Tag Archives: living the dream

225 hours into the passage to Marshall Islands

Leave a reply

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?

188 hours into the passage to Marshall Islands

1 Reply

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

Leave a reply

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.