WAM (waan aelōñ in majel)

I have seen those traditional Marshallese canoes around and always wondered how it worked. I finally got the opportunity to ride in a canoe and it was really interesting.

Setting up the sail

Ready to go

4 of us could ride at same time along with two men to "drive" the boat.. On one side, Ariel and Joann

Other side, thu and myself.  Why do my eyes always look like they are closed..

We sat on the "canoe" part with a sail attached to it.  On the other side is this

The two guys who took us out on the water... The guy with black hat controlled the sail by holding on to a rope, tightening/loosening it as needed and the guy behind him used an oar to steer the boat.

We went past many tuna boats 

We reached the end and instead of turning around, the guys moved the sail over to the front of the boat.

Going back

Again with the closed eyes 

Better..

How the sail is connected to the boat

Sailing through the water

We saw a bunch of people riding in their boat to get to their tuna boat.  Mom was wondering how people in the tuna boat get to shore.  This! :-)

Close up of a tuna boat with helicopter on top of the boat

Close up of helicopter

Sailing back to shore

Getting off the boat

Group photo (sorry about the water drop making the picture blurry)

Entire canoe.. We sat in the white part where the sail is...

Guys' turn

This is where they make the boats...

Workshop and classes.. They train people on how to make and sail the canoes.

Frame for a 26 foot canoe.. It takes about a month to make a complete canoe from start to finish.  We rode on a 20 foot canoe.  They once took a 26 foot canoe to Aur, it took 2 days.  On a motorboat, it takes 14 hours... For comparison..

Canoes... They use breadfruit tree parts to make the canoe

Interesting architecture

My favorite pictures:

I am glad I finally got the chance to ride in the canoe.  I wish I knew about this when Abby and Jenny were here.