Category Archives: Passage

Voyage Back to Civilization

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It was time to make the voyage back to civilization.  We were running low on gasoline and provisions after being away for four months. 

The boat was anchored in Alinginae in the Ratak Island Chain.   To get back to Majuro wee have to sail east.  The tradewinds come from the east making this a challenging crossing.

Sugar Shack can sail pretty close to the wind.  We dropped our dagger boards and trimmed the sails.  This allowed us to point close to the wind (38-40 degrees).  Most boats can only point 45-60 degrees. 

In order to sail back to Majuro we needed the tradewinds to shift from East to North East.  

Photo below:

  • The green arrow shows the easterly tradewinds.
  • The blue arrow shows the NE winds.  We can use the NE winds to get back to Majuro. 
  • The black line shows our rumb line from Alinginae to Majuro.

Predicted Forecast and Route

Matt watched the weather forecast for several weeks.   A weather window appeared at the end of January. 

Predict Wind (source for weather) showed a 2.5 day passage with winds at 15-18kts from NE and swell at 2-2.5 meters.

The Passage

It took us two hours to motor-sail across the Alinginae lagoon.  

This beautiful rainbow came out as we left Alinginae.  …As if Alinginae was saying “thank you for your visit.”

Our first six hours at sea were extremely uncomfortable!  The swell wrapped around Alinginae and came from several directions.  The seas became more consistent once we cleared the atoll.

The sun provided a beautiful sunrise on day 2. The waves crashed all over the boat making it a salty mess. We had 2″ of salt all over the boat.

We set the sails, turned the engines off and settled into a groove.

The boat speed averaged 9kts during a 12-hour period.  This was incredible!

What Broke?

The lazy jacks broke in the middle of the night.   This line holds the sail bag which stows the main sail. 

We had one reef in the main sail.  The remaining portion of the main was tucked into the sail bag.  When the line broke, the sail bag fell down and the extra main sail tumbled out.

Matt tied the line to our flag halyard – as a temporary fix.  Then he stuffed the non-working main sail back into the bag.  This work was done in three meters (over 12′) seas and at night.<p>

The forecast showed a direct course from Alinginae to Majuro.  However, we made two tacks after the wind shifted. 

The top red, skinny line is our track back to Majuro. We tacked and headed away from our destination.  After two hours, we tacked again and had a direct path to Majuro. 

The wind direction is displayed on the wind instrument below.  As you can see, we were “pinching” tight into the wind to hold our course. 

Passage Details

  • Travel Time:  2 days and 6 hours
  • Distance Travelled:  412 nm
  • Average Speed: 7.2kts
  • Max Speed: 12.5kts
  • Engine Hours: 4 (inside both lagoons)

Overall, the passage was pretty decent.    The trip was fast, I did not get sea sick, and nothing major broke.

Our blog posts run 4-6 weeks behind actual live events.  We made this passage at the end of February 2025.

Did you check out the post on living off the grid for 4 months?

240 hours into the passage to Marshall Islands

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Are we there yet?

After a nice siesta out in the middle of nowhere. It was time to finish this journey. Seems I was so hard a sleep Christine couldn’t wake me. Well she did wake me, and I’m not sure what was said, but it was surely something I didn’t understand since she let me go back to sleep, and sleep 2 hours past original time to get going. So if you see me today, thank Christine for my beauty sleep, I obviously needed it.

Final passage sunset

Made contact on SSB in the morning to notify of our position and a time to meet at the mooring with another boater to give us the lay of the land.

We got to follow 2 container ships in the pass this morning, Looks like a busy little place, lots of lights along the shore and quite a few commercial boats inside the lagoon.

Just like the Houston ship channel. Lots of traffic this morning

Over all a comfortable passage, weather wise it was spectacular. Would have been better if there was more (or any sailing) involved, but that might have changed the sea state. I’m sure Christine will have a different opinion, but with the drugs she seemed pretty normal, if that is possible.

Noteworthy:
• SPC and ITCZ: I guess it’s possible that you can make it through without too much drama with the right amount of diesel and super slack weather window. Not sure if that’s true or not, but somehow worked in our favor, albeit a longer / slower trip that our normal.
• Lost : Tan lines, I’ve looked everywhere they are no where to be found. Something you’ve had for fifty something years and to have lost it. All is not lost, I have it on good authority that civilization brings them back.
• Diet : While the boat lost hundreds of pounds along the way, I’m sure I ate everything in sight. Any thing to keep awake, it’s the lack of exercise that isn’t good. A long HOT walk on shore will do wonders for the psyche, after clearing customs of course.
• Lost : SSB & Ham radios have been dying for a few years, but the once entertainment and safety at sea is still tapering off. Hardly any boats checking to PacSea net. We did use ours to keep up with a friend that is on his way to Japan.
• Lost : A little blood from a drone catch, count your fingers lucky, we we should have practiced that on flat ground before trying it in ocean swell.
• Learned : You can motor a long way when you need to, nearly 130 miles per gallon of diesel, by rough calculation.
• Lost : More of my sanity not sure how much I have left to loose, seems to be being replaced by senility, or is that just my bad spelling?
• Learned : Its frigging HOT this side of the equator, should have installed air conditioning instead of the diesel heaters.

Anchor down (mooring retrieved) and cold beer in hand! Yippie. Off to find the authorities and clear into customs and immigration.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

225 hours into the passage to Marshall Islands

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When you are in no hurry, there is no worry.

Very little wind again today, sailed a bit, motored most. Motored at barely any speed, the engine was running at 1500 rpm, just maintaining forward progress and enough water flow over the rudders for auto pilot to keep us on course. We just needed to get closer to be able to arrive the pass at first light.

I managed to record some tracks from the ‘fishing fleet’ that were going in an out of Majuro, so I can use them as reference when checking the charts. So the pass is where it says its is on the chart, so that is good.

What did we do all day? Was a nice day, again pretty hot without much wind. We prepared the boat for arrival. Stowed a lot of the passage safety gear. Since it was so freaking hot, we swapped our see through window shades to black out shades to keep the cabin cooler. Made water since we had the one motor idling. I cleaned some of the stainless, Christine did a load of laundry. We chatted with the commodore of the yacht club, and got the low down on what to expect when we arrive and how to find customs to clear in. Watched the last sunset of the passage, thanked the beautiful bright moon for keeping us company on the way here. Always nice to have a full moon guiding the way.

All in all a productive day,.

If you are checking our ‘tracker’ do not be alarmed, yes we are doing 1 knot. We got close, 40 miles left to go. The weather is pretty placid, with the exception of a few sprinkles, showers without too much extra wind to contend with. We are just “drifting” about, and the current / winds are actually pushing in the direction we need to go. So listening to music, staying cool in the evening without the blazing fireball over head.

Just drifting at 1.7 knots

We will just chill out here, should be 20 miles from any “hard things”, for a few hours, 5 or 6. Afterwards, we will resume the journey towards the pass, to arrive there around 6am, or day break. Then another 2 hours across the lagoon to the town and anchorage, and the much anticipated “Anchor down” beer can be enjoyed, even if it’s 8am. And yes, picking up a mooring is equivalent to dropping the hook, at least in my book.

Can see the light pollution of the big city in the distance, begging the question.. Are we in the right place?