Link to: Photos of Ailuk, Majuro & Aur Atolls
12/31/2011
TARAWA TO MAJURO PASSAGE ( 01-47.27N / 172-46.28E)
We can celebrate New Year’s Eve across the globe starting with us in Kiribati – where it happens first – we’re 20 hours ahead of the mainland USA, then DC is about 4 hours ahead of that, with Scotland 5 more hours ahead of that – LOTS of toasts!!!
Happy New Year 2012! John and I clicked a toast into the New Year while at sea – appropriate I think. Resolutions??? We’re on route between Tarawa and Majuro, about a 3-day passage. Right now the seas are very calm and unfortunately the winds as well. Progress is really slow. Can’t complain though after some of the fast rides we’ve had on the other trips.
John wrote: Happy New Year from Latitude 3′ 10″ N and Longitude 172′ 38″E. Kristy and I popped a champagne bottle and shared the contents with Neptune under a spectacularly clear starry sky with the Plough showing low in the north to welcome us back from the Southern Hemisphere. The Pole Star made a brief appearance through the mist on the horizon. Even sang Auld Lang Syne which sounded pretty good though we missed Nana who, of course, knows all the verses and is an instant hit at these sorts of events. We had our brief function at the midnight change of watch and relished the fact that since the Republic of Kiribati is +12GMT and the only place I know of that does this, we were among the first people on the planet Earth to raise our glass and toast 2012. Ten minutes later the watch schedule resumed and Raynad continued swishing through inky black, eerily calm seas on a passage to the Marshall Islands and a little bit of America.
01/01/2012 – Just passing Butaritari – Happy New Year!
We’re so far having a very pleasant trip. Had thoughts of stopping into the north end of Butaritari for a break and to revisit the island family, however, it isn’t legal for us to do that and since the police boat left Betio ahead of us and because we are sailing well with good winds and seas, we’re continuing on. The entire trip is about 3 days/nights depending on our boat speed and what sort of currents we encounter closer to Majuro. We expect that the winds and seas will both increase, but the forecast at least is still good.
01/01/2012
Last night we paid for the easy sailing that we’d enjoyed earlier with non-stop squalls hitting us with winds that varied from 3-35knots/ Ne-E-Se. I wasn’t much help with those extremes and found it very frustrating in that John had to jump out and help so often, he finally just told me to go to sleep. Gimpy old lady I am. We’ll both be very glad to arrive in Majuro and are really hoping to do so tomorrow, but the winds are not cooperating in that between squalls we slow to only 3.5-4.5 speeds.
We’re now just passing by the island of Mili (6:05.831N / 171:38.640 E) clipping away at 6.9kts, on our way to Majuro. We’re hoping to arrive mid-morning, in fact the customs and immigration people won’t let us even enter the lagoon until 9am!! I guess if we’re early then we’ll just have heave-to and hang out!?!?
All is well, we’re keen to reach our destination and get a full night of rest:)
01/02/2012 ( 05-38.47N / 171-49.48E) COURSE: 346T, SPEED: 7.7
We fairly blasted our way along after my last update. With a reef in the main and only the small staysail, hard on the wind, we reached speeds up to 8kts/ave 7.4 so….now we’re trying to slow our progress as we sail with only the staysail (still going at 5kts) along the top of Majuro, rocking and rolling all the way, waiting for daylight to safely navigate through the pass and along inside the lagoon. Having another squall filled night has exhausted us both so we’re really looking forward to a shower and nap! We should be moored to a buoy by about 10am.
MAJURO- MARSHALL ISLANDS!!
Swinging on a buoy with lots of other cruising boats around:)
Unfortunately, the internet here is not very accessible and is also expensive ($0.10 per minute) so I will not be using it as freely as we enjoyed in Tarawa. Bummer really, I’d hoped to be able to have internet on the boat and enjoy talking with everyone on Skype. I have to take my computer to town and use public places like a restaurant or hotel lobby. We have a cellphone and I will get an international phone card which will also give us talking opportunities, but not as much as I’d like.
Majuro is a much calmer anchorage than others and we are tied to a mooring buoy which is rather carefree compared to anchoring. The winds can be strong, but because the water is so deep there are no waves like we had in Betio – those were incredible and a bit scary at times! Here it is just wind and since the temperatures are pretty hot, actually a welcome breeze blowing through the boat. We finally put up our ShadeTree yesterday and that’s brought the temp down in the boat alot, although the winds make it rattle alot. John has been working on boat repairs. He replaced the muffler on the engine and some parts on the refrigeration system. We have a refrigeration guy coming tonight to work on it with him. Hopefully we’ll have that up and working soon.
01/08/2012
We had a super blustery night which is continuing today with strong, gusty winds and torrential rains. Unfortunately, the ShadeTree is still up so lots of racket. As soon as the next calm happens, we’ll take it down. For now at least it keeps some of the rain out of the boat.
01/09/2012 John’s Birthday!
I made some double chocolate brownies which we ate mid-afternoon with some real ice cream!! yum! Since they were still warm it seemed silly to wait until after dinner when we’d be too full to enjoy the birthday cake:) We had pasta and a nice wine for dinner and will now watch one of our movies. All in all, not too bad.
01/10/2012
We had a fun dinner out with the other cruisers last night. We did pretty poorly on the “pop-quiz” (12/20) – but then the winner has to write the next quiz, so who really wants to win? Nonetheless, John was disappointed that we didn’t put on a “better show” – he IS competitive despite all he says!?!? It’s another sunny day here, at last the rain squalls seem to be done for awhile, so we’re going to head over to some mooring buoys at an island across the lagoon. Supposed to be some nice snorkeling, etc and it’d be really good to get away from the city.
Anemuwanet – January 11, 2012 ( 07-07.73N / 171-18.52E )
It was a lovely day yesterday. We went ashore and walked around the entire island at low tide and then came back and snorkled over an old plane wreck. The other side is open ocean dramatically breaking on the reefs. Our side of the island is a calm bay, one of the best anchorages we’ve had in a long time. All of the Gilbert Island anchorages were quite rolly and bumpy and even in Majuro there is alot of wind across the mooring field. It’s also just nice and quiet here with clear water and some coral to snorkel around. It’s been pleasant and relaxing.
We’re sitting here this morning bobbing on a mooring buoy near a lovely island across the atoll from Majuro.
It’s a favorite spot for cruisers to use to escape the dust and internet craze of the city and also for some snorkeling. Our plans are to leave in a couple of days and cruise to a few of the outer islands before returning to re-provision and pick up Doug, a friend of our daughters who will be helping us take the boat north on the long 4500nm passage to Seattle. We’ll leave here sometime around March 15 hoping to arrive into the PacNW by late April. I’ve only done one dive trip, this done while John was in Portland, Oregon and unfortunately the weather was rough so visibility wasn’t as superb for the pass dive as we’d hoped. I did manage to buy a used BCD from one of the other cruisers, so we have a complete set now, minus the depth gage, so it’s still only for emergency use or when diving with others. Your diving and exploring around the WWII buildings and wrecks sounds great! We walk alot to places in Majuro, but with max elevation of 3 meters, there’s not much hiking! Many of the buildings here are crumbling due to poor construction, especially those with concrete made from beach sand that wasn’t rinsed of the salt. Sad really.
02/14/2012 Valentine’s Day!
John wrote:
Happy Hour now as the sun has set. Tomorrow we sail for the tiny island of Ailuk that has run out of food. It is 200 miles north of here. 
We spent the day taking delivery of food from locals here in the capital and the boat is 
now STUFFED and listing with rice, flour, sugar. I bought a soccer ball, tennis balls, perfume, hair clasps and hair dye (black – women here hate grey hair) so that our arrival will be more Santa Like than Famine Relief type. Apparently the island is mostly young children because the teens go to boarding school in Woetche and many of the adults left to find work. They closed school early because the high tides at this time of year (King Tides) flood the causeways and so the school bus has rusted out and the water comes through the floorboards. So school stops one hour before high tide whenever that is
MAJURO to AILUK PASSAGE:
12/15/2012
12/16/2012 ( 08-15.88N / 170-47.22E) COURSE: 347T, SPEED: 6.9
Rough and squallly weather
Just a quick note typed on a slope to say that we’re doing well – a very brisk sail with lots of squally winds and rough seas. Not the most fun trip, we’ve had 25-35 knot winds all day with one squall after another. At least our speed is ok, but with the sea state that too isn’t as fast as we’d like it to be. Nonetheless we are moving along and doing fine. We’re both anxious to arrive, drop the anchor and sleep! I know that the villagers are hoping we arrive before dark today so they can offload their supplies.
ARRIVED AILUK!!
12/17/2012 6:56pm – 
The good trader ship Raynad is safely anchored in the lovely lagoon by Ailuk island. 
All the food stuffs have been safely unloaded – none wet because we bagged it all in plastic before bringing it on the boat. We were met by the radio ham, “Pumpkin” and his wife who gave us the traditional welcome leis and shell ornaments, plus drinking coconuts:) Took some photos of the food piled on the dock and some local kids, the mayor and me to give the Majuro newspaper and also the Seven Seas Cruising newsletter. 
Now we’re back on board for happy hour at sunset….the winds and seas were rough getting here, but the result was a very fast passage- so we could deliver all of the food and still return to the boat for GTs !! Life is good:)
RAYNAD MAKES THE ISLAND NEWSPAPER!!
02/18/2012 AILUK ATOLL – Marshall Islands
We arrived into Ailuk yesterday afternoon loaded up with about 1500+kg of foodstuffs for the islanders. Turns out that the last two trader/supply boats never made it, and they haven’t received supplies since last September! So, prior to leaving Majuro, several family members of Ailuk residents brought down parcels of food, all nicely bundled and marked for us to load into Raynad and deliver up here. 
Must have been at least 30-20kg bags of rice, 10-15 10 kg bags of sugar, 10-15 20kg sacks of flour…..the boat was definitely hiding it’s waterline by the time we finished loading it all onto the starboard side so it would add ballast to our sail. Turned out that we had some very brisk winds (25-35kn gusting to 40) so even with the 3-4m seas, we averaged close to 7kn (two reefs in the main and only the staysail) and made the trip with only one overnight which made me very happy! We were greeted by our SSB radio ham friend, “Pumpkin” and his wife who bestowed upon us a traditional welcome of two fragrant flower leis and two handmade lovely shell necklaces with woven pendants. We’ll stay here and explore this beautiful lagoon for about a week and then probably head south to Woetje for a few days before continuing the trip, maybe via Moelelap, to Majuro. We’ll need to be back in Majuro by no later than March 5th to get ready for the next big voyage and Doug (our crew friend’s ) arrival on March 11th.
Ailuk is called the “island of the sails” and already this morning we’ve had five outrigger canoes sail past our boat – always calling out to us with glee as they are still distributing the foods we brought up to residents on some of the smaller islands around the lagoon. 
It really is lovely here, lots of small islands strung out along the reef with picturesque stands of palm trees, white sand beaches and turquoise waters. After a great night of rest, we’re now ready for some walk-abouts and snorkeling.
As written to s/v SEAL
As you know, we arrived into Ailuk on Friday evening loaded up with about 1500+kg of foodstuffs for the islanders. Turns out that the last two trader/supply boats never made it, and they haven’t received supplies since last September! So, prior to leaving Majuro, several family members of Ailuk residents brought down parcels of food, all nicely bundled and marked for us to load into Raynad and deliver up here. Must have been at least 30-20kg bags of rice, 10-15 10 kg bags of sugar, 10-15 20kg sacks of flour…. eventually we had to stop accepting more bags of rice…the boat was definitely hiding it’s waterline by the time we finished loading it all onto the starboard side so it would add ballast to our sail. Turned out that we had some very brisk winds (25-35kn gusting to 40) so even with the 3-4m seas, we averaged close to 7kn (two reefs in the main and only the staysail) and made the trip with only one overnight which made me very happy! 
We were greeted by our SSB radio ham friend, “Pumpkin” and his wife who bestowed upon us a traditional welcome of two fragrant flower leis and two handmade lovely shell necklaces with woven pendants, plus the sweetest drinking coconuts I’ve had yet. 
We’ll stay here and explore this beautiful lagoon for about a week and then probably head south to Woetje for a few days before continuing the trip, maybe via Moelelap, to Majuro.
Ailuk is truly the “island of the sails” and yesterday morning we’d had five outrigger canoes sail past our boat before we finished drinking our coffee- always calling out to us with glee as they are still distributing the foods we brought up out to residents on some of the smaller islands around the lagoon. It really is lovely here, lots of small islands strung out along the reef with picturesque stands of palm trees, white sand beaches and turquoise waters. After a great night of rest, we’re now ready for some walk-abouts and snorkeling.
We had a fun trip onto the island yesterday as we delivered a bag of school supplies and our last soccer ball. 
Even though school had been canceled due to the “famine” lots of kids were hanging around the school playing with an old basketball, so we were able to get a nice photo of the kids and the headmaster on the steps of their new school. 
As soon as the photo was over, the kids rushed out to the concrete pad and split up into teams for a lively soccer game! That was really great to see, this will be one very well used ball:)
Afterwards we walked a bit through the village and once again came upon a really great dog which John has fallen in love with – a cross between the usual yellow mutt with a bit of German shepherd?? He followed us all the way back to our dingy and then tried to swim out to the boat! 
Fortunately, he turned around just as your John was leaving to go rescue him. Everyone here has been really nice and given us lots of coconuts to drink/eat and even an entire breadfruit which is a precious commodity here. We enjoyed our usual happy hour at sunset while watching all of the canoes returning from their day. Instead of noisy outboards zooming close to the boat, we were thrilled by sailing outriggers swooshing by! They really are quite spectacular and they love to have us come out on the deck and cheer them by.
We’re off to church this morning. Our host, “Pumpkin”, is the preacher for the Church of Christ.
02/20/2012
We took our friends Aeneas(“Pumpkin,”) Emily and their three children out in the boat yesterday for the day. 
We’d really hoped to catch some fish, but unfortunately despite two lines in the water, changing lures, and trolling along for about 6-7 hours, no fish?!?! They weren’t all that surprised, but very disappointed, it seems that all of the island fishermen are also having a hard time catching any fish which only adds to the desperation of their current food situation. Since the trader boats aren’t coming here as expected, they are dependent on a subsistence diet primarily of fish, coconut, breadfruit (when in season which it’s not now), and pumpkin/squash (if they can manage to get it to grow which is difficult with the semi-salty well water and lack of rain.) It was small recompense for our poor luck fishing, that I gave them some of my frozen tuna that I’d bought in Majuro and a some packets of noodles. 
We had a fun day out nonetheless – the kids LOVED the boat. The two boys were all over the deck and really came to life when I gave them our walkie-talkie radios to mess around with. We ended up at the other end of the long lagoon at the village where Emily’s sister is the head teacher. Those radios were a total hit there with the kids all dividing up and racing around trying to talk with each other over the distances. 
We were greeted with lovely flower leis for our heads and more coconuts to drink. I put out snacks throughout the trip, so they enjoyed the new tastes of lemonade, oranges, carrots, cheese, crackers, cookies and popcorn:) It’s sweet that people want to give us something, but have so little that we’ve been over-run by drinking coconuts! I keep filling our drink containers, but can’t keep up with the overwhelming supply. John has become “Mr Fixit” with men asking him to fix their generators, solar panels, SSB radios, batteries, DVD players…….and each task completed is rewarded with a bag of coconuts! We’re going to take a day for ourselves now and doing some beachcombing along some of the many small islets. It’s incredibly scenic here, in that picturesque island, long white sands, coconut trees, turquoise waters way. We’ll snorkel too, but there aren’t many fish to see, just some lovely corals.
John wrote:
Raynad is swinging at anchor in the northernmost atoll in the Marshall Islands. 300 people live here, 50% under 12 . Each woman has seven kids on average. They go to another atoll for regional High School and so the Mums have the luxury of having their kids removed from the nest at age 13 so that they can focus on producing more of those likeable pre-pubertal kids. It like having puppies forever – no teenagers. What a good idea. What happens to the teenagers I do not know because they do not come back home. Home like this must be intolerable if you are an educated 17 year old, or worse a pregnant 17 year old. Of course the atoll is beautiful beyond belief but boring boring boring for a teenager. No internet, No movies, no drinking alcohol and no novelty value in the opposite sex. So – there is a huge Pacific Migration Council in the UN with gleaming white Land Cruisers with smoked glass windows ferrying diplomats from NZ, Aust, Hawaii and other destinations for those unemployed educated youth. Those behind smoked glass are assumed to K_N_O_W what to do about this and are dealing with the problems but not everyone is impressed that this is so. 
I talked with the preachers wife. A lovely toothless Emma. She lost her teeth to her multiple pregnancies but her thick dark hair still falls across her shoulders in shocking waves and she carries herself like the queen, nodding her head in an understated deliberation as she acknowledges what you say.
02/22/2012
We said our farewells to “Pumpkin” (real name Anious) and his family today after collecting some items to take over to their kids in Woetje and some of the women’s handicrafts to transport into Majuro. Anious’ wife, Hemly gave us two more beautiful flower leis which she had made, and sang us a lovely farewell, goodwill sailing song. They really are very gracious and kind people, we will miss them. Their children Junior, Lazrus and Mila are lovely and we really enjoyed sharing some of the fun things on our boat – the real hit was our walkie-talkies. As we strolled down the beach to our dingy, all of the island children greeted us, seems we are now familiar to them all:) Ailuk really is the quintessential tropical island paradise – terrifically scenic with the many islets, coconut palms, striking white sands and turquoise waters. We will enjoy a few of the isolated islets for a couple of more days, feast on the lobster they just gave us, and then make an early start on Friday/Saturday with hopes of making a day passage to Woetje coming in the western pass and anchoring near Goat Island.
We found the cutest dog on the island and he totally fell in love with John (a mutual feeling:) He got so excited every time we came ashore and kept trying to swim out with the dingy – even tried to crawl into it. He was really, really sweet – thin but a great temperament and very attractive. Tough to leave behind, but we have no way to bring him along(:
02/23/12
John and I are still anchored out at some of the islets of Ailuk. The atoll consists of a string of small islands and sand banks all along the north side. It’s windy and sometimes rolly on the boat, but we have enjoyed a couple of beautiful beach walks at low tides. It’s been great to be so isolated with such long beaches to explore. No one else is around since most of the islanders live either on the northeast or northwest ends on two of the larger islands. It’s amazing the amount of junk that gets washed up on the shores, especially on the ocean side of the islands…lots and lots of plastic bottles, flip-flops, glass bottles and then boat stuff like big plastic floats and other fishing bits. We now have about 8 large plastic balls tied to our stanchions that we’ll take back to Majuro for a friend to use as mooring buoys. We’ve done some lovely snorkeling too, although just small areas where the reef comes up suddenly out of 100 feet of water – little isolated oasis for the fish:)
Life is good in paradise. We’ll likely move on tonight or tomorrow to go to Woetje another atoll south of here and about 12-16 hours of sailing.
02/24/2012
We decided to stay in the lovely atoll of Ailuk for one more day. It was a really gorgeous day yesterday – nearly totally clear blue skies, 10-15kt winds and after exploring the route that we’ll need to take out the pass early in the morning (we set our track on the navigation program so we’d be able to go before the visibility is tops which allows us more time to make it to our new destination where we’ll really need the better light,) we anchored near some new islets that are really enchantingly beautiful. 
Since most of the people in Ailuk live either on the northern most or southern most islands, all of the other islands are pretty deserted and so we have a wonderful feeling of being alone in a sort of island wilderness. 
We take long walks around the islands at low tide when the sandy beaches stretch out for miles and the surf pounds on the outside reef- it’s amazing how much plastic washes up on the beaches – sad to think of the world being overtaken by plastic drink bottles! It’s just fun to explore, watch the birds and enjoy the lovely scenery. 
Besides, as you know, there isn’t much exercise to be had on the boat so the walking feels great! It’s interesting here in that the waters of the lagoon are really quite deep, mostly 30-45 meters and yet it’s dotted with coral heads that rise up from these depths and break the surface at low tide! Quite a navigational hazard, but mostly visible in good light. It’s amazing though to think of the forces of nature involved in building such a tower of coral. We’ve snorkeled on a few of them and the coral are very pretty and there are lots of small fish, but not really very many large fish. So, we’ll leave at first light tomorrow morning and make our way to the atoll called Woetje. All of the Ailuk children in grades 8-12 go to school in Woetje and their parent’s have sent some parcels with us to deliver to their children.
We’ve enjoyed two extra days here over what we’d planned to spend because it’s just too beautiful to leave.
Yesterday, we went ashore at low tide to seek out the tern nests and we found some! It was very exciting and fun to explore in among the bushes and find the eggs and even new chicks.
Funny how they really don’t nest, but just lay their eggs in the crook of a tree and in one case we found the newly hatched chick just sitting in the top of a broken tree stump – just at eye level. 
We have some good pictures of the eggs, the chicks and even a larger chick that I found nestled in the crook of a tree:)
He was so sweet and just sat there with his big eyes watching us. He stretched out his wings once – I suppose as a threatening move or maybe he had the thought of trying to flee?? 
Lovely soft downy feathers – so tempting to want to touch – but we only observed and took photos. Meanwhile the parents were circling and diving angrily above us. John got a couple of great pictures of the white terns against a striking blue sky.
After our shore excursion and some rest, we went snorkeling over a nearby coral reef and saw literally thousands of fish! It’s quite a spectacular little spot that rises up from the deep and supports an incredible array of fish and corals. We’ve definitely enjoyed our time here in this tranquil and scenic lagoon.
02/26/2012 Ailuk to Woetje
We’re off today from Ailuk to Woetje, about a 10-12 hour sail, so it’s early, (5:30am) as we wait for first light to set out. Onward!
Anchored at Goat Island, Wotje Atoll, MI
09-31.28N / 169-42.41E
02/27/12 WOETJE – We left at 7am this morning and made a fast crossing, averaging 7.0kts most of the trip, so now we’re anchored off Goat Island on the north end. We’ll stay here tonight, rest, explore and snorkel in the morning and then make our way 20 miles across the atoll to the main village where we’ll give some packages to the boarding students that are here from Ailuk. Rolling about now in our current anchorage, a lovely spot near some outlying islets, but as the tide has come in over the reef, we’re getting a fare amount of swell from the ocean
For all that we were unbearably hot in the Solomons, we miss the lovely calm anchorages, the availability of fresh produce, even the contact with some of the people. But, we do really appreciate the total safety of the Marshall Island atolls – we sleep with the companionway wide open again and really appreciate the breezes for sleeping, but the anchorages are rolly polly and the same constantly strong winds that make our sailing fast and furious, also get a bit tiring when going ashore or snorkeling. Everywhere has it’s advantages/disadvantages. I’m really looking forward to being back in the USA and Sitka with all the things I’ve been missing, but I know that I’ll long for these sandy beaches and warmth! I’ve been living non-stop on this boat now for over 14 months!?!? This is the longest time I’ve gone without taking a jet somewhere since I was 23 years old.
02/28/2012
We made it into Wotje last night and overnighted on the northwestern end of the atoll at Goat Island which was very rolly-polly, but at least we weren’t at sea. Got up and circumnavigated the island on foot, which turned out to be much bigger than expected, but fun and very interesting. Then we bucked our way back to the boat and made our way across the atoll against the wind and surge (about 21 miles) to the main town where we finally dropped anchor at 5pm. It’s much calmer here, we’ve had happy hour and dinner and will now shower and go to bed with plans to meet the mayor, visit the school, etc tomorrow and deliver the parcels we have from their parents for the Ailuk kids who are going to boarding school here.
02/29/12
We had three volunteer teachers from the high school over on the boat tonight – they came for happy hour and stayed until 11:30pm! I think they really enjoyed talking with some old folks about their parent’s ages. The two boys just graduated from Dartmouth and the girl from Univ of Washington. They are having quite an experience on Wotje and we learned some new things about the people and culture.
We set out at 10:30 this morning and are on route to Majuro – close hauled, fast pace 7+kts with expected travel time of about 24 hours.
03/01/2012 ( 09-17.52N / 170-09.63E) COURSE: 145T, SPEED: 6.9
Heeled over on close reach to Majuro
(08-01.37N/ 170-50.45E) COURSE: 150T, SPEED: 7.0 We’re nearly there, about 28 miles to go, but sometimes emails won’t send out after about 9am, so I just wanted to let you know that all is well so far. It’s been a pretty boisterous night so we sailed with two reefs in the main and only the staysail. We’ll both be glad to grab the mooring buoy, have some coffee, and relax:)
03/02/2012 BACK IN MAJURO!
We have arrived- sailing all the way because the engine wouldn’t start outside the pass!?!?
We had a real surprise yesterday just before entering the pass into Majuro – the engine would NOT start! We tacked away and sailed off back into open waters so we could recharge the start batteries and John could clean the battery leads, but it still would not start. So, we had to sail through the pass which fortunately was one we’d done 3 times already and gave us a decent angle on the wind. We then sailed up to the mooring and were very relieved to at least be secure. Turns out that the problem was that seawater had flooded in through the exhaust outlet and the entire exhaust system and manifold, etc were full or water! Great mechanic that John is,he was on the job and after lots of pumping and flushing got all of the water out and the engine is running fine now. He’ll continue servicing that and we’ll put a new flapper door on the exhaust pipe to keep that from happening again. Just really glad that it happened now and for this atoll pass during slack tide because some of the others are very tricky and full of tidal currents and bends. So, we’ve honed our sailing skills a bit more:)
What caused the flooding?? We’d tied a huge pile of buoys to the starboard stern, but neglected to secure the hatch underneath. Heeled over the entire trip, the water just flooded right in there and filled up the locker such that the exhaust outlet was flooded. We are sooo lucky that nothing worse happened. All is well now – the boat is flushed and dry and runs beautifully.
03/12/2012 NEW CREW: Doug Agnew has joined us for the trip to the Pacific NW!
03/14/2012 On route to Aur
We are on our way to Aur Atoll, a trip of about 78nm. Since our course is almost directly north, we have the wind on our nose and fairly strong seas, so with 25kt of wind, we’re only averaging 4-5kts of speed. That’s fine though since we don’t want to arrive at the pass into Aur earlier than about 8:00am. 
We left our anchorage at 5:00pm, so we have lots of time. All is well on board, a bit hot and stuffy, but Doug is trying to sleep so he can take the next watch. It’s a real luxury to have three people on board and be able to share the night watches.
3/15/2012 -08-18.45N / 171-09.1 W
Tabal – Aur Atoll anchorage
We just dropped anchor in Aur having arrived in a 30kt wind and rain squall.
We had a wonderful and restful night up at Aur last night and then sailed up to Tabal on the north end this afternoon. 
Doug went spear fishing on the reef while John and I went into town to deliver some food we’d brought for the health tech at the clinic. No luck hunting and gathering, so dinner was some old tuna cooked up as curry using some of the fresh coconuts that the islanders keep giving us. The rice cooked in coconut milk is really good. We scraped the soft inner coconut stuff out and used that in the curry. Not bad eating so far.
We may take off tomorrow to start our sail up to Midway.
3/16/2012 On route to Midway!! We left Aur at about 2:00pm this afternoon and are briskly on our way to Midway. We had a wee toast of bourbon – compliments of Doug – which we shared with Neptune:) So far conditions are perfect and our current speeds are 7.5-8.5kts! It’s 6:30pm and our position is :08:39.405N and 170:53.079E on a course of 336. Once we get above Moelelap, we’ll turn as much east as possible. Doug’s in the kitchen cooking up pasta for dinner, John just finished a shower, and a beautiful sunset radiates colors on the horizon.
Life is good!
Kristy, John and Doug
s/v Raynad