She even tried the Marshal Islands flag too.

After a Week of Teaching

The kids are eager to learn, but our cultures are very different. From my point of view they seem very quiet and shy, but I believe that they are taught that they are not allowed to interrupt someone by speaking first. It seems to pertain even when I ask "Are there any questions about that?"
Trinda has been sick again. It started with sinuses and now into the chest. I am hoping she will be better by the weekend. We are supposed to crew with Hawkeye in the monthly Majuro race.

What?? a JOB!!

I seem to have accepted a job today! I start Monday. I'll be teaching beginner "Intro to the Internet" at the local collage here in Majuro. I'll have 3 sections with 15 to 18 students each. They will all have passed a typing class at more than 25 words a minute, (not that I can touch type) but I'll get them an email account and use a browser and chat stuff. It may be fun and have side benefits of time in the office with an internet connection!

I guess Trinda will have to go to the elementary school by her self now. I won't be able to help her there now. She is supposed to help the 9th grade girls make ear rings Tuesday. Also the Arts teacher wants us to come to her house for dinner soon. She is Korean, so should be interesting.

The dinghy did not make it in the container for delivery Mar 26 as I hoped, but is now to arrive April 9th. I sure hope it gets here then. I am sick of pumping the old one up. When the glue holding the transom to the side tubes pulled loose, it tore the side seams in the tubes so they boith leak. The leak is inside the area of the transom board, so I can't fix it! Arg!!!

It is raining here every afternoon for the last week or so. Today was the first day I actually got caught out in it. Look like a drowned rat. Thank goodness I had the computer in a water proof bag. The West Marine dry bags are really good.

Trinda spent the afternoon with Susan Sunday and planned to do it again sometime. She is a teacher at a different school than the one we have been going to. She is making a Kiribati blouse.

We plan to go anchor out 6 miles away for the week-end, at Enemonit.

Majuro Update

Remember I said we were getting a new dinghy? The old one has all the glue holding it together coming loose. Yesterday I just got the letter from my dinghy sales man. It had a check to pay the freight on the NEW replacement dingy they are giving me on warranty. I still can't hardly believe they are replacing it again.

It turns out that the first Extreme Cat dinghy was a 2006 model. They had a problem with the glue. It comes loose when it get hot. The previous owner of the company replaced it wait another 2006 model! The current owner of "AMI Boats" noticed this and said he would make sure the new one is a 2008 with no known problems. He even offered to pay the freight charges all the way to the Marshals!

We went to an after school project at the local co-oprate elementatry school. A lady, Sally makes hand made glass beads for doing beadwork crafts. she brought some to give to the teachers and mothers that were interested. Trinda took here bead and necklace supplies too. I took some wire and made a few names. They really wanted beads on them, so I finally did a few for them. I hate beads! It makes the wire hard to get into the pliers. Oh well, they all loved them and we had fun.

Today Trinda is teaching a local gal (Susan) how to sewe smocking for the blouses she made in Kiribati. They met in the laundry mat last week. We were going over there yesterday, but Susan's mother came in on the plane from one of the outer islands and she spent all day at the airport waiting for her.


I snuck out to play with the internet. It is really slow, this being Sunday here I guess everyone is home playing internet games???

The other day spike on a catamaran decided to repain his bottom anti fouling and asked for help. I volunteered for beer and pizza! Ha, I actually had to help with the paint too! During the full moon, the tide here goes in and out about 6 feet, so he simply found a sandy beach and went aground as high as he could during high tide (4:00 in the morning). We showed up about 9:30 and put the paint on. Then around 6PM he was able to float off with new paint. I wish it was that cheep and easy to paint the bottom of the Katie Lee!