POHNPEI STATE

Written by Justin Udovch >> Here I will provide a very brief outline of our expedition. So much happened that a book could and should be written about it. I am leaving out what feels like everything.

Danko and I have been friends since 1995, when we met as fellow exchange students at the University of Guam. From the beginning we both shared a love and fascination for Guam and the rest of the Micronesian islands. Guam, especially the University, is a great place to make friends from all over Micronesia. We kept making friends from places we have never heard of, and pretty soon it became obvious to us that there is a lifetime of learning and a whole new island world out there. Danko was the first to come up with the idea of doing an atlas of Micronesia and while I thought it was a great idea at the time, I didn't ever really imagine doing it. It seemed like one of those great ideas in life that was destined to stay just another good idea. Luckily for me, Danko was determined to see it through and years later I found myself on a plane bound for the island of Pohnpei, the largest island in the Federated States of Micronesia.

When I met Danko in Pohnpei, he had been there for a week or two staying with a good friend of his who runs a local fishing business. Our friend, who we are forever indebted to, not only let us stay in his apartment with him and drive his car but he also insisted on taking us to dinner every night! He was amazing. Here I had mentally prepared myself for camping on sandflea-infested beaches in relentless heat and humidity and found my self with hot showers, air conditioning and a reliable car. The trip started out great.

Pohnpei was the logical place to start the expedition for a couple of reasons. It harbors the capital of the FSM so all federal agencies have main offices there. It is also geographically the farthest island upwind (furthest east) so once we got started it would seem like we were going with the wind for the rest of the way. As a sailor, that seemed important to me.

We had a couple of weeks of very fun and productive weeks in Pohnpei, including the highlight visit to Mwoakilloa Atoll. Soon after we felt ready to head to Chuuk State.

CHUUK STATE

After a few delays with the FSM patrol ships which we hoped to use to get to the Mortlock Islands, we decided to fly instead. Fortunately, a local airline, Caroline Islands Aviation, flies occasionally by a four seater from Pohnpei to the atoll of Satowan in the Lower Mortlocks. Reaching Satowan, we were able to use our folding kayaks to travel around the atoll and collect the data we were after. We hitched rides on local boats when possible, and kayaked when not. We crossed from Oneop to Moch by kayak, and a few days later to Ettal as well. We were very well received by local people and everyone we met was friendly and cooperative. It was turning into quite an experience. As we continued to check off the islands in the Mortlocks we began to master the methodology of collecting the data for the Atlas and a number of other projects and we were really feeling good.

From Ettal we took a local boat all the way to Weno Lagoon. Upon arrival, we realized that timing of the ships was going to play a huge role in our productivity. Chuuk State has a lot of small ships but when we were there it seemed like all were scheduled to go back to the Mortlocks. We needed to go to Paafang, Pattiw and Namonweitee island groups. We soon realized that we needed to take a more independent route and hire our own boat. Unfortunately, the only boat we could afford was a 20-foot Yamaha with a 40-hp outboard. Amazingly, after about 25 hours of running time in about 3 days we were able to go cover Nomwin and Murilo islands and an uninhabited, very isolated atoll called East Fayew. We were pretty happy with that progress and realized it was the best we could do.

YAP STATE

Then, something happened that we thought was a godsend, but turned out to be a disaster. We heard, from a very reliable source (so we thought), that a ship would be leaving Yap Proper in a few days for ALL the inhabited outer islands of Yap State. It was to be a school supply drop off and the stops would be long enough for us to do our work. Well, we went for it! We dropped what we were doing in Chuuk and bought plane tickets to Yap to catch the ship. Disaster. The ship wasn't even there and wasn't supposed to be back for another week. It had been commissioned for another trip, which had thrown everything off. This was a big blow to our last month there and besides a generous donation from a local Yapese business we had nothing to show for our time in Yap. We are determined to change all of that upon our return.

All in all, despite the major setback at the end of our trip, Danko and I both feel that we successfully completed a lot of important work towards completing the Atlas of the FSM and other projects. Leaving the FSM was hard and we can't wait to get back, visit all the great friends we made and finish the work we started.