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Sailing Between the Marshall Islands Atolls

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Exploring the outer atolls of the Marshall Islands requires a bit of patience, a strong will, and a keen eye on the weather.  There are two parallel island chains:  The Ratak, or Sunrise island chain lies to the east and the Ralik, or Sunset island chain lies to the west. The chains lie about 125 miles (200 km) apart and extend some 800 miles northwest to southeast.  So, travelling between them requires some distance sailing.

The trade winds are typically east or north east and during the months of December-March average wind speeds of 18-25kts.   Sugar Shack typically likes winds in the 12-15kt range which may not seem like much of a difference.  However, you add a squall or gusts and then all of a sudden you are in uncomfortable conditions.

The seas average 2-3 meters (6-9′) and we prefer the seas to be flat to 1m. Of course it also is important to note the intervals between the waves and they can range from short to decent (3 to 9 second).  We will consider a passage with 2-2.5m seas if the intervals are 6-9 seconds.  It will mean a choppy passage, but “doable.”

Overall, these are not our “ideal” conditions.  But if we want to explore the outer atolls it is what we have to deal with to see these new places.

Our Marshall Islands Sailing Plan

We arrived in Majuro in late September and spent a month trying to obtain our permits, reprovisioning, and waiting for a good weather window to depart.  We had high hopes of visiting several atolls in a short 4 months. 

9 Island Cruising Permits were requested for the atolls listed below. We received permission to visit all of them except Kwaj.

  1. Maloelap:  Large collection of WWII remnants
  2. Wotje: More WWII remnants
  3. Ailuk: Known for its locals continued use of authentic canoes for transport
  4. Likiep: Rich history of European owners & tallest point in RMI
  5. Rongerik, Rongelap, Alinginae: Prettiest and most remote atolls
  6. Bikini Island:  Nuclear weapon testing site
  7. Wotho:  We would use this as an emergency weather stop
  8. Kwajalein (Kwaj): U.S. military base off limits except for formalities
  9. Namu: We would use this as an emergency weather stop

Our plan was to sail North East through the Ratak Island Chain stopping at Maloelap, Wotje, Ailuk, and Likiep.  Then we would cross over to the Ralik Island chain stopping first at Rongerik (uninhabited), then Rongelap, Alinginae and then Bikini. 

Unfortunately, our timing was off and we ended up not being able to make it to the Bikini atoll.  Which is probably for the best as it cost $250.00 USD per day.

Getting Back to Majuro

It is very difficult to find a weather window back to Majuro as it is east.  The tradewinds are coming from the east.  Sailboats don’t sail directly into the wind.  We had to come up with multiple plans to get back and the one we select will be based on weather at the time. 

Plan A:  Sail direct to Majuro from Alinginae.  Only if a rare weather window occurred.

Plan B: Sail from Alinginae to Likiep (110 miles), then to Majuro (206 miles), Unlikely as it is east.

The blue arrows indicate the typical trade winds. Sailboats don’t point into the wind.    

Sailing Conditions

As many of you know, I get terribly sea sick despite sailing over 60,000 nautical miles across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  So, we are constantly looking for good sailing conditions which include winds at 12-16kts and seas below 1 meter.  Usually, during season, the seas in RMI are 2.5-3 meters. On the “better days” they are 2 meters across long increments.

We tried to pick “low wind” days which caused us to have to motor more than we were used to but provided better conditions.  Often we got some pretty spectacular sailing conditions.

Sailing with the parasail

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events. 

If the conditions suited, we would troll with 3 lines and one teaser out.  We caught several small fish that we released and one pretty large sail fish (released).

A pair of beautiful yellow fin tuna hopped on our hooks during our passage from Likiep to Rongerik.

Sailing Back to Majuro

We were blessed with an incredible weather window.  We had to leave Alinginae a lot sooner than anticipated.  However, we had true NE winds, with more north than normal tradewinds.  In addition, we also had somewhat low seas at 2-2.5 meters.

The trip is about 400 miles from hook to hook and should take us 2.5 days.  We anticipated a beam reach and a nice sail. 

We made the trip back to Majuro in 54 hours.  Read about this passage on our last blog post.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This particular blog reflects our time in the Marshall Islands over 4 months of cruising between October 2024-February 2025.

Japanese glass floats

Rare Japanese Glass Floats

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Norway originally produced glass floats in the 1800’s to hold up fishing lines and nets.  Later the Japanese started producing them in the 1910 and mass producing them in 1920’s.  And since they made so many the glass floats became known as “Japanese glass floats.”  The glass floats range from 2″-20″ in diameter.  The Japanese made most floats found today.

The most common color is green because they were made from sake bottles. Other colors include aquamarine (turquoise), clear, amber, amethyst, and blue. The most prized and rare color is a red or cranberry hue. Gold was used to make the cranberry glass making these very expensive to make.  Other brilliant tones such as emerald green, cobalt blue, purple, yellow and orange were primarily made in the 1920s and 30s.

Plastic and aluminum replaced the glass floats in the late 1940’s.  So, the glass floats that we’ve found could be up to 80+ years old!

It is super difficult to find large 12″ glass floats which is why they are the find of the century!  We were lucky enough to find a beautiful turquoise 12″ glass float in French Polynesia 6 years ago.  I was over the moon with this rare find!  We then found a 12″ green one in Maloelap. 

The Path Across Rocks and Coral

It is amazing to me that these floats make it onto the shores.  They are at sea for many decades. Then they generally, cross over the reef and sharp rocks / coral to get to the windward side of the islands.  

Leaves and trash cover most of the floats that we find.  It is a true treasure hunt to find them.  Can you find the small 3″ glass float in the photo?  This float just arrived with the king tide. He was sitting on top of the rocks, near the bushes.

Here is another opportunity to find a float. This one is pretty easy.

It is amazing that these fragile glass floats make it across all of these rocks.  Do you see the glass float in the large photo?

We find many small glass floats.  Looking at our pile you would think these balls are easily found.  However, we walked around 35+ islands searching for them.  We looked through the rocks, broken coral, debris, bushes, and trash to find these floats.

Disappointing Breaks

In fact, we are 10 times more likely to find broken pieces of floats than complete, in tact, floats.

We find so many broken beauties.  We also get tricked a lot.  The sun reflects off plastic  and glass bottles. The trick of the eye makes you think they are glass floats.  This red lightbulb fooled me too!

Rolling Pin Glass Float

The most popular “rolling pin” glass floats are the Hokkaido and Tohoku rollers. The Hokkaido Roller is from the island of Hokkaido which is located at the northern Japan. The Tohoku Roller is from the region Tohoku – just below Hokkaido.

Roller pin floats are more fragile than the round floats.  We feel exceptionally blessed to have found four!

We actually found another rolling pin float called “a sausage” (far right).  A true treasure.

Matt and I find some great items on our treasure hunt!  

And we found some stainless floats.

We hunted over 4 months, across 8 atolls and on 40+ islands.  It was a true treasure hunt. 

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events. 

We share many critters we find in Rongelap in our last blog post.

Ailuk’s Unique and Authentic Canoes

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Ailuk, also known as the “Island of Sails,” is famous for its daily use of traditional canoes.  Usually, you will see long boats powered by outboards.  You won’t see many, but most locals will use these long boats to get around rather than the “old or original” canoes.  Which is such a shame as the canoes are simply delightful to watch as they zoom around the lagoon.

Ailuk is an atoll with most of its 57 motus on the eastern side of the atoll.  Which is highly unusual and will make for a challenging stay if the easterly tradewinds shift to westerlies.  

The total land mass of Ailuk is only 5.4 square kilometers (2.1sq. miles) but its lagoon area is almost 178 square kilometers (68.51 sq. miles).  The population of 250 people is spread across 10 main motus but the majority of them live on the Ailuk island.

Conservation

Ailuk has decided to conserve two areas covering 209 marine acres and protecting the green turtle, hawksbill turtle, black tip/white tip/gray sharks, hump head wrasse and parrot fish.  In exchange for maintaining a “no-take” conservation in these areas for 10 years, the Seacology.org foundation is providing funding to complete the airport, guests lodging, and a solar system to power them.

Islet Walking

We enjoy lots of “island walks” around the motus or islets.  We explore Chiebeiku, Uriga, Anenkora, Kapen, Enijabro, Enejelae, Bigen, and (4) unnamed spits of land.  Usually, when are walking around we are scouting for sea treasures (sea shells) but you can’t help but look through all of the junk that washes up on the windward side of the island.

These are our tracks around 3 of the 9 islands we circumnavigated in the north area of Ailuk.

It is always best to walk around during low tide so you have more “land” to walk on and you are able to cross between islands.  Sometimes the little channel is really shallow and has little to no current.  Some times the channel is wide and deep and totally impassable on foot.

The islands surrounding the atoll can be lovely with sandy patches, palm trees, and shallow reefs. 

The terrain varies from sand, to rocks, to broken coral, pebbles, and dirt.

Where napping and tree climbing are islands past times.

But then you have the unfortunate truth that smacks you in the face…all of the trash.

The Unfortunate Truth

Like all islands, in all countries, the windward (ocean) side of the islands are covered in trash. This is not trash from the locals of RMI.  This is trash from passing fishing boats and cargo ships.  What do we find???

We see lots of flip flips (like lots), rope, fishing floats of all shapes and sizes, plastic bottles, lighters, parts of chilly bins (refrigerators), freon tanks, toothbrushes, laundry baskets, buckets, hard hats, fishing boots, gloves, and more.

Some of the fishing floats, if still usable have been recycled by the locals.  Some use it as decorations (bottom left photo), some cut them half and use them as planters, and some reuse them for fishing.  But there are still hundreds all over the islands.

FADS: Fish Aggregating Devices are all over the islands.  These are made from bamboo or PVC pipes tied together forming a raft which bobs in the water using floats and is covered in fishing net.  These FADs have a beacon tied to them so the fisherman can locate them.  Small fish hide under the FADs which attracts larger fish which are then hunted by the fisherman.  So, pieces of the FADs can be found across the reef and beaches (rope, nets, beacons, bamboo, and floats).

We find lots and lots of rope or line.  Sometimes the locals can reuse the line but often it is more trouble to detangle it than its worth.

We stumble across several shipwrecks. These were either abandoned (drug boats) or crashed on the reef.  One particular boat still had its outboards on it — including beautiful stainless steel props.

But there are also loads of treasures including sea shells, drift wood, and occasionally, rarely, Japanese glass fish floats.

Who Lives on these Islands?

All of the locals live on the island of Ailuk which is in the southern end of the atoll.  However, many own property on other islands.  In the northern islands of the atoll, we found a dozen copra houses or compounds and a church.  The houses can be made of brick or wood and with metal container sheets for a roof.

We did meet two locals who were processing copra in the north island of Kapan.  They were so lovely that we donated our old spinnaker, a large tarp, and some fishing gear.  They were so happy as they can make 3 sails for their canoes with the spinnaker material and use the tarp as shade for their copra.

Ailuk atoll and all of its many fringing islands.  We walked 16-18 of the 57 islands.  Some were so small that we are not sure if they are considered islands or islets.

Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  We visit the beautiful Ailuk atoll in late November 2024.  Did you read about our motu walks on the Wotje Atoll, check out our last blog post.