Tag Archives: rongelap

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.

Sunsets, Sunrises, and Beaches of Rongelap

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Rongelap provided us with some of the most spectacular sunsets and sunrises.   The colors were always stunning regardless of what side of the atoll we were anchored at.  I wanted to share some of the beauty we experienced during our visit to Rongelap.

We visited in January when the sun set around 7p-730p and rose around 645a-715a.

Tufa island is located in the southern end of the atoll.  The sun rose in front of the boat and set behind her.

I can’t decide if I like the golden hues, the red, the purples, or the blues better.  We always tried to watch the sun set but we did not always get the sun rises.

Beaches of Rongelap

My favorite spot to cool off is tucked into a corner of Tuff Island.  Soft sand, cool water and beautiful scenery.

The color of the beaches ranged between white to pink.  All of the beaches had beautiful crystal-clear turquoise waters lapping at the shoreline.

Some of the sand was soft and mushy while other parts had hard packed sand.  It was a king tide when we visited so the water covered the beach each night and left pristine sand.  We almost did not want to walk on it.

Some beaches had hard coral while others had small pieces of broken coral.  Coral and rocks always cover the windward side of each island.  

All of it adding to the pure beauty of the beautiful Rongelap atoll.

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  We visited Rongelap in January 2025. Did you read about the rare Japanese glass floats that we found in the Marshalls?

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.