Category Archives: Passages & Crossings

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?

210 hours into the passage to Marshall Islands

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That fishing fleet owned the ocean and no one else should be out here.

This one boat was on his course and wasn’t going go change.. Our paths were to cross within 15 meters of each other.. No radio communication just standing his course we had the sails up, starboard at that. I luffed (slowed down) to give this guy room. And by room .15 nm or 150 meters. Then he tossed a FAD into the water, almost directly in front of us.

Where your canned tuna comes from

There were 6 more boats joining the fleet that coming straight at us, they all passed with reasonable separation. I think they were anxious to get fishing at the freshly set FAD. These boats follow the migrating schools of tuna, load the fish from the smaller (30 meter) boats into the larger ship, that takes the fish to a facility for processing and then on the Philippines for processing. I didn’t see a ‘starkiss’ logo, but could have been there.. Sorry Charlie.

Once past the ocean thieves, it’s off to the races and break out the mathematics again. Ugh, more numbers. Can we make the final push to make the pass, into a new location in the day light with the hours that are left. It seems to always come down to timing, short trips, long journeys, the final bits are the details that matter. The pass is charted, the chart shows marker, local knowledge says not all the markers are there. Then there is finding an anchor spot in the dark in a new location. All added up to we either needed to average 8 knots so arrive the pass around 3pm on Tuesday so there would still be sunlight by the time we reached the town on the inside of the lagoon. Oh, the winds in the forecast were 6-7 knots.. So not gonna happen.

Nice day, nice sailing after the dance party waves sorted themselves out.

The wind shift came late, and when it did the wind died.. Making the pass on Tuesday, is not gonna happen. Another night out, so we watch the penultimate sunset of the passage with a nice Chicken Curry, dreaming of an Ice cold “Anchor Down” beer. But the beer will have to stay cold for an extra day.

Less than 100 to go, Slow rolling, no reason to get there only to have to wait at the pass for daybreak.