Ant Atoll

Nic and I headed over to Ant Atoll after diving P-Pass first thing on Saturday morning. We tied the boat up to a log on the beach and went straight out for a snorkle on a little reef about 50m off of the beach.

Saw this little beauty on the way out. A trigger fish I think.

Came across a coconut tree that had been uprooted and is now home to hundreds of colourful fish.

Once again there were beautiful clams all over the reef.

Some leafy critter thing that closes up to a single little tube if you get too close.

As you can see you don't have to duck-dive down too far to get a good look.

Fish everywhere.

Saw this little coral trout on the snorkel back into the shore.

By the time I got back to the boat for some lunch Nic had already started. Lunch, Nic, I said lunch.

After a quick feed we walked up the beach to another reef. On the way we saw this 5-6ft thresher shark cruising the shallows.

Pretty cool. Incase you are wondering, you don't have to swim fast to get away from the sharks, just faster than someone else......

We came across a spot where someone had recently had a campfire on the beach. There must have been some food left laying around as there were crabs everywhere.

Colourful little critters.

Nic telling me to hurry up so that we can go for the next snorkel.

First thing we see on the second swim is a cool stingray.

First 'flute fish' we've seen in Pohnpei.

Absolutely awesome colours on some of the coral.

More clams.

A virtual garden of coral and fish life.

As we always do we packed the rods, reels and lures just in case.......

Diving Palikir Pass

Palikir Pass in Pohnpei is more known for being one of the world's surfing hot spots than for it's diving. Every year all the big names fly in as soon as the surf starts pumping. Over our summer (which is now) though the sea settles down and diving takes over. Like everywhere in Pohnpei the water is 'gin' clear and there is lots to see. We actually dived the cliff face about three hundred metres to the right of the pass, we'll do the pass next dive.

Had some locals join us on the way out of the lagoon.

Just about every time the boat goes out we get dolphins jumping off the bow. Great if your cruising around, not so great if your trying to catch fish.

Like I said, there aren't too many waves at P-Pass during summer. Hope these guys aren't going to wait too long. The first decent swell mightn't be for some time.

This is just a 'showing off' picture. Notice the water temp is 30 degrees. How will we ever swim in Perth ever again.

Great clear water.

So much to see. Yet another cracking photo that will end up in the Pohnpei Coffee Table book Scott is putting together.

A pretty cool starfish.

Lots of 'Nemos' on this dive.

Cool huh?

Like I said "Lots of Nemos"

Scott getting a close-up of Nemo. He's hiding up in the top right of the picture.

Absolutely 'gin' clear water. Fantastic dive.

Scott down at 27m checking out the wildlife.

Indianna

Our little girl is growing up way too fast. One of the reasons that we applied to come here was to spend two/three years together as a family. Nine months away a year is pretty hard and now that Scott comes home every day the kids are a lot happier and are enjoying spending time with Daddy in the afternoons and on weekends.

Who gave you permission to wear Daddy's hat? Who could deny her.....

Such a caring little girl. Want a cup of tea Big Ted?

Big hugs for baby.

All this playing sure is hard work.

Painting with Mum out on the balcony. Waterbased paints and a hose at the ready is the only way to go.

Papayas

We were given some Papaya seeds recently so we planted a few and grew the seedlings up on our balcony. The time has come to put them into the ground. Scott thought the old sandpit would be the best spot. Unfortunately there was plastic under the sand so all the sand had to come out so that the plastic could be removed. Scott and Brandon (one of our friendly compound gardeners) worked in the hot sun for a couple of hours getting the project underway.

Brandon hard at work.

All the sand is finally removed, now to find some soil.....

Scott and Brandon went down to the fence line and dug up some very fertile soil (full of worms). The problem was that the wheelbarrow could only go so far. So it was a matter of filling up a bucket at a time, walking that up the hill and slowly filling the wheelbarrow.

Scott spreading out the soil.

After two or so hours Scott and Brandon decided that five wheelbarrow loads would be enough to get the papayas in the ground. The plan is for a few more papaya trees and some other vegies to get planted once the boys get some more soil up from the river.

Sashimi

A little while back you may remember that we were given a couple of tuna for lending out some dive gear. The time recently came to clean out the freezer so the second one had to be defrosted and carved up.

Ever filleted a cow.....

Doesn't look that flash at this stage does it.

Indi knew exactly what the end product was going to be and wanted in on the deal early. Both Jaxon and Indi love raw fish and it is a struggle to stop them from eating the lot.

About one tenth of the final product. Needless to say we gave lots of tuna away to people that would appreciate it. Yummo.

04-07 Sep All Mike Fishing Tournament

While Nic was Frocktailing Scott and a mate Bill from Pohnpei flew to the Marshall Islands for the All Mike fishing tournament. With 13 teams from all over the place, including Hawaii, mainland USA, Australia and all the Micronesian Islands there was a great variety of personalities and fishing stories to share, even before the first boat left the dock. Friday night was registration with a huge meal and free beer. The tournament's major sponsor was Budweiser so there was enough beer to sink a ship. Friday finished about 0130 Saturday, this wasn't great when the tournament started at 0700. So after a hazy 0530 wake-up it was down to the dock and onboard the assigned boats, only to find that every boat received a complementary carton of beer both days of the tournament. Oh well, when in Rome.....

The sponsors banner. One of about 10 that were put up around town.

The boats all the left the dock at 0700. At 0745 one of the reels had line peeling off and by 0800 Scott had landed his first marlin ever. Worth the price of the ticket for sure. He is still smiling now. Scott and his fishing buddy Bill also caught a big barracuda that won them first place in that category. $500 that pretty much paid for the hotel room and hire car. You beauty.

The Marshall Islands also have a couple of Australian Navy people based there looking after a patrol boat. Scott's mate Todd (in the pink) is the Chief Electronics guy there and he skippered the boat for his assigned teams and came up with the goods on both days.

This is the deck of the boat Scott and Bill had on the second day. Pretty bloody flash. There aren't any boats that look like this in Pohnpei.

The winning team and their three marlin. The wooden cut-out symbolises the tag-and-released marlin that also counts for points.

04 Sep - The Frocktail Party

Last Saturday saw Nic get all dressed up for a Frocktail Party. The 2I/C of the Australian Embassy is heading off soon and the Australian Ambassador hosted a party at her residence. Everyone was meant to get a little dressed up but not go to any great expense doing it. Most people made the effort and had some fun along the way.

Nic looked glamorous in her newly purchased evening gown. Scott was a little worried about how much a fine dress like this cost in a place like Pohnpei. $7 is a bloody expensive dress.

Miss Dersey and her son Maynard came over to babysit. Dersey is one of the ladies that works at Jaxon's school and babysits for us quite often. The kids love her which makes leaving them behind a little less stressfull.

All smiles for the ladies. The local stores must have made a killing the week prior tp this. I'm tipping at least a couple of those dresses cost more than $7.

As blokes do in Pohnpei, getting dressed up doesn't happen, it just doesn't. There was a couple of close calls though. No time for getting dressed up when there are free cocktails to drink.

Our Australian Ambassador Susan Cox with Janet and Eddy. Janet and Eddy head off soon from Pohnpei straight to Fiji. DFAT doesn't sound like such a bad job after all.