Why North?

Why North for Cyclone Season?

Way back when we departed New Zealand our plan was to spend the cruising season going from Fiji to Vanuatu to New Caledonia and finally ending in Australia. However, shortly after arriving in Fiji a realization came over us. It was already the end of May, and we’d need to be in Australia in less than half a year. That just seemed WAY too soon for us to leave the island cruising lifestyle again and go back to a culture oh so similar to our own.

So, our main options at that point were to stay in Fiji for cyclone season or head north out of the cyclone belt. I have to admit that the thought of staying in Fiji was tempting, especially since we had a few friends who were planning to stay, but in the end we decided the risk of a cyclone was still above our tolerance threshold. So, north it is!

There was one other consideration, though, and that was the sale of our beloved Exodus. Our three years were winding down, and one of the reasons we had always planned to end our journey in Australia was in order to sell Exodus there. Australia has a big sailboat market, and when we left California, we actually thought we’d be able to cruise for three years and then sell Exodus for close to what we paid. However, in the meantime the economy has changed, and the USD has become stronger, and while usually this would be a good thing for travelers, it was most certainly NOT a good thing when you want to sell your boat in Australia and the amount you owe the bank is in USD. So, this just meant that the argument for going to Australia was much weaker than before, so Marshall Islands here we come! We still had to think about selling Exodus, though, so we figured we would list it for sale when we got to The Marshalls, advertising that we’d deliver it anywhere in the South Pacific from Tonga to Australia. (Spoiler alert: it’s now May 2016 and the jury is still out on whether this is a good approach or not.)

Heading north was not going to be easy. First of all it’s a long trek:

Fiji (Rotuma) to Tuvalu (Funafuti) = 270 nmi

Tuvalu (Funafuti) to Kirbati (Tarawa) = 700 nmi

Kiribati (Tarawa) to Majuro (Marshall Islands) = 360 nmi

Total = ~1330 nmi

For some perspective:

Fiji to New Zealand = ~1100 nmi

Second of all, it has the added complexity of crossing the equator and all the funky weather that entails.

And lastly, it would be some of the most remote cruising we have done, making provisioning and maintenance that much more challenging.

But in the end, we decided: Challenge Accepted!

The islands of the South Pacific with Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Marshalls highlighted