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?