Yesterday was Saturday and that means canoe day. We are still giving our classes and yesterday was to be the first day in the canoe on the water! And, as most things do, it went wrong from the get-go. I arrived and found that Larry and Gordon were late. Class members were milling around ondering what was going to happen. We didn't have the key to the gate so we couldn't move the boat down to the water. When they did arrive we found we didn't have any palm fronds (longen) to provide skids for sliding the boat over the stones of the beach. However, we had plenty of people to help get the boat in the water and Gordon and I ran off to cut longen. It took most of an hour to get the boat into the water. Sigh.

Once Quest was in the water and rigged they paddled out to the other side of the channel and anchored to teach the students how to get back into the canoe if they fell off. It was also a swwimming test to make sure they could tread water until the canoe could be turned around to pick them up. They had to tread water for 5 minutes and put on a life preserver while in the water.

Gordon had brought two sit-on-top kayaks so I took one and paddled out to where they were anchored. This was my first opportunity to explore the basin at Hagatna. I stayed with the canoe until I was sure I was not needed and then paddled over to examine a sailboat moored nearby. It has been in the same spot since well before I arrived here in June 2003. The jib is on a roller furling device but has blown free and is tattered to rags. All the woodwork is sun bleached and rotted but the fiberglass hull seems to be in good shape. Below the waterline the hull is a mass of seagrowth. She is moored tightly fore and aft and secure against the typhoons but I can see that some of the mooring lines are chaffing and weakened. The owner should be made to take care of her.

I noticed an odd looking structure sticking up out of the water and paddled over to look at it. I found another boat, capsized and on the bottom. The structure was one of its double keels. It is wide so I think it was a power boat but I couldn't be certain. Over at the canoe I noticed some of the swimmers standing on something. It turned out to be another sunken boat.

I had a great time on the kayak. I may need to get one of those things. I love to be out on the water. The seat was a little narrow and my legs too long for the footrests but I enjoyed it all the same. I need to remember to use sunblock though. I am sporting an unhealthy sunburn now.

A couple of days ago we went to the cemetary at Pigo to look at a breadfruit tree they had knocked down in the renovations there. Cemetaries here in Guam came in three types. The original cemetaries and those inland are just what you would expect, graves in the soil with headstones or memorials. Down by the water they use large stone or concrete tombs to encase the coffin. There are many stories of typhoons exhuming the dead from a conventional cemetery leaving the relatives to scrounge for the remains of their relatives among the typhoon debris. Then there is the storage bin idea. They build a honeycomb of casket sized holes and just seal the end of the storage bin with a cap that has the name and relevant information on it.

Anyway the tree is big, beautiful, and right out where we can see it. We wandered around it poking and prodding. Manny loved it right away. He figures we can get a keel out of it big enough to make a canoe bigger than Quest. Our only problem is moving and storing the big bastard. The log we need out of it will be 24 feet long and 1½ feet across at its SMALL end. I suggested a set of axles and a tow bar, let the log be the trailer.

Anyway, if we are going to keep working on logs I need to get a canthook. Does anyone out there have access to one? Can I send you some money to get me one and send it to me? I don't need the wooden bit, only the metal fittings. Let me know.