Mel Thunderbolt | Life’s what you make it
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30 Jul Life’s what you make it

Posted at 00:00h in Sailing from the Philippines to New, Treasure Hunting through the Pacific by

Bill and Stella from Sea Horse Marine arrived yesterday, bringing all sorts of tools and gadgets with them to aid in our pump removal. After a team discussion of tactics, a Spanish windlass was set up with line, freezing spray, heat gun, chisels and hammers…. After a long day, the pump still remains.  We will have to take off the Timing Gear cover – which means half the engine – which means more spare parts need to be flown in… So, we might be here a while longer ☺

Now with this information, I could do two things.  Either, I could loose control, throw my toys out of the cot and leave or I could face reality and come up with ways of keeping myself busy and entertained while we wait for the parts.  I decided to go for the latter, after all – Life is what you make of it.

I found the local pub

I have decided to volunteer for the community and I am now teaching English here in Kiribati.  I have never taught before and when I signed up, I thought I was going to be volunteering for young children.  Instead they have given me the Form 4 High School class. There are 50 teenagers, aged 16 years in my class.

The entire High School is under one huge thatch roof (the locals call it a Manaeba), which is segmented off into many different classes.  It is so noisy and so I have to shout as loud as I can for the class of 50 to hear.  I nearly lost my voice on Wednesday.  They are typical teenagers, with the boys sitting on one side, too cool for school and the girls on the other, giggling away at the boys.  It is difficult to keep the class under control for my two hour-long lessons.  Now I know how my teachers felt when I was at school.  I was one of the naughty ones sitting at the back, not paying attention and so now this is my
Karma.  One has to laugh.  It does feel good to be part of a community and giving something back to the world is a great way to spend my time, while we wait for parts.

All of us that joined the Blue Treasure Expedition had different reasons for joining.  I for one, wanted time out, away from the madness of the private Super Yacht industry, I wanted to go to places off the beaten track.  Yes, things have not been going according to plan, yes, we are not diving at the moment, but hey, here we are in this moment of our lives, in Kiribati, doing things that we would never do like teaching English, learning to rebuild engines, catching crazy bus rides, and getting excited when fresh fruit arrives on a ship from Australia.  This is an adventure whichever way you look at it.

World War 2 Look Out Post

We WILL get this engine started, and we WILL be heading south to Tonga and Fiji, but for now, we will remain positive, hang out with the locals, watch rugby, teach English and learn how to play chess.

Bye for now, Mel

 

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Melissa Van Der Walt
grace@circlemedia.co.za