{"id":20952,"date":"2018-08-20T10:56:18","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T14:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=20952"},"modified":"2020-09-07T09:21:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T13:21:45","slug":"idyllic-isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/idyllic-isolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Idyllic Isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Kanton Atoll, Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean<\/em>. Okay, Escape Artists. If you\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0want to get away from it all, you come here.<\/p>\n Named after an American whaling ship that wrecked on the reef here in 1854, you don\u2019t get more isolated than this. The nearest inhabited island is over 1,000 miles away. The only visitors are via a private yacht about once a year or so, or a Kiribati patrol boat bringing supplies once every six months.<\/p>\n We are the first private plane (our chartered King Air) to land here in years. The islanders who live here are\u00a0Micronesian<\/a><\/u>\u00a0speaking\u00a0Gilbertese<\/a><\/u>. There are only some three dozen of them. You can imagine how happy they are to see us.<\/p>\n Neither you nor I could imagine living here. There is no radio, television, internet or cell phones, and hardly any electricity \u2013 a diesel-powered generator is fired up only occasionally.<\/p>\n The only water is rainwater caught in cisterns. They subsist on fish, crabs, and coconuts, plus rice and other staples the patrol boat brings which has to last for six months or more. They live in disintegrating ramshackle homes.<\/p>\n The homes are amidst colossal rusting wreckage \u2013 for this was once a flourishing air base built by the U.S. government during WWII and subsequently by Pan American Airways in the 50s. The base has been abandoned since the early 70s – lost, collapsed, and forgotten.<\/p>\n Kanton could flourish once again, and easily \u2013 for there is a vast sunken treasure in the atoll\u2019s lagoon that would attract a certain species of treasure-hunter willing to pay small fortunes if there was a way to get here and a decent place to stay.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a picture of the treasure:<\/p>\n Giant trevally are one of the world\u2019s most sought-after game fish by champion fly-fishermen. The Kanton lagoon teems with them like nowhere else, along with the other dream trophy of fly-fishing, bonefish. The above photo was taken in 2015 on the first private fishing boat charter to reach here in 20 years, as it takes so long and costs so much to get here from Hawaii.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s their description of what they found:<\/p>\n \u201cGiant Trevally patrol here in reckless abandon, devoid of human fear and in staggering numbers. The GT dominates the surf line, lagoon, and the only passage of the atoll, located on the western, leeward side. The passage is where current and tidal movement control the lifeblood of the atoll.<\/em><\/p>\n Turtles, whale sharks, manta rays, and dolphins abound in addition to trophy class species such as triggerfish, bonefish, rainbow runner, jobfish, dogtooth tuna, yellowfin tuna, napoleon wrasse, and golden and bluefin trevally. Crescent-tails pierce the water\u2019s surface in each aspect, colorful parrotfish and black surgeons mooch along the bountiful flats. Black-tip whale sharks cruise every inch of Kanton\u2019s waters \u2013 a true indication that this reef is well and truly in prime health.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Kanton (the only inhabited island in the Phoenix Islands), in keeping with the usual lunacy of international diplomacy, is part of the country of Kiribati (pronounced\u00a0kee-ree-bass<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 there is no rational explanation for the spelling), which is the 173rd\u00a0smallest country in the world (310 square miles, smaller than S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9, barely bigger than Bahrain) in land area, and the 6th\u00a0largest country on earth (1.3 million square miles, bigger than India) in sovereign ocean area.<\/p>\n You\u2019d think it would be easy for the Kiribati government in Tarawa (the capital) to make investing in Kanton simple and attractive. But, of course, they insist on being an obstacle instead, demanding high taxes, monopoly control, rules piled on rules, the same government perversity that\u2019s become almost globally ubiquitous.<\/p>\n