A short 2 day passage to the north from Tarawa brought us to Butaritari. Unfortunately, we were only allowed to stay for 3 days. Because of its relative isolation, Butaritari is very traditional and would have been a nice place to spend a long stretch of time.
Johnson is the police constable here and he was a very pleasant fellow. Here he is with his family.
Since we didn't have much time we weren't really able to meet too many people. One interesting person was Timber - a 20-something American who had been teaching on remote Kiribati out islands for 8 years. He is just about to head back to the states for good. I didn't get a picture of him, but one of the cool little sleeping house/tree house he built.
There's evidence of WW2 here too.
But today, a walk along the ocean side beach was very peaceful, except for the crash of surf.
There lots of canoes here too.
Three days fly by...so on January 23, 2006 we left Butaritari bound for Majuro in the Marshall islands. We are now here in Majuro, enjoying the crystal clear water. These islands our last stop in the Pacific before sailing back to the states in May/June.
Some people seem sad for us when they hear we are heading back and selling Red. They shouldn't be. We've had a glorious time cruising and have gotten out of it even more than we dreamed of. We are ready to go on to other adventures and are looking to the future with relish!