Jocara Newsletter
June 11, 2005

There is something magical about this place that removes it from the 
normal flow of time.  At least, that's our only explanation for why more 
than two weeks have passed since our last newsletter (when it has felt 
like half that time) and how come we find other cruisers who have been 
living here for up to 14 months at a stretch.  Many return year after 
year, having become willingly locked into an Indian Ocean cycle, 
abandoning original plans to cirumnavigate, or at least postponing the 
Cape of Good Hope into some uncertain distant future.  From delightful 
Moresby Island (with its easy access to the outer reef, beautiful corals 
and bountiful fish) in the atoll of Peros Banhos we moved 25 n.m. to the 
east on 2 June to explore the smaller, but better-protected, Salomon 
atoll.  The weather has been unsettled with frequent bouts of wind and 
rain that made Moresby an insecure anchorage.  We arrived late in the 
afternoon, too late to navigate across the bommie-strewn interior lagoon.  
'Bommies' are big accretions of coral that rise 10-20 m from the sea bed 
to lie very close to the sea surface, providing some navigational 
excitement.  We anchored for the night at Takamaka island, intending 
perhaps to move on to the more-popular Boddam island in the morning.  We 
stayed almost a week enjoying the company of a few other boats, including 
a couple with sons of Alex's age.  There was a fresh-water well, beachside 
paella, home-brewed beer and cookies baked in a tin over an open fire with 
live music provided by the international cast of cruisers from Austria, 
France, Italy, Spain... Finally arriving at Boddam, we met up with about 8 
boats still remaining there (most have now left for the Seychelles or 
Malaysia) and have been quickly assimilated into the local 'Robinson 
Crusoe' culture of fishing, eating coconuts and playing volleyball at 4 
every afternoon.  The 'hard-core' cruisers cultivate their vegetable 
gardens and brew rice wine with their boats tied to bommies in 
well-protected shallows tight up to the beach.  We must move on soon, 
however, to make our appointments down the road and, looming increasingly 
large, Singapore.  Now we are waiting for a weather window, a little 
nervous at the reported conditions to the north and east of us.  Jocara 
lies snugly tied to a bommie at 5 deg. 21.3'S, 072 deg. 12.6'E.

P.S. Don't forget to check out our website at http://www.jocara.net for 
updates, pics and short movies, also archived newsletters.  Anyone can 
join the list or unsubscribe by sending an email to mandar@arl.nus.edu.sg 
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