N 03° 04.535
E 172° 46.721

It was raining in the morning cats and dogs. I had to do PC work and forgot to close the hatch on my cabine. When I discovered it, a four-letter word escaped several times my mouth.

We wanted to go ashore but the train continued, and continued. I made a last attempt to make yogurt. The last time it stayed mostly liquid. Ẁhen Tobi was about making something for lunch, the rain stopped and we went ashore.

I saw on the map a structure looking like a pier so I went closer to the shore to see possible places to dock the tender. We found one with a wall built of coral pieces went closer and asked the people of we can dock our tender. When the people understood what we want, we got immediately with smiling faces their go-ahead. We tied it up on the lee-ward side of the wall and used a stern anchor. With friendly words we thanked them and took off to the police station for which the gentleman gave as directions.

The first surprise was the street. A brand-new concrete street. “How long will it be? ‘, was the question which went immediately through my mind and, “Who pays for maintenance and repair in a few years from now? ”
The second surprise was the green of the island. Plenty of banana trees grow on this island. Also their are more and bigger breadfruit trees. Taro, tapioka, pumpkins and papaya trees we saw. How different this island is from Abaiang just 100 NM south of Butaritari.

The third surprise were the properties with fences. Most often just plants, which looks natural. Inside the properties it was clean. Along the street unfortunately the garbage of imported products was scattered.

Before we reach the police station the concrete street ended and it continued as the sand/gravel street we saw on Tarawa and Abaiang.

Along the street, we asked a lady for the police station. She pointed to an open door. We looked inside and it was clear that this was a former prison. “This can’t be the police station we need!”, I tought. The answer came by immediately from the other end of the building in the shape of a female police officer. Surprisingly not in uniform but a simple white T-shirt. It was a bit a bizarre situation standing with her; in high, uncut weeds talking to a police officer nearby her office. But that’s Butaritari.

She spoke pretty good English and I explained, I want to handover the permits for Butaritari. She took both of them.

When we asked where we could get bananas, she pointed to side street diagonally across the street from where we stood. “Inside there’, she explained, ‘Their are many banana trees”. We thanked her and and will go there on our way back.

We continued walking the street, greeting people with, “Mauri” and received a “Mauri, mauri”.

Palm-thatched huts are the main housing objects. They just fit best into the climate because the air can just flow through making it cool. The main “house” the “bata” is used for eating, socializing, resting and sleeping and normaler covered with mats woven from palmtree leaves.
Small huts are used for cooking utensils etc. The roofs need to be replaced every few years. Leaves rot.

We then saw the pier like structure, I identified on the sea chart and we went to have a closer look. It was a man made structure with a concrete wall on the NE side which continued with sandbags filled with sand and cement. The bags rot away and concrete wall remains. It’s a technique i saw often on Pacific islands. The other side is made of larger pieces of corals and it between is filled with corals and sand. The hole construction is built on top of a coral reef. For the supply boats’ landing, it has slanting part.

At the head of the pier there are also huts for a family, as well as a maneaba for the community. This maneaba has a concrete floor, no palmtree leave mats but natural stones as supporting columns, which carry the huge palm-thatched roof. The roof is completely built without nails or screws. All is tied up with some 4 mm thick lines made from coconuts husk. Simple and functioning since hundred of years.

When passing we greeted the men sitting under the big roof of the maneaba and received the “Mauri, mauri”.

We looked at the head of the pier to see how we could tie up our tender there. On the way back, we went closer to the maneaba and were asked to come under it’s roof.

There was one gentleman who speaks English. We had an interesting conversation with him and learned that he has a small family with only four children. Most families have 5 or 6 and up to 8 children.

He trank cold tea whereas the other men drank kava. “Until they fall down” , our conversation partner said.

On the meantime dark clouds didn’t just drift over the atoll but brought winds of 6 Bft and a lot of rain. MaRe, we saw her from the distance hold on to her anchor. The SuperWind turbine all the energy consumed during half a day. Thus we sadeliveredw when we returned to MaRe and the charge status of the service batteries where the same as when we left.

When the rain got closer to zero, we started walking back.

At the only eatery of the
village Tobi had the idea to have a late lunch there. Fish or chicken with rice where the options. We chose fish. It was tuna fried with soy sauce. The taste was not bad, the result was bad. On the way back to MaRe, Tobi’s face turned red and his body temperature went up. I had nothing until I was and suddenly urgently needed to visit the toilet. A big explosion and I was rid of the meal. So we knew what happened to us. Tobi asked ChatGPT and the AI confirmed our symptoms and the cause.

After the late lunch we went to the area whet where there are plenty of bananas. There were indeed plenty of banana plants. A banana jungle. The second men we asked said he has bananas and walked into TN jungle. After a few minutes he found one and another man cut a bunch. We got a bunch bananas and the men got AUD 45.-, about EUR 25.- About 150 bananas to eat.

We reached the place where we tied up the tender, but it was not there. The friendly gentleman tied it up on a pole in deeper water and brought it back für us to the wall. We thanked him again and took off to MaRe.

There we first tied the banana bunch on a line and the Tobi hung it in the sea for a while got rid off all the insects. Later we tied it up in a very special way.