Category Archives: Rongerik Rongelap Alinganae

The Blues of Alinginae

The Blue Hues of Alinginae

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Alinginae is a relatively small, uninhabited atoll. There are only 25 islands that total 2.8 square kilometers (1.1 sq. mile) that enclose a lagoon of about 105 square kilometers (40.91 sq. miles). Its location has the atoll positioned east to west making it hard for cruisers to go there as there is not much protection from the tradewinds.  We  were the 4th boat to visit the atoll in 6 years.  A true pleasure and adventure for us.

Only yachties get to visit this pristine atoll as there is no other way to get here.

Ailinginae supports habitats and species that are otherwise vanishing from earth. At present Ailinginae’s continued protection is essential for the survival of many species and habitats and related natural and cultural values in the Marshall Islands.

In Route to Alinginae

Our sail from Rongelap to Alinginae was gorgeous!   During the passage, we had 1-1.5-meter seas coming from aft of the boat.  The winds were a modest 15-17kts making this a downwind sail.  We put our large parasail (170 sq meters).  She is such a pretty sail!

A strange thing happened about half way through our passage.  A number of birds circled the boat looking for lunch.  But one strange bird got tired and landed on the boat.  In the past, several birds have landed on the boat and rested.  But they usually land on the life lines or the bow peaks.  Today’s silly bird landed on the mouth of our spinnaker.  He only stayed for 10-minutes.

We arrived Alinginae after a 6-hour sail, dropped the hook and enjoyed a stunning sunset.

Sugar Shack anchored at Bokoryuren Island.  We take the dinghy 3 miles in each direction to explore more islands.

We were the 4th boat to visit Alinginae over the past 6 years. Can you believe that?  This atoll is difficult to get to.  But it is really pretty!

Beautiful Blue Hues

The color of Alinginae’s lagoon are a variety of blue hues.  Simply breathtaking!

The islands are lush and teaming with wildlife.

Our blog runs 4-6 weeks behind actual events. 

We stayed in Alinginae during the last part of January 2025. 

Don’t miss out on the beautiful sunsets and sunrises of Rongelap – read our last blog post.

Sunsets, Sunrises, and Beaches of Rongelap

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Rongelap provided us with some of the most spectacular sunsets and sunrises.   The colors were always stunning regardless of what side of the atoll we were anchored at.  I wanted to share some of the beauty we experienced during our visit to Rongelap.

We visited in January when the sun set around 7p-730p and rose around 645a-715a.

Tufa island is located in the southern end of the atoll.  The sun rose in front of the boat and set behind her.

I can’t decide if I like the golden hues, the red, the purples, or the blues better.  We always tried to watch the sun set but we did not always get the sun rises.

Beaches of Rongelap

My favorite spot to cool off is tucked into a corner of Tuff Island.  Soft sand, cool water and beautiful scenery.

The color of the beaches ranged between white to pink.  All of the beaches had beautiful crystal-clear turquoise waters lapping at the shoreline.

Some of the sand was soft and mushy while other parts had hard packed sand.  It was a king tide when we visited so the water covered the beach each night and left pristine sand.  We almost did not want to walk on it.

Some beaches had hard coral while others had small pieces of broken coral.  Coral and rocks always cover the windward side of each island.  

All of it adding to the pure beauty of the beautiful Rongelap atoll.

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  We visited Rongelap in January 2025. Did you read about the rare Japanese glass floats that we found in the Marshalls?

The Amazing Critters of Rongelap

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Rongelap has a large lagoon of about 1,000 square miles and over 61 islands around the atoll.  Since it is uninhabited it makes for a great animal habitat both on shore and in the lagoon.

Giant Clams

Several other cruisers talked about finding giant clams.  However, since we have not been in the water much we had not seen any — until we got to Rongelap.

Many locals harvest small clams to sell to aquarium providers in the States (Likiep and Ailuk). The clams are a mere 3″ long by the time they are sold.

The giant clams we encounter in Rongelap are close to 4′ long!  At Tufa Island in the southern end of Rongelap, we find these giant clams in 10-40′ of water.

The largest clam we found was about 4′ long and the the others were between 1-2.5′.  Super cool and very beautiful.  Matt was able to free dive down to the larger clams which were in 30′-40′ of water and I checked out the smaller clams (1′-2’5″) in 10-12′ of water.

Matt said the clam expelled a lot of water and tried to close when he approached the large clam. Lucky for Matt he did not put his hand inside.  In our video (which you can see on sv Sugar Shack Instagram’s page from 1.22.25) you can clearly see the clam breathing and closing.  Pretty darn cool.

We ended up finding two really large clams and maybe 4-5 smaller ones (1′-3′)

Nurse Shark

We found the perfect place to leave the dinghy during our stay at Tufa island.  One morning, we spotted a rather large nurse shark hanging out.

We drove the dinghy right behind him and anchored. I got out, walked by the shark, and took some photos.  The shark did not budge during all of this activity.  He was a good 5′ long and just enjoyed the shallow waters.

Bird Sanctuary

Birds are thriving with no humans living in 99% of the Rongelap atoll.  Very similar to Rongerik, we find dozens of bird species, nests and babies all over the northern islands. 

We encountered the strangest nest we have ever seen.  Maybe you have seen or read something about this?  We saw about a dozen birds sitting in a circle on top of broken coral and rocks – strange.  We did not approach, but as we kept walking near the waters edge the birds flew away.  To our surprise, they were each sitting on either eggs or newborn baby birds, in a circle!

There are 7 speckled eggs and 3 baby birds in the photo below – can you find them all?

The boobie babies are covered in white fuzz. They are so cute and I’d love to see if they are as soft as they look!

The white terns lay their eggs on the branches (with no nest see bottom right photo) and their babies grow on the same branch (top right photo).

Portuguese Man-O-Wars

Not so pleasant are the Portuguese man-o-wars that line the shoreline.  Not sure why but they are everywhere.  Matt makes a game out of popping them, but I just try to avoid the poisonous buggers.

Our blog posts run 4-6 weeks behind actual live events.  I wrote this blog post during the first part of January 2025.  Check out our last blog post with more of Rongelap’s beauty.