Pohnpei

We spent Christmas and New Years in Pohnpei. Both were fairly quiet. Christmas day started with Jim making me croissants and fresh orange juice for breakfast and then we went for a walk up a nearby hill. Luckily we picked a sunny day and we had good views out to the reef and down into the harbour. At the top of the hill we explored around some Japanese gun emplacements complete with guns from the second world war. For New Years eve we went to a nearby pub and played pool against the Aussie couple on the cruising boat anchored next to us. They are here for the surfing which is supposed to be world renown. In Pohnpei we have also been out diving which is quite good, but I think we have previously mentioned that diving in the Solomon Islands has spoilt us!

We escaped from Kolonia harbour for a few days out at a beautiful atoll. The atoll is uninhabited except for a couple of guys who are there sporadically to stop people fishing there as the family that own the atoll have declared it a no fishing area. We have had quite a lot of rain while we have been in Pohnpei (its one of the wetter places on earth) so several sunny days anchored in crystal clear water were a real treat. While heading out to dive one day, Jim noticed a shape under the water, when I stuck my head under to have a look, I saw a large gamefish (blue marlin we think) heading straight for the dinghy -quite a sight!

One of the reasons we came to Pohnpei was to visit the ruins of Nan Madol. This site has fascinated Jim since he was a child. The site consists of several man made islands with buildings built of interlocking basalt columns. Some of the columns and corner stones are huge and it would be a considerable undertaking to build these structures now, let alone several hundred years ago. There is some mystery as to exactly how Nan Madol was built as there is no basalt occurring nearby; the closest deposits are over the other side of the island. Legend has it that magicians flew the blocks across. Today, there are only a few buildings with intact walls and alot of the site has silted up and is being reclaimed by the mangroves, but some of the grandeur of what was once there is still able to be appreciated. After all that, the thing that Jim has talked about most since then is the kittens we saw on the way out!