Pacific Odyssey - Leg 5

We´ve heard from Andrew that the logs have not been getting through since December 31st although we´ve sent one every night. Tonight Skipper will be sending them via an internet service ashore so you´ll be able to catch up on our first 10 days together.  We arrived in the early morning on Weno in the Chuuk Islands.  The charts indicated lights to mark the passage, but there were no lights; thanks to radar, a great Skipper and crew we came through just fine.  We anchored quite far from the beach and woke up to a wonderful northwest trade wind; our passage to Guam should be nice.  We were looking smart in our uniforms and white shoes when we tied to the dock and the custom and immigration officials arrived at the boat.  After some paper work trainees and crew were set free to explore the village.  The village is quite small and basic, with dirt roads and many used cars sitting in yards at the side of the road.  The people are very friendly and interested in our presence here.  Boats like the Grace do not visit here very often (an understatement) and then to have 35 enthusiastic and friendly young people enter their village . . . it´s highly entertaining for them, they can´t help but smile widely.  We´ve found that in every place people have been friendly; if you look them in the eye and smile and/or say hello, you will have made a friend and often they are eager to make your visit in their village a good one.  Physically they are a beautiful people; they are a mixture of Filipino, Indonesian, Polynesian and Oriental.  Some of them have smoother hair than what we´ve seen so far, perhaps a characteristic coming from Southeast Asia.  They have rounder faces and gorgeous bright big eyes. We found what we called, 2 well-stocked grocery/general stores.  In North America they would not be considered so, but after the places we´ve been for the past 6 months, we were somewhat overwhelmed with the increase in our options.  There were some US items as Guam is nearby and Guam is heavily supplied by the United States.  We enjoyed Minute Maid real orange juice, good ice cream and root beer. We have been joking over the past few weeks about Guam being the ´land of promise.´  Everyone is looking forward to getting what he/she needs in Guam; I´m not quite sure how this came about. The bosun is counting on parts for anything needing fixing, the cooks are counting on more North American groceries, some things that they haven´t had since Hawaii perhaps, the trainees are hoping for the most amazing stash possible i.e. Planters peanuts, real juice, sour candies, good crackers and cheese etc. and the nurses Karen and Sarah are counting on cooler weather and water to make all the flesh wounds go away.  It´s quite amusing really. We met a fellow named Richard who works at the dive shop and he has offered us an incredible price for scuba diving.  He seems very happy to make any diving opportunity work for us; perhaps he´s just glad to go out with a great group of young people. In Chuuk Lagoon alone I read today that there are 200 Japanese aircraft and 90 Japanese warships sitting on the bottom.
We saw 2 people snorkeling off the beach looking at a partially submerged wreck.  At least 6 trainees are diving 2 wrecks each tomorrow, with more interested for the following day.  Kara, Susan, Raven and Ilya went on an incredible hike; they said it offered an amazing viewpoint of the entire island. They walked for 4 1/2 hours in the heat but said it was 100 % worth it.  Trainees found internet and a few were thrilled to find news awaiting them.  We also found do-it-yourself laundry for $1 per wash and dry, a huge bargain after having to pay others to do our laundry since French Polynesia in July.  Joel had his hair cut today by the resident barber. We will be here until Sunday mid-day and are looking forward to experiencing some more of Micronesia, a place quite different again from Papua New Guinea, Melanesia and Polynesia. Enjoy all the logs, good night, Bonice.