Category Archives: Vanuatu to Marshall Islands

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.

188 hours into the passage to Marshall Islands

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Dance party…….

The dance party lasted all night long. The only thing that cleared those pesky red splotches from my screen was day light. And like any good party that lasts till dawn, a mess was left behind. The waves are no longer nice and organized. They too weren’t sure how to handle all those loud windy kids. I can’t believe what they call it music.

All good, daybreak is here. Still playing a bit of dodge boat with the fishing fleet. 3 of the ships are busy laying out fads dead ahead. probably too soon for me to sneak a sweet fish from their “Fish Attracting Device” as we go by. Doesn’t mean I won’t try.

Fads from the mother ships, used to create shelter and attract fish.

Max wind gust with driving rain last night 34, went from 5 knots to cooling breeze, to can’t see a damn thing.

Dance parties are always exhausting, but Christine let me sleep a bunch through this one, she knows I don’t like to dance anyway.

Waiting to see how the wind settles down when the sun is up, will set the sails. Looks like it will be a Wednesday morning arrival. Still have 220nm to go which says ether haul butt and make it tomorrow afternoon, or haul a little less butt and have one more night out to make a nice daylight arrival. Being that there is more light winds in the future forecast, I don’t think we’d make the the 150nm we normally average in a day.. so if we give ourselves 2 days at 125, we have room to spare.

All good on board, boat was nicely rinsed off, but since we will be sailing through the garbage left after the dance, I’m sure we’ll get it all nice and salty today.

180 hours into the passage to Marshall Islands

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Knocking off the miles, as the forecast said, it would knock us off our route. We had put nearly 40 miles to east in the bank to prepare for being knocked off course. Well that was not enough son!

I have been watching a fishing fleet of 9 or 10 boats, that have been canvasing across our path. Mornings check and they were all traveling west, and just far enough west that with our wind shift we could still stay east of them. All good, decent sailing. That 40 miles to the east.. was quickly depleted as we were being forced to sail a bit west of north. No worries the wind should shift and bring us back the other direction later.

I thought the shortest distance between 2 points was a straight line, but we get to do “S” turns, just to keep it interesting.

Mid after noon, checked up on my fishing fleet.. Damn, if they didn’t do a 180 degree turn, now all 9 of them are crossing our path over the course of 30 miles, or some 5-6 hours of dodging 30 meter long fishing boats towing lines? nets? dunno, but what you gonna do, just aim for them.. they’ll be gone when you get there, at least that’s the way race cars do it.

Fishing fleet

And then the sunsets before crossing our first targets path, just to add to the fun. In the dark we dance!

Then I develop a bad case of acne/pimples/zits all over my screen. I ran to get the clearasil cream, but the rubbing it on the radar screen just made them blurry. As soon as one would go by, another would appear.. So begins the night of dodge squall and dodge fishing fleet, all at the same time. Why does this always happen before a big dance?

Acne

The first squall no problems, we were able to get to the ‘good’ side to go around, its east side. The second one, not so lucky.. took us another 5 miles west with its winds on the ‘bad side’. We have now lost the orginal 40 miles to the east and now another 40 miles to the west of where we want to go. Doh! While deciding how to proceed, lower sails and wake Christine up when it clears up, or take sails down and motor for a bit and wake her to raise the sails. Just then the radar alarm went off again, with another big squall dead ahead. Drop sails, and see how this plays out.

Played out well, next squall brought 34kts of driving rain, and just as we were arriving to the dance The first of the fishing fleet was 4 miles off our starboard, hidden in the driving rain, 8 more to go.

Egg Plant Parmesan from our passage meal collection.

240 miles to go, was going to be a 2 more sleeps till finish kinda pace, but with the current acne issue, might be 3 sleeps, as we will want to arrive in the daylight.. It’s all good.

All good on board if not a bit soggy.. It’ll dry tho…

Off to find more acne medicine, aka Clearasil.