JJEM Adventures

Back to Betio Harbor, Tarawa Atoll, Republic of Kiribati:

We’ve been in talking to Customs and Immigration in Tarawa. The difficulty in visiting the outer islands of Kiribati is the distance involved – and the easterly trade winds will guarantee that one direction (there or back) will undoubtedly be upwind. Since you only get a one month visa, you need to be back in Tarawa in less than a month. This makes it pretty much impossible to visit the islands far from Tarawa. For instance, to visit the island of Arorae you need to make a passage of roughly 300 miles to get there and 300 miles to get back. For all that work you’d get a maximum of two weeks there!

The Republic of Kiribati used to allow cruisers to visit outer islands on the way out of the country provided you checked in with the Police chief on each island and did not violate your allowed time period. Unfortunately, we’ve been told that things have recently become much less lenient. Both Customs and Immigration blamed it on a cruiser couple on a yacht called “Atlantis” which visited Kiribati about a month before us. I believe you can still see the details on Noonsite. Like most other countries, Kiribati doesn't let you visit any outer islands until you check in at the main city - Tarawa. A month or two ago a southbound couple announced on the Rag of the Air (8173.0 SSB) that they were going to Butaritari without going to Tarawa. Apparently, they’d already annoyed Kiribati officials on their northbound passage. When they arrived in Butaritari, the fed-up officials arrested them, confiscated their German ID cards, told them to go immediately to Tarawa, and requested Australia to send the judge to try them. The couple got to Tarawa then apparently absconded still in possession of their EU passports. (Note - everything here is second or third hand information - might want to check the web for the real deal). At some point this couple launched a $50k lawsuit against Kiribati. So, the Customs and Immigration officials are pretty steamed right now. The big boss at Immigration (Burebure) who is deciding our permission was the Immigration official who went to Butaritari to arrest the German couple. The main thing that seems to sway them in our favour is meeting the kids - so we have hope that we will get permission.

Unfortunately, after a great deal of trouble and wrangling, our request to visit the outer islands was rejected. We were quite upbeat at first. We had worked out a plan with Immigration that made everyone happy. They would allow us to spend one week in Abemama, two weeks in Tabiteuea and two weeks in Arorae. We would pay for the big bosses’ second-in-command (Ioane) to fly to Arorae the week we planned to leave Kiribati. He would check us out and fly back. Since his family lived there, he would have no problem staying there a week between planes (there is only one flight per week). We would pay only his airfare, no per diem and no living costs as he would live with his family. It was a great plan – we would have lots of time and he would get a free trip home for a holiday.

We even got as far as buying the plane tickets! Then we went to Customs. They pretty much rejected the plan outright. At first they wanted us to carry one of their personnel onboard the whole way to Arorae, paying a substantial per diem ($40 US per day) and fly him back to Tarawa. Then they decided we could only fly one of their personnel there but we would need to pay per diem and expenses for a week. Their personnel would need to stay in the counsel lodging, which would be another charge. As we were discussing this possibility with one of the Customs officers, the chief customs officer called us into her office. She stated that we could only checkout in Tarawa, that three days and three islands was the maximum she would agree to after checking out and last, that since she was from Tabiteuea herself she could guarantee us there was nothing worth seeing or doing on any of the outer islands !!! She also commented we could find everything about Kiribati culture on the web site, as she does, instead of sailing there in person!!! So, after all that trouble we have three days at each of Abemama, Tabiteuea and Arorae. There is an allowance for extra time in the case of bad weather or broken equipment. We had no choice but went with the restrictions.

To Abemama Atoll, Republic of Kiribati:

The passage from Tarawa to Abemama was pretty easy. Very little wind with tons of rain- we motored part of the night. About midnight the wind came in East 10-12knots so we put up sail. We entered the North pass at 10am with good light.

The Abemama lagoon is fairly deep: 30 to 70 feet. We had confirmation from several large coral heads (bommies) that the chart matched reality well. So, after coming through the pass under power we put sail up again to beat up the lagoon to the village.

Erik found a nice squid that had washed onto the deck during the night. He decided to add it to Granddad's pink squid lure we were dragging. As he let out the modified lure with it's raw squid he got an immediate heavy strike that almost pulled Erik overboard! Together we pulled in the fish: it was a Giant Trevally - thirty pounds with the biggest, ugliest head we've ever seen.

We got so caught up in butchering our recent capture we nearly crashed into a bommie!! Luckily, Jingli happened to take a look around while she was filming the catch and James (who was at the helm) did a quick tack to avoid the crash. This bommie was very clearly marked on the chart and, as a matter of fact, was the only bommie in the entire lagoon with a prominent warning buoy sitting on it! Imagine how embarrassing it could have been!!

On arrival, we took half the fish in to give to the police chief. He was very nice, accepted the fish and asked us to come back the next day as the police station was closed.

That night we barbequed the Trevally head - by itself it made a full meal for four with some left over! Absolutely delicious! We took a walk in the village the next day; the temperature on shore was very high, and we were still nervous about Dengue fever although there were no reported cases in Abemama. We met a friendly woman named Mary who invited us to have a drink of delicious coconut syrup tea in the unique buya. Buya is an outdoor hut with raised mat and coconut leaf roof, but without wall. During a hot day, nowhere is more comfortable than sitting or resting here to enjoy the breeze from the sea. Mary also took us for a tour of the village, the newly built Woman’s Club, and the counsel lodging where she works. The traditional style lodging is built entirely with coconut trees, with no nails; all fastened together by lines made from coconut tree husk. We spent most of the time in Abemama doing school work and working on the boat.

To Tabiteuea North Atoll, Republic of Kiribati
We crossed the equator on the way from Abemama to Tabiteuea North. Jingli had crossed the equator at sea before (in the Galapagos) but none of the rest of us had. We'd read of the grisly ceremony that was recommended: dressing up as Neptune, Davey Jones and Lord Nelson; ugly purple or green potions poured over heads; mock trials and executions. All very exciting but we felt we lacked the crew and the energy for such goings on. So we poured out a shot of rum each which we sent to Neptune and James asked Neptune's permission to enter his southern realm. We've had good weather since so perhaps Neptune didn't miss the ceremonial antics (and it was good rum too!!)

The other significant event on the voyage was a near miss. It was around 11:00 pm and we were about six miles due west of Nonouti Island, when, Jingli (who was on watch at the time) spotted an odd set of lights ahead and to port. There were three white lights forming a triangle. At first Jingli thought it might be a lighthouse of some sort. However, the lights suddenly began to approach us very rapidly. Jingli yelled for Max to wake up and at the same time altered course 90 degrees to starboard to avoid the collision. Jingli was very thankful to Charlie (our autopilot) who responded to her shaking finger and altered course accordingly. She also felt lucky to be turning down wind – otherwise, a sudden tack would have taken place. By the time Max got on deck they were about two hundred feet off the port beam. It was a small freighter heaped high with bags of copra. They had a single white light on the mast and two white deck lights on either side. There was no sign of a red or green light at all. It was obvious that they had purposely altered course to take a look at us. Shortly after passing us they turned starboard back to a course for Tarawa (we tracked them on radar). We were all a bit shaken by the incident.

Finding an anchorage in Tabiteuea North was not as easy as we expected. Tabiteuea North is quite different from the atolls we have been getting used to. It is a long island with an extensive broken reef system west of it. Tabiteuea South has a more-or-less enclosed lagoon and is connected to Tabiteuea North by a series of small islets. The paper chart for Tabiteuea North has little detail. The electronic chart is a poor copy of the paper chart ! Several anchorages are listed on the paper chart but they are all about four miles from shore. This is also where the only soundings are. Between these anchorages and shore lies a broken reef and (on the chart) endless shallow light blue with no soundings at all! We had hoped to find a way through the broken reef and get closer to shore. When we found ourselves in only fifty feet of water four miles from shore we weren't certain it would be possible. The prospect of anchoring in the rolly ocean swell four miles from land didn't seem too appealing. However, we threaded our way through the coral and after some time managed to get inside the reef and within a half mile of shore. We finally anchored in sand with about 30 feet of water. Between us and shore the depth rapidly decreases and most of the distance is large sand flat. When the tide is high a slight roll gets through the reef to us.

Kiribati is very different from the Marshalls in that there is lots of sand here. The sand gets stirred up and makes the water murky. This prevents the coral growing well. Outside, near the broken reef, there are many large bommies almost reaching the surface. Here, in the sandy water, there are large stretches of open sand with only occasional low bommies. The color of the water is such a gorgeous light green; the amazing green water reflects off the clouds and they also become green! This was the first time we have ever seen green clouds. There are many gracious white tropical birds zooming around, their bellies reflecting the color of the water below; green in the shallows or blue in the deep water.

A few minutes after anchoring, a motorboat roared up with Tabuki Rake and two friends of his aboard. Tabuki Rake has excellent English and we have very much enjoyed his company since. We invited him and his friends aboard for some cold lemonade and cookies. A few minutes more and the police sergeant with his party of four also arrived. Sam (the police sergeant) was a little peeved at first that we had allowed Tabuki aboard as the police are supposed to be first. We apologized and Sam said it was not a problem. It was a bit overwhelming - just the four of us for so long and suddenly we had eight others aboard!! Sam took a look at our papers and we gave tours of Hai Yun to anyone who was interested.

The next morning we went in to shore to see Tabuki Rake. Tabuki Rake was a school teacher until he retired at fifty (he is 53 now). He traveled a great deal for the education system. At one point, he was sent to Geneva to address a United Nations group on education. Now that he's retired he seems to really miss travel and meeting people of different backgrounds.

Tabuki Rake gave us the biggest lobster we had ever seen. The meat and yolk in the head were enough of a meal for Erik and Jingli. Max ate only one third of the tail and we froze the rest of the tail for later. Tabuki Rake and his wife run a small shop. His wife has diabetes and she's in Tarawa right now for treatment. Kiribati has a very good health care system. Not only are all the doctor visits and hospitalization free, but the airfares to Tarawa from the outer islands are also free for the patient and one companion! There is a big new hospital in Tabiteuea North that is almost finished. It is the second biggest hospital in the country (the biggest one is in Tarawa) and it was financed by a Taiwanese company. The communications with Tarawa are currently down so Tabuki Rake has had no information about his wife after she left two weeks ago. He's very worried about her - he tried to get on the last plane for Tarawa but it was canceled. We tried to get hold of a yacht in Tarawa on the SSB to pass some news, but were not successful.

Luckily, Tabuki Rake’s wife came back the next day. We enjoyed very much several delicious meals in Tabuki Rake’s house. Erik loved the home made dried pork and tuna, Jingli liked the baked eel, sashimi and vegetable salad, Max enjoyed the fresh fish, chicken and salad; even picky eater James found something delicious to his taste. We invited Tabuki Rake’s family for dinner on Hai Yun. That night Tabuki Rake, his wife, two of their daughters, their grandson, and one of their daughter’s friend came over. We had a lot of fun - their grandson Tabu (one year old) really liked Hai Yun. Everybody liked the Chinese sausage fried with egg. Jingli gave Tabuki Rake’s wife the last package of the Chinese sausage we had aboard.


We've found the people here incredibly friendly, generous and gracious. Everywhere we went, people greeted us with big smiles. We were often invited to have a rest in their buya, to have a drink of fresh coconut. Jingli was given a Kiribati traditional blouse when she admired Sam’s sister-in-law hand-making one.

The most treasured memory was the vegetable gift we received. Tabiteuea North has had a very bad drought --no rain for almost one year. The heavy rain we had on the way here was the first since last September; even their well water has turned salty. People get their limited drinking water from the new hospital’s water maker. Imagine how difficult it is to maintain a garden without enough fresh water. The Police Chief’s garden was ten rice sacks filled with soil and the lettuce growing inside the sacks. To our astonishment, his wife wanted to give us half of her garden – five lettuce heads! Max insisted on only accepting one, the battle ended with him taking two back to Hai Yun. We felt so inadequate in returning their generosity. The Police Chief (Tabuki – same first name as Tabuki Rake), the Police Sergeant (Sam) and their families went out of their way to make us feel at home despite the fact that our presence meant much extra work for them. The only thing we can do in return is to invite as many people as we can to come onboard Hai Yun to have dinner, or to have a tour and a cold drink.

Most of the local people who visit Hai Yun have never set foot on a cruising sail boat, so it is a big event for them. They come well dressed and are very excited to see all the daily essentials onboard our small sail boat world. The last batch of visitors came aboard 1 hr before we left for Tuvalu. The children books we brought from Hawaii libraries were also welcomed by the school kids. Jingli was very happy to find out people like to have their pictures taken; she got so many great shots!

We were so lucky to be at the right place at the right time. The limited time we stopped at Tabiteuea North happened to be their Independent Day holiday! What a wonderful celebration we observed! It took place in the village’s Maneaba. A maneaba is a large open building with a thatched A-frame roof probably 30' tall. There’s a gap under all four sides about 5 feet high and usually a concrete floor. Pillars inside hold the roof up. Everything is made of coconut tree trunks held together with coconut husk twine and thatched with woven coconut fronds. Each village has one – there are lots of taboos concerning them – you need to be careful where you walk, when you talk, which way your feet point etc....Tabuki Rake took us in after he spoke to the organizers, we were seated on the mat in the front. The dancers were local school kids and some young villagers. Their exquisite costumes were mostly made with coconut or pandanas leaves. The music and dance were a little like Hawaii style, but the performers were so involved in what they are doing. It was very hot, but the devoted dancers were completely engaged in the music. One girl was crying the whole time when she was dancing - we asked Tabuki if there was something wrong - he explained she was just too moved by the music and could not control her emotion. Jingli particularly liked the music box they performed with. It was a table-like box with drums under. A group of men sat around the table, hitting the beat with their hands on the table. Everybody in the maneaba (except us) sang with the beats; it was so impressive how great they sounded! Everyone was totally enthused with the music, as if nothing else existed in the whole world. The conductor, a sixty some years old man, was so filled with enthusiasm, his face was streaming with sweat, and his red sulu (skirt for man) kept falling off as he pumped his arms excitedly. During the free dance time, both Jingli and Max were invited by an old man and an old woman to join them, we were very happy to participate!

One adventure we had here was to take a tour to the islets between North and South Tabiteuea - it turned out to be quite a saga. We had pre-arranged with the police chief (Tabuki), the police sergeant (Sam) and Sam's brother-in-law to go by aluminum boat to the police chief Tabuki's islets further south. We wanted to pay for the gas but they were going to get it. Probably out of politeness, they hadn’t bought quite enough gas. By the time we'd found some more gas the tide was starting to fall. Tabuki's islets are almost ten miles south of the main village. At first we blasted along the inside of the reef at great speed. It was so wonderful zipping through such picturesque water, gorgeous green painted with dark reefs - it was stunning. Soon, however, our progress became slower and slower as large patches of coral came closer and closer to the surface. Finally, we were forced to give up before reaching his islets. We camped at a small island for lunch, walked around for a while, snorkeled in the afternoon then left for home again when the tide rose a bit. Since the moon was new, the tides were weak. Sam's brother-in-law had a terrible time trying to get back through the exposed coral heads. Over and over again he backed and turned trying to find a passage through. Finally he gave up and headed directly out for the reef. After some walking and pushing we made it the three miles out to the fringing reef. He headed out through a break in the reef and almost a mile further out to sea. At this point, Jingli and I were getting very nervous. The sun was almost down, a storm cloud was approaching, we were in a small aluminum outboard running out of gas, five miles from land in the open sea! No radio, no GPS, no extra water, no anchor - I was certain this was the beginning of a horror story. However, the gas lasted. And, after several false tries, they succeeded in finding the pass through the reef in the dark. It took a little longer to find Hai Yun but luckily we had forgotten to turn off the anchor light in the morning - sloth does have advantages! A scary experience we’ll hopefully prepare for next time but everything came out ok in the end. I think Sam's brother (who was navigating) was very used to being in exactly that situation - he didn't seem at all nervous.

No matter how much we wished we could stay longer in Kiribati, we had to leave. We'd had a most wonderful visit - the people here are fantastic!! It was hard to say goodbye to our friends in Tabiteuea North - we hope we will meet again someday somewhere.
Once again, we headed out into the big sea, bound for Funafuti, Tuvalu. 500 nautical miles away…