Weekend on Ant

September 11th , a solemn day in the U.S., happens to also be Pohnpei Liberation Day. The holiday celebrates the end of the ‘War in the Pacific,’ which is the nice way of saying the end of Japanese control of the island. Regardless of how you say it, the result is that we had a three-day weekend.

Back in the states when a three day holiday weekend rolled around, we’d throw the camping gear in the truck and head for the woods. So what do you do when you live on an island where you can drive the circumference in less than three hours and all land is privately owned? Boat trip!

With food having been purchased, camping gear packed, and sunscreen applied, ten of us ex-pats drove down to the Kitti boat ramp to rendevouz with a hired boat. With the theme song of Gilligan’s Island playing in the back of my head, we small boat took off for Ant Atoll.

Ant is a one to four hour boat ride away. The time it takes to get to Ant doesn’t vary based on traffic. Weather conditions, specifically waves, determine whether one spends a quick easy hour getting from point A to point B or whether one spends four seasick hours praying to G-d and vowing never leave dry land again. We made it there in a just over an hour.

Without getting too technical, it’s hard to describe what distinguishes an island from an atoll. In layman’s terms an atoll is a really small island. An atoll is what makes a 12 mile by 15 mile island like Pohnpei seem big. Very big.
The best description I’ve read on the Pacific atolls is that each atoll is like a string of beads. Ant had a few beads, each separated by a space of water. Some of the beads were more or less connected and at low tide a person can walk from one bead to the next. Our bead had broken off and there was no low tide corral bridge to lead us to the other beads.

With gear unloaded from the point, we stood on the beach and waved goodbye to the boat taxi. There we were, on an unoccupied atoll in the middle of the Pacific – cut off from the rest of the world. It felt pretty exhilarating. The wind picked up and the sky darkened but we managed to set up a tarp in time to save ourselves and our gear from getting soaked by an afternoon rain shower.

It had been a while since I’ve sat on a beach and enjoyed the feel of sand between my toes. I did say beach. As I think I’ve mentioned in earlier entries, Pohnpei doesn’t really have beaches and sand. Little know fact: not all islands have sand. Instead of sand, islands formed by volcanoes have corral - hard, sharp, pointy corral. They also have mangrove swamps but I digress….

So there we were on the sandy beach of an uninhabited atoll a few hours by boat from a small island in the Pacific. It was pretty cool! For 48 hours we snorkeled, played cards, ate, had bonfires, and drank. I’ve done my share of camping in the past. I’ve also done my share of eating, drinking, playing cards, and also some snorkeling. Somehow, it all seems just a little better when done on an isolated piece of land in a place few people ever get to.

Normally, I’d prefer bourbon or scotch to rum, but neither one would taste as good when drunk from a coconut shell. One of the highlights of the weekend – one of the things that made the experience unique – is that we climbed and knocked coconuts out of trees, hacked off the top with our machetes and added rum to the coconut juice inside. Mmm, mmm good!!!