[120226, 0059 UTC,  Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands

07º06' N / 171º 22' E]

Dear Friends;

Some of you may already know we are STILL in Majuro atoll, the capital of the Marshall Islands. You may ask yourself whatintheheck is keeping us here, tucked up against a dusty overcrowded lump of abused coral heaped with detritus, when out-islands, villages, crafts, sailing canoes, gorgeous water, and peaceful anchorages await downwind? The short answer is we're catching up; that is with projects aboard and with cash. Last year was an expensive one and the bucks just seemed to sublimate into the fresh tradewinds, such that by year's end we were feeling a little anxious. Facing further outlays for necessary gear for Carina, we made the difficult decision to seek gainful work and thus began to offer free-lance custom canvas services.

What's enabled this is an interesting and supportive local merchant whose warehouse has a large loft where we can store and use "Teeny" (our old but newly-named large and capable sewing machine) and can spread out. It's hot and dirty in the "loft" (with occasional mosquitoes!) and the light is purely ambient, so things get a little dim when one of Majuro's monster squalls screams through and darkens the skies. But it is dry and out of the weather and we get to enjoy the whistling of the warehouse folk below and visits from Tini - who isn't teeny either and who inspired us to name our machine. Tini is the warehouse supervisor who rules with a loud voice though with a twinkle in her eye and a bright smile. We also get to "enjoy" an eclectic blend of radio tunes blasted through the warehouse - recycled (bad) American pop plus Marshallese music that is slightly melodic at best, dismal when it mimics country and western, and sounds like cats caterwauling when it's at its worst.

Six days per week, we load up Bacio and leave Carina for the ten minute commute to the loft, often dodging squalls that bring brief but torrential rain. Once tied up at the rickety dock, we haul all our gear, tools, and supplies (except Teeny) across the back lot - where young men grind old rusty steel destined for some new structure - and up the stairs to the third floor and where we turn on the big fan that keeps the temperature somewhere between tolerable and unbearable. Next to the dock where we tie are two rusting ships, their hulls driven ashore. Parts of these freighters have been cut away and large pieces of rusting steel, a long abandoned ship's diesel engine, and oxidizing slivers of aluminum are strewn around the site and in the water. Off the stern of one of the ships a line runs to the stern of an abandoned ferrocement Asian long-liner which is badly listing to starboard. The bow of the long liner is tethered to a huge buoy. Next to this sad armada (or former armada) are two-storey high piles of ship bits plus shipping containers. Occasionally we catch a glimpse of the owner of this mess, an eccentric ex-pat who, along with his Marshallese helper, fits bits of steel together to hold chunks of coral, concrete and trash for reclaiming land. (In spite of this and other detritus in the water - sunken ships, airplanes, helicopters, trucks and other vehicles - the lagoon water is amazingly clear and we have resident school of gorgeous rainbow runner living below Carina.) At the end of each working day, we come back to Carina truly filthy and dog-tired. Jake makes us smile as he greets us by purring and doing cartwheels on deck so he can expose his chubby belly and get a hearty rub.

Our first big jobs were actually for the store; the construction of three large awnings amongst other projects. The store is also bringing in fabric by ship and so we will be buying fabric from them for local and inter-island boats. Our project backlog will take us through next month and, with new projects still arriving, perhaps until the end of the cyclone season down south (how convenient!). It is our plan at this moment to sail south with the season towards the Solomon Islands, perhaps by way of Kosrae or even - as Philip sometimes suggests - by way of Fiji.

We still have a growing list of Carina projects hanging over our heads (and concomitant purchases to make - ouch!) and our main salon is filled with hardware and canvas supplies that would normally be stowed away in the lazarette. All these things make life a little crazy. Our own projects include replacing mast tangs and bolts, upgrading our deck and steaming lights, and installing a new autopilot (a tiller pilot that will control the Monitor lines) and an AIS instrument, and replacing our own dodger (or spray hood). So we're busier than we've ever been and the additional work has actually been a good weight loss program!

Still, we try to get out to social events when we can and actually joined the local Mieco Beach Yacht Club (annual membership for a couple: $25) whose members are involved in many community outreach projects. In fact, Leslie organized a workshop held under the aegis of the MBYC, the Seven Seas Cruising Association and the local College of the Marshall Islands, to help teach cruisers how to use Google Earth images to make overlays and charlets that can be read in chartplotter software in order to improve safety when navigating in poorly charted areas. Tragically, Barney Van Auken, our friend and the vice commodore of the yacht club, who helped facilitate this workshop, died recently. A large, vivacious, intelligent, and kind man, he was a local icon who rode around town in a three wheeled solar-powered "old fart cart" and would stop to chat with groups of even the youngest kids who wanted to know how it worked.

We're also continuing to write when we can and have had two articles accepted in the last few months. We enjoy writing together, even though, as you may expect, there are many lively exchanges between us over content and style.

So, our unusual cruising adventure continues but on a course that's ever changing and we hope you will forgive us for being remiss at keeping in touch.

Your friends of the yacht Carina,

Philip, Leslie and fat cat, Jake

website: www.sv-carina.org

At 1/31/2012 and 19:15 UTC (GMT) our position was: 07°06.51'N / 171°22.09'E

Philip, Leslie and fat cat, Jake