This passage south from The Marshalls to TBD in The South Pacific was as difficult to plan for as the passages to and from New Zealand, with an equator crossing thrown in for good measure. When we left Jaluit, we weren’t sure where we would end up, but we figured a probable next stop would be Tarawa, which meant it would probably be about a 3-day passage. The first day out had highs and lows: we managed to hook 3 Mahi Mahi, keeping only one, but we also had what amounted to a 5-hour squall from hell with max wind speed of about 37 kts.
The first two days of passage are mostly a blur for me as my usual sea lethargy was broaching into the full-blown realm of sea sickness. There are very few notes in the logbook other than at 6:05 am on the second day we had 2 reefs in the main and 1 in the genoa with 29.6 kts of wind from the NE. Considering we were trying to head SE this was a whole lot of yucky conditions.
On day 3 I finally emerged from my funk. There are lots of notes in the logbook, and I sent the following email to friends and family back home:
“I finally came out of my sea sickness funk about mid-morning. After being pretty much non-functioning for the better part of two days, I ended up having a really great day at sea today. I spent much of this afternoon at the helm listening to music, watching the waves, and counter swaying to the motion of the boat, enjoying just being out here, in a way that I can’t remember since our Pacific crossing. I guess after being so low for two days, just a regular day at sea seemed like a high. I really need a shower, though.”
We still had the reefs in the sails, and we were still seeing 15-22 kts from the NE, but the forecast said we were going to have wind for another couple days and then it would die for a while. A 2-3 kt current from the East had emerged which made it hard to get much easting, but as we approached Tarawa, we decided to press on hoping to make it down to one of the islands in southern Kiribati. Alex was happy we weren’t going to stop, because he really liked passages at this point in our journey. He liked them because he was pretty much left alone to do whatever he wanted all day, which meant alternating between reading, listening to music, playing guitar, and watching movies or TV shows on the computer. Brenden, on the other hand, hated passages, and he was the only one truly disappointed that we weren’t going to stop in Tarawa. He just wanted the boat to stop moving. Tim and I both would also have loved for the boat to stop moving, but we knew if we stopped we would miss out on a couple days of wind and then could be stuck in Tarawa for a while. So, we sucked it up and pressed on.
The next day the current from the East got even worse to more like 3-4 kts. Exodus has a hard enough time pointing upwind and compounding it with this current from the windward was like some sort of cruel joke. We started to wonder if maybe we should head to Vanuatu after all. The only good news at this point was that we caught a yellow fin tuna, so our freezer was at that point stocked with Mahi Mahi AND tuna, so we were good to extend this passage for a while. Funny though… with fresh tuna in the fridge available for sashimi or seared steaks, we opted for hot dogs for dinner. Cruisers are a strange breed sometimes. Fresh tuna was a ho hum experience while hot dogs were a novelty.
We crossed the equator for the third time in the wee dark hours of the morning on Thurs, 7 April. I slept through it again. (If you missed our spectacular first equator crossing, you can watch the video here.)
On day 5 we started having some engine trouble, and of course it happened early in the morning when I was up alone on my morning watch. The batteries were low, so I decided to run an engine for a while to give them a little charge. (I don’t like to run the generator when I’m up by myself in bouncy sea conditions.) I checked the log to see which engine we should run but when I pressed the button to start the SB side, nothing happened. So, I started the port side with no problem and let it run for a few minutes before trying the SB again, since running one engine will charge the other engine’s starter battery. This time SB started. Of course, Tim’s response when he got up was that it must have been operator error.
The next morning after being greeted by a pod of tiny dolphins, we made it within 3 miles of the island of Onotoa before the wind died down. Of course, when we went to start the engines, the SB wouldn’t turnover, and this time it wouldn’t even start after running the port for a while. We eventually started it by turning the switch to start the SB engine off the port engine starter battery. But while we were distracted with all of that we got hit with a 25 kt squall straight from the south. Which meant to get down to where we could anchor at Onotoa we had to motor bash directly into the wind. For a while we worried we wouldn’t be able to anchor. But the wind died down and we picked a spot roadside, on the outside of the atoll. With all the squalls we weren’t exactly comfortable with the idea of being stuck inside a shallow, difficult to navigate atoll without previous waypoints or waypoints from another cruiser. Plus, we didn’t have permission to be there, so we didn’t want to be too pushy.
Passage from Jaluit to Onotoa
Passage Summary:
Hours underway: 5 days 3:45 hours
Log miles 729 nmi, Avg Speed 5.9 kts
Track miles – 666 nmi, Avg SOG – 5.4 kts
Engine hours: Port only 13:32, Both 2:37
We arrived at Onotoa at 16:04 on Friday, 8 April.
Gresham Family Exodus 