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First 24 Hours to Marshalls

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A perfect morning for a sail. A little gray, not too much sun to get sun burnt. Nice gentle breeze, no drama when the sails are up. Still behind the reef so very little waves. Pretty sweet.

Sails up, and off to the races we go. First day, going conservative start with one reef in the main sail, just incase the forecast is a little off. Works perfectly, nice easy sail. As “Lonely Island’s” song goes “Busting 8 knots in my flippy floppies”. Nice start.

Still concerned about the SPCZ thunderstorms that would be ahead, but just as Moses did the red sea, the SPCZ split and left us alone. Warnings to the left of us, and some to the right, but the center was clear. Yippie.

However, the splitting left us with very little wind to sail with so we changed the stereo station from Pop to Country we landed on “Little Big Towns” “Pontoon” with the Chorus .. Motor Boating. For the next few days at least that “Motor boating” song will be stuck in your head and ours as we endure the drone of an engine to make reasonable progress.

The blue zone, comes with perks too. No electrical worries, batteries will be fully charged. Water tanks full, no reason not to run the water maker. Warm water, all the warm water you use.

Glassy conditions, sail ready should the wind show up

The blue zone was in the forecast, it just came a little sooner than hoping and the blue zone has gotten much larger ahead of us. We will not be setting any 24 distance records with just one motor running, we only dropped off a mere 130 nm toward Majuro, Marshall Islands in the first 24 hours.

So all good on the big watery road, a nice chicken peanut curry for dinner. Too many miles left to count…. 😎

The Journey begins by pulling the hook

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Well the journey begins well before the passage starts…

Destination researched, formalities discovered, paperwork agonized, meals prepped, boat stocked, safety gear organized, weather scrutinized all leading to sheer chaos or mental madness.

Waiting on clear skies.

This next voyage will commence in a few hours. Some 1300 miles away is Majuro, Marshall Islands. Majuro is nearly due north from where we are in Vanuatu, just across the equator so to speak. To get there we will go through 2 weird weather convergence zones, hopefully we have chosen a decent time cross the ITCZ and SPCZ, places where the weather comes together to argue. Think about it this way, the toilets in the northern hemisphere flush counter clockwise, and in the southern hemisphere flush clockwise. (Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0778446/plotsummary/) We will be trying not to argue with the hemisphere’s choices on the direction of the spin but simply pass through without getting all caught up in their political agendas.

What normally happens in the zones is squalls or no wind.

So it begins

Arrived ..

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Anchor is down… breakfast before bed.

Anchor beer.

Blowing snot and big waves for the past 6+ hours. When your 23 knot high wind alarm goes off and you reset it to 30, and it still,goes off. The original 23 alarm seems so benign.

Cheers.