Fish Eye Piti Bomb Pit Guam Close Up Macro Photos

 Despite the formation of tropical storms around the Guam area and bad visibility in the water I did manage to get out and shoot some fish close ups. Photos taken with the new Olympus 60 mm lens and EPL-5 camera in a PT-EP10 housing with dual Sea&Sea YS-110a strobes.

Carolinian Sailing Canoe Lien Polowat Arrives on Guam

Traditional Carolinian 27 foot long sailing canoe Lien Polowat arrived on Guam June 24, 2013 after a 5 day 500 nautical miles passage from Polowat Atoll with a stop at Pik Atoll. Eight crew members and the Master Navigator Chief Theo completed the voyage. The voyage was completed using only traditional navigation methods using the stars, wave, swells, and current directions to make a landfall on Guam. Food and provisions for the voyage consisted of coconuts, taro, sweet potatoes, dried and fresh fish.

 Chief Theo recounts the 5 day voyage with local Guam media.

 The canoe was the last sailing canoe crafted by Master Carver and Master Navigator Manny Sikau who passed away on February 2013.

 Hand carved bailing bucket used to keep water out of the canoe. Most of the ropes and rigging were hand woven from coconut husk fibers.

 The canoe will be disassembled and shipped to Japan as a donation to the Oceanic Culture Museum on the island of Okinawa.

 The canoe was shaped from seven breadfruit trees grown on Polowat Atoll.

 Outrigger or aka located on the downwind side of the hull.

 Steering rudder. The helmsman uses his foot to control the rudder to steer the canoe.

Kitsugawa Maru Dive Apra Harbor, Guam

Heading  down  on the aft crane mast.

 

 

Zeus pretending to be a Japanese dive tourist. 

 

 

 

                                                         

 

Forward crane mast.

 

 

The "Kits" during better days. 

 

 

 

The visibility in the harbor was terrible. Can't Photoshop come up with a overall backscatter  tool? 

 

 

 

                                                Bow gun and ammo boxes.

Palau to Guam June 2012 Passage

 Had to stop by the Belau Yacht Club and say goodbye to many cruisers I have known over the last two years on Palau. Of course hoisted a few Red Rooster local micro brewery beers. I never did steal a Red Rooster Mug. Thanks, Phil Kleb, Brewmaster superb. Thanks Sam Scott for all the ammenities to the cruisers. I dropped my mooring lines and was on my way to Guam.

 Home Sweet Home

 Goobye Blue Corner.

 Goobye Soft Coral Arch.

Goodbye Jelly Fish Lake.

Oh shit shit shit..... what do we have here?  6 days out and north east of Ulithi a tropical storm Butchchoy started forming around Chuuk and then turned into typhoon Guchol.
My weather gurus in Palau,Jason and Roger in Guam sent messages via satelitte phone saying basically you are gonna get nailed! A typhoon alert was issued by Guam Joint Typhoon Warning Center. A 60% chance of a serious typhoon developing within 6 to 24 hours. The creature was tracking right across my track. My position at the time was halfway between Yap and Guam. Not a fun night ,weather in my position was calm, but I readied the boat for the worst. In the morning Roger stated the typhoon alert was cancelled and the monster moved south below my position changed direction and hit Ulithi and Yap. Can you say relief? I experienced many very nasty black squalls with strong winds in the range of 45 to 50 knots lasting for an hour or so ....then no wind..... I got very fast at getting all sail down and running with bare poles then when there was no wind putting some sail back on to keep moving and from slaming around in the following bouncing seas and light winds. Horizontal rain in the strong wind gusts forced me to wear a dive mask while on deck dropping sail. Most of the time I huddled under the spray dodger resting when I could. Sooke slid past over the top and missed the worst of the tropical storm. The seas never did get very high as the winds kept shifting in all directions. I did see some amazing lightning flashes and intense thunder at times miles way to the south of my position.




Good morning Spinner Dolphins. Thanks for dropping by two mornings in a row. Perhaps I was sailing so slow? Note the calms seas which were experienced most of the passage.

Here comes the sunrise right on course to Guam. After 9 days of slow sailing I made landfall at Agat Boat Basin on Guam. Of course after Customs and Immigration and clearing in, I just had to cruise on over to Jan Z's Bar to consume some golden nectar. Life is good!

Chamorro and Carolinian Sailing Canoes

Carolinian sailing canoes on Saipan.

The Chamorro "Flying Proa" was named by Magellan in 1520 after making landfall on Guam. These canoes in various sizes up to 47 feet could sail circles around the slower Magellan fleet. Look at Fig 3. plan view and you can clearly see the asymmetrical hull design curved on one side and flat on the other side. This design allowed the canoes to sail quickly and close to the wind direction about (50 degrees) when sailing up wind, something the Europeans didn't figure out until the mid 1920's. The curved hull side with the outrigger was always sailed with the wind on that side. The leeward side part or downwind side of the hull was shaped flat. This gave the hull a "wing " shape with water molecules flowing faster over the curved side causing water separation and providing low pressure. Water molecules flowing slower over the flat downwind side providing high pressure so the canoe was lifted slightly up wind reducing side way drift or leeway. The sail used this same "wing" principle. Got that ? Took me awhile until many years ago a sailing friend said "Remember when you were a kid and you stuck your hand out the window of a moving car and tilted it up and down?" Voila lift! Thank you, Phil Burt my first sailing buddy when we were 14 years of age. The amazing Micronesian navigators, sailors, and canoe carvers figured this out thousands of years ago and travelled on long distance voyages throughout the north central Pacific Ocean.

Sketch by Lt. Peircy Brett 1842.

"Flying Proa" canoe on Ypao Beach, Guam.

Satawal and Guam canoe carvers working on a small canoe.

Working with the traditional adz.

A traditional adz used to carve the canoe and outrigger. Originally clam shells were used as a cutting edge prior to the introduction of iron tools after 1520.

Modern canoe carving tools next to traditional tools. Gotta have that betel nut and tobacco to keep the energy level up and the cell phone to call for refreshments. Thin wood chips indicate a power plane shaper was in use.

Traditional man and non traditional carving tools. Guam October 2011.

A small sailing canoe used inside the lagoon has a asymmetrical hull design too.

Flying Proa constructed of modern materials. Thin strip planking and epoxy make these Tasi 20 boats light and fast.

Example of traditional linear sewing on pieces of breadfruit tree wood used in construction of large Carolinian sailing canoes. Breadfruit tree sap was used as a waterproof seal. Saipan 1996.

Smaller Carolinian canoe launched on Saipan.

Modern construction techniques used by the students on a Tasi 20. These 20 foot long canoes are being constructed to encourage local indigenous groups to retain the "Taotao Tasi" (People of the Sea) traditional Chamorro fishing techniques.

Sailing canoe Alingano Maisu dockside in Malakal harbor Palau. This is a Polynesian double hull design constructed of strip plank and epoxy built in Hawaii. The lines for the Alingano Maisu and Makali'i were taken from drawings by Capt Cook in the 1770's. Both designs have no asymmetrical hulls similar to the Chamorro and Carolinian canoes. These two designs were not as efficient sailing upwind as the Micronesian canoes. All reports indicate the Marshalese, Chamorros, and Carolinians were the only long distant canoe voyagers that carved asymmetrical hulls.

Polynesian twin hull canoe Makali'i from Hawaii docked in Saipan. May 1999.

A cool biodegradable sailing hat to keep the sun off your head. Palm Frond Products Co. established 3002 BC.

Those incredibly brave voyagers sailed from Satawal to Saipan in 5 days.

Coconut fiber rope versus modern Dacron rope.

A sturdy outrigger or "aka" on a Satawal open ocean voyaging canoe.

Enjoying new technology on a Hobie Cat 16 (twin asymmetrical hulls of course). Lino Olapai. Saipan.