24 Hours on Helen's Reef

Stories. Finding a story. Chasing a story. And completing a story. It was all I could think about when I landed in Palau. I knew I had to produce something but I didn't know what form it would take. So I started where most journalists start, by making friends.?

I was initially interested in reporting on dugongs, one of the largest and most elusive marine mammals in Palau. I met Mac Sasao during my first few weeks in Koror, and he said he might have some ideas. Mac is a world-class paddler and works in Palau’s premier kayak shop - Paddling Palau. Paddling Palau had done research and photo documentation of the Dugongs but unfortunately didn’t have any trips going out while I was there. But Mac introduced me to Jeff, a boat captain for Paddling Palau and a legislator for Palau’s southwestern state, Hatohobei. I pitched who I was and what I wanted to do - and in turn, Jeff gave me a proposition. Come join him on a government-sponsored trip to Helen’s Reef and Hatohobei in southwestern Palau. I could be his guest on the boat and if I found a story along the way all the better. It would give his community a chance to tell their story.

For some context, Hatohobei, or Tobi, is about 350 miles southwest of mainland Palau. It is the least populated state on earth, and can only be reached via a two-day boat ride from Koror. Hatohobei State is comprised of mainland Hatohobei and neighboring coral atoll Helen’s Reef, about 60 miles to the west. Every year, the Tobi state government funds and organizes four trips to both islands. On these trips, supplies, government officials, and Tobians spend a week sailing the open seas on the Ryoma I.

I quickly agreed to Jeff's proposal - packing my bags, buying supplies, and returning to the pier the following day. I was thrown right into the thick of it, helping to load chicken feed, ply boards, and bags upon bags of food. I had one last lunch and dinner on dry land, preparing for what I was warned would be two days of ramen noodles or seafood until we reached land again. On the boat, I made myself at home in a cabin I shared with Jeff. Early the next morning we set sail, and I saw land for the last time as we exited Palau’s outer reef.

Once we left Palau’s lagoon and headed into open water, I became fiercely seasick. I promptly threw up all of the food I had eaten and began to lay in bed trying to move as little as possible.?Before leaving I packed Dramamine just for this scenerio. Once I started feeling sick, I began taking it religiously but kept throwing it up. Realizing I would run out of medication unless I found a way to hold my food down, I found a position on my twin-sized bed, my head raised just in the path of the AC, where I could lay and be as still as possible. In this position, as long as I didn't look at my phone or move too much, I could hold down plain rice and water - which Jeff graciously supplied the entire ride south. I spent approximately 40 hours in bed, listening to the boat creak back and forth, spending my time sleeping or wishing I was asleep. Once we broke into Helen’s Reef's lagoon, the seas parted for me as well, and I finally left my room to take a shower. ?

Helen’s Reef houses a handful of buildings, four Hatohobei state rangers, and thousands of endemic sea birds. In fact, the sea birds are so omnipresent you can hear them before you can make out anybody or anything on the island. As you get closer, the noise is overwhelming, as the squawking and screeching from thousands of birds drown out any conversations. Once in the interior, where the houses sit on the sandy beach and there are fewer places for the birds to nest, the noise becomes less obvious. On the island, the birds offer some of the easiest and most reliable protein. With a stick in hand, I caught some birds and added them to the evening BBQ. I helped pluck the feathers and enjoyed two small birds for dinner. There isn’t a lot of meat on these birds so we also had rice and scrambled eggs.?

Once the sunset, we began to walk around the island atoll looking for turtles. It was egg-laying season for green sea turtles, and with any luck, we could watch them come up on the beach and nest. Walking around the island at night felt like Alfred Hithccoks's “The Birds.” But we pressed on and looked for turtle tracks. First, we found one. Then another. Then a third that had just buried her eggs. Then a fourth and a fifth that we spotted as she was laying her eggs. The last one we spotted was just leaving the beach after successfully nesting. It was incredible, walking around the beach at night as thousands of birds flew overhead, the Milky Way illuminating the way for the sea turtles.

I slept outside that night lying on the wooden floor of the ranger station. With the warm air and cool breeze, it was a welcome reprieve from the last two nights inside on the boat. We woke up early next morning - ate some scrambled eggs and got back on the chase boat. With prescription-grade Dramamine in hand and enough photos to illustrate my first story we were headed east to our next destination, Hatohobei.