#Olimarao atolls, life update on #Downtime!

On 12th of March we sailed to Olimarao, which is just 20 miles North-West of Elato. On our way we caught 3 Yellow fin Tuna, 40 pound each and one Rainbow Runner!

Olimarao is a deserted bounty island, the most beautiful in FSM in my opinion, where turtles lay the eggs, but right now 16 guys and 2 women from Lamotrek are building a fishing shelter. The island is a remote fishing/hunting ground for Lamotrek and also has giant coconut crabs.

We brought them a heavy box full of nails and some other materials for their construction project. They were also out of water and we delivered four big canisters of fresh water. Also we gave them one of the Yellow fin Tuna and they traded us for a few huge coconut crabs.

Late this afternoon Pete was kiting for an hour until the wind died. The island has a gorgeous lagoon perfect for kiting.

Next morning we checked out other end of the island, did few pics and when we back I suddenly felt fever coming on... I had a cold shower and saw that the sore on my leg, which I was scratching had become infected and it looked very bad... So rest of the day I was very-very weak and just had to rest and put antibiotic on my leg and Pete was sitting around watching recorded TV shows and was happy to have a day-off. Around 4 pm the guys came to the boat and brought us basket with 2 more crabs and few chunks of turtle meat and invited us for Tuba circle. I was still very sick, so Pete went along for few hours to share stories and see how they built construction!

Next day I felt much better and we took SD to Falifi island with thousands and thousands of birds. After a walk around the island we did an awesome snorkel on our way back. The first spot was very shallow just 3-4 feet deep with beautiful coral heads and coves, which were full of very big squirrel fish and groupers, also we saw big school of parrot fish but color was black and grey.... And on the second spot, it was a very big rock inside the atoll, covered with corals and hundreds and hundreds huge fish, the wall started from few feet and go down to 30 feet. I even saw white tip sharks!! (Pete was waiting in SD.) It was simply amazing! I wish we did a dive there.

Before we left we went to the island to say goodbye to everyone and gave them our rain catcher, some batteries and cava from Fiji, in return we received 8 coconuts, which I started to be addicted to (there is not many other fruit here) and another huge coconut crab!

We have very little fresh fruits and vegetables on Downtime, just few apples, oranges and limes left, one pumpkin, a few stalks of celery, green peppers, 2 cabbages and few potatoes & few onions left. Debbie Myers Green bags can make a miracle in keeping produce fresh but it has been 5 weeks since I visited fresh market in Pohnpei and our provision getting low. But our protein resources are huge: fresh turtle meat, lobsters, crab-meat, roasted turkey breast, yellow fin tuna and last pieces of octopus in the fridge and even some ice-cream in the freezer!! Life is gooood!

I badly wanted to stay a few more days on this paradise island, but we saw the new grib-file and it seems it was our last option to sail for next 8 days... Looks like in Woleai we will have perfect conditions for diving, no wind at all! Stories about Lamotrek and Woleai are coming... Stay in touch!

peace,

@Daria_Friday
(12-15th of March 2013)

PS: Thanks Pete and Iridium that we still can talk to our families, but from 1st of April we will have unlimited Internet, Skype and I will posted some very cool pics!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com