Starting from scratch

[AlmostParadise]

I work at the ballistic missile range out here. I love it. Not the best place for every one though. Very remote and isolated. Amazon Prime is your best friend out here. Great sailing opportunities. Whether taking a day trip in the world's largest lagoon or overnighters within the atoll or to surrounding atolls. Exceptional diving a fishing. The atoll is a former WW2 battlefield so plenty of wreck to dive. We even have the Prinz Eugen the German Battleship (sister ship to the Bismark) sunk in the lagoon.


We get an occasional visitor, but we are pretty far off the path. I think Majuro gets a few more, but where I am at is a restricted entry port so you have to know someone to even come in and the island the locals live on is not a tourist hotspot. It is very crowded and to be blunt a bit of slum. I can recall only two coming through. One was a former resident who bounces around the pacific and stops in occasionally and the other is here right now. They are doctors who travel to volunteer on the different islands.

[HighTemp]

I worked on Kwaj for a bit over a year. Great diving! Some of the best in the world IMO. Fishing is fantastic also. I worked on the old SDR's which I understand have been retired from service. Took the helicopters out to the remote islands every day. Left there and went on to Saipan to install the PACBAR 3.

[AlmostParadise]

I agree the diving is world class and cheap. $120 a year for unlimited tanks. Fishing is pretty good too. Commercial fishing in the area has caused it to suffer some. I think the sailing I pretty good too. I had never been on a sail boat before I got here 6 months ago. Lots of boat owners on island who re glad to teach you the finer points of sailing and boat maintenance. They seem very eager to teach me the boat maintenance piece for some reason.

[Rhapsody-NS27]

I lived on Kwajalein for a couple years in high school between mid '94 and mid '96. That's where I had the first interest in sailing. Friends of my parents at the time had a sailboat at the local yacht club and invited us to go sailing along the Eastern chain of islands. I had a great time. Wanted to sail ever since. Of all the places I've lived from my dad being in the military, Kwaj was the ONLY place I ever liked. Kwaj is also where I first got into Amateur Radio that got me to where I am in my own military career (with a few more years till retirement myself).

Small world.

But, like others have said, Don't try putting your entire budget into the boat purchase. There are a lot of good solid boats made for different things. Some are good for coastal cruising and others are made to cross oceans. The archives here have loads of information to research with different types of boats, and plenty more on how to do maintenance.

So nice the boat owners there would be willing to show you the maintenance piece. Hands-on training is always helpful.

I miss Kwaj. Have fun out there.