Marshall Islands Part 2 to Tuvalu ( Leg 15)

( April 2023)

Christine’s first morning on board was a very chilled one. We got up at a leisurely pace and mid morning, made coffee having agreed a plan to have an early lunch and then go to the beach for the afternoon. Just as coffee was made, the Acting Mayor, Banner, arrived along with two other guys, bringing us 3 cooked coconut crabs and a baked breadfruit! We were all very surprised and thankful to them…we’ve wanted to try coconut crab since crossing the Pacific, so we were very excited. We invited the guys on for coffee but they had other things to do so we thanked them again for their generosity. The next hour was spent getting the crab meat out of the thick shell which was a noisy, messy and funny affair with none of us having done it before. We ended up with a nice bowl full of meat which went into a very tasty pasta dish made for dinner that evening. The breadfruit (enough for 3 meals) was sliced and put in the freezer for another time. We went to the beach for the afternoon where we snorkelled, beach combed and enjoyed a fresh coconut each.

The next few days were very relaxed. We spent an afternoon on a small island to the North of Wotho Island where we discovered 3 turtle nest sites, did some snorkelling and tried out a little bit of drone flying, Shawn caught 3 fish from Imagination and we took them across to give them to Banner and his family, Christine went for a walk and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the local people – adults and children alike, and Shawn went snorkelling with his speargun for the first time and actually caught a fish! We had arranged to pick up Carlson at 08.30 on the 4^th as he wanted to snorkel and spearfish with us and so he came with us on Imagination across to another uninhabited island. This island didn’t seem to have a name, but there was an upturned, very expensive carbon fibre racing yacht on the ocean side that has been there for around 4 years. When it first washed up, efforts were made to contact the owner who didn’t respond, and so it sits there still. It’s a New Zealand boat and we are guessing the owner didn’t want to get stung for salvage costs which is why he failed to respond but various items were discovered over time, including a fully working video camera in under water housing which had recordings of two guys enjoying time on a beach, but they didn’t mention where they were or where they were going. The snorkelling off of the beach was lovely and Shawn and Ally saw a couple of species of fish that they haven’t seen before. Spearfishing efforts were unsuccessful but we all enjoyed the time together and late morning, we dropped Carlson back home. A doctor had flown in that morning to give everyone their Covid booster shots and we didn’t want him to miss out, although he did seem reluctant to leave us when the anchor went down! We were supposed to meet him again later on in the afternoon so he could show us where the wreck of an airplane is that we had not managed to locate ourselves, but when we went ashore, he was still busy at the hospital helping out with the vaccinations ( he also helps at the airport when a plane comes in, loading and unloading luggage etc) and by the time he was done, it was too late in the day to go looking. Shawn saw him and expressed our thanks for his friendship and asked him to pass our gratitude on the the rest of the community for their friendly welcome, kindness and generosity. We loved our time in Wotho, but it was time to move on.

At 08.50 on the 5^th April, the anchor was up and we were on our way to Kwajalein Atoll, the largest atoll in the world by circumference. Kwajalein Island at the South of the atoll is a US Army base and out of bounds, but there are plenty of other islands to explore and we arrived at Boggerlap Island at 16.40 on the 6^th. We knew we were going to be beating into the wind for this crossing, but the wind forecast was incorrect and we had average wind speeds of 20+ kts with gusts up to 30kts as clouds and rain came through. The constant strong winds made the sea very choppy and so the sailing was uncomfortable, wet and wild and we were all pleased when the anchor went down at the earliest anchoring spot we could find and we could then relax. Our position was still exposed and it was a little rolly due to the ‘fetch’ ( the distance from a land mass that waves have to build up across the water – the longer the distance, the choppier it will be) as we were on the Northern edge of the atoll with winds blowing from just North of East to the West. After a good sleep, we went to explore the uninhabited island the next morning ( Good Friday, we suddenly remembered!) which was basically a seabird nesting site with hundreds of birds of various species sitting on nests in the dense and lush vegetation. The shallow water surrounding the island, was clear and warm and Shawn and Christine enjoyed a snorkel on the reef in deeper water ( Ally had sore ears so didn’t join them).

Early afternoon, we sailed across to the North Eastern side of the atoll and as we got closer, the choppy waters subsided and we dropped anchor in turquoise, calmer waters at another uninhabited Island called Ennugarret and while snorkelling to check the anchor, Shawn found a small coral outcrop with a large anenome and spotted a Threeband Anenomefish which are only found in the Marshall Islands. This island is one away from Roi-Namur Islands which was once a Japanese Airbase in WWII ( taken by the US in February 1944) and it looked very interesting with one small radar dish and one massive one along with a building that looks like Willy Wonker’s Chocolate Factory. At around 5.30pm, we had a small single person sailing dinghy coming our way and as he came closer the guy onboard enthusiastically welcomed us to Kwajalein and we invited him onboard. He was an American guy, Ron, who came out here on a 2 year contract along with his wife and 2 young children and has been here for the last 17 years! He is the Captain on a cargo vessel that is alongside the dock at Roi-Namur, and told us that he comes up with the vessel from Kwajalein Island ( which is around 40nm away) once a week for an overnight stop and goes ashore to the beach in front of us with a bottle of wine to relax but thought he’d come and say hi to us first. He took out his cup and his wine which he offered to share – Christine partook and Shawn and Ally had something else to drink. Ron was an interesting guy to talk to and he told us that he had picked us up on AIS ( Automatic Identification System) earlier in the day and was excited to see a visiting yacht after several years without any. He explained that Roi-Namur is another US Army base ( The US took it from the Japanese in Feb 1944) and as such, we are unable to visit there too, which is a real shame. He moves equipment and supplies from one Army Base to the other and so has clearance to go onto the bases where they have Burger King, Subway and other eateries. There are only a handful of US Army personnel on the bases ( they spend a 2 year placement here) with another 1600 or so US civilians and local employees. We later discovered that it is part of the Reagan Nuclear Missile Testing Site when reading a blog by another crew and before leaving us, we were informed that later this month, there would be a “light show”, with incoming missiles and we would either have to be in the North or the South as the area in between is restricted . How awesome that would be if we were still here for that!

The next morning, we had a discussion about the huge radar dish which is operated from the US. Apparently, that thing can see a baseball from 1000nm and can scramble electronics – last evening, while Ally was trying to talk to her daughter via the onboard satellite system, the reception went from good, to terrible, to being cut off completely very quickly. We couldn’t and hadn’t seen it moving, but every time we took our eyes off it, or went inside to do something, it had changed position on our return. Ally sat facing it whilst we chatted and then she saw it move!! And boy, it moves fast!! It’s hard to imagine how something that size can move so quickly, the power it must take, but that’s what the Chocolate Factory is for…it’s a huge power plant. Having solved the mystery, done some laundry and cleaning, we all went out in the dinghy with a some GPS coordinates to try and find a couple of wrecks, but the water was far too deep to see anything so after hunting for half an hour or so, we went ashore to Ennugarret where the clear, shallow water was as warm as a bath. From a distance, it looks gorgeous, but when you get there, it’s very obvious it is used as a picnic/BBQ/party place as there is litter, used nappies and discarded clothing everywhere among the many Pandanus trees. We walked together along the volcanic rock edged beach and it wasn’t long before we came across empty shell casings….lots and lots of them with some in great condition and we even found two intact bullets! You can’t help but wander how many lives were lost on that beach and whether the casing you are holding held the ammo that was responsible for some poor soul’s demise. There is an underwater plane graveyard in this vicinity somewhere in 100ft of water, but the blog we had read didn’t give any coordinates and even Ron, who is a scuba diver himself, and having been here for 17 years, didn’t know the exact location, so we were unable to dive there.

We have a long sail coming up toward the end of the month and so while Christine assisted Shawn in servicing a winch on the 9th, Ally did some food prep for the freezer ( everyone is making double or triple quantities when they cook dinner, so we have plenty meals prepped) and then in the afternoon she and Shawn went snorkelling on a very pretty, healthy reef and saw white tip and black tip reef sharks, some unusual juvenile fish and other fish that we have yet to identify. More winch servicing was done on the 10^th before we motor sailed 4 nm South to Edgigen, another small, uninhabited island where Shawn and Christine enjoyed an extended snorkel between islands and along the edge of the island. There was more maintenance and laundry to be done the following morning before Christine and Shawn checked out another reef and then all 3 of us went to yet another area after lunch. The corals are abundant, healthy and gorgeous here with many reef fish and several black tip reef sharks,white tip reef sharks and white tip sharks around too, along with some spiky sea cucumbers.

Wed 12^th, was a headsail kinda day! Having failed to pull it down to make a repair a while ago, it was our mission today to get it down whilst the winds were low. The foil ( mast) which the sail slides into has an area where annoyingly two parts come out of alignment every now and then and an old sail repair right on that leading edge had started to undo and so was getting caught in that spot which was the reason we couldn’t pull it down. It took the three of us around 2 hours to finally get it down with Shawn going up to the problem area and Ally and Chrstine pulling ropes and dodging the sail as it flapped in the light breeze. The sail was taken into the shady cockpit area where we spent the rest of the day repairing tears, potential tears and replacing old repairs and the following morning it was put back up with the greatest of ease before we moved further South in the atoll to a small island called Eniwatak. It is right next door to another island used by the US Army and the area wasn’t that pretty, but the light was fading and we needed to get the anchor down before we lost it completely.

The next morning ( Frid 14^th) we were approached by a US Army security boat with a local driver and 2 army personnel onboard. They were very polite and interested to hear where we had come from and about the rest of our trip, but what they had come to tell us is that we needed to be South of the next pass before 4pm the following afternoon as they would be enforcing an exclusion zone. They didn’t elaborate, but having chatted with Ron, we of course already knew about the missile test. We assured them we were planning to move further South that day and carry on to Ebeye the following day and that is precisely what we did. We spent from mid morning on the 15^th through to the morning of the 19^th at Ebeye, which is adjacent to the main US Army base on Kwajalein Island and there are ferries coming and going all day transporting locals to and from their jobs on the base. Ebeye is a small island, but heavily populated (more than 15,000) and so is very built up and was much like Tarawa in Kiribati, only much cleaner. Our time here was spent getting reconnected online after several weeks without internet, eating out for dinner where we were given birthday cake by a family celebrating at the same little restaurant, buying diesel and provisioning. We also had another short, but welcome visit from Ron. Clearing out here was made very easy by the Port Authority officer whom we visited first and he then took us to Customs and Immigration in his car ( it would have taken us some time to find it and then find the right office if we had been left to our own devices!), waited while the paperwork was completed and then drove us back to town. For the first time ever, Customs wanted to come to the boat just before we departed and so at 8am on the 19^th, Shawn picked up one officer from the dock who took pictures as he approached. He introduced himself and shook our hands before taking a cursery glance into the saloon and galley from the doorway, taking a picture and then asking if he could take a photo of the 3 of us. We were then given the clearance paperwork and he said his goodbyes before Shawn took him back to the dock.

We departed at 09.10 and the day was sunny with a nice wind speed and seas that were much calmer than our last crossing. As we went into the evening, we had a gorgeously clear sky with billions of stars above us and we all found a spot in the cockpit or on the aft deck where we could see back to Kwajalein easily so that we could watch the incoming missiles from afar. We had been told it would happen between 8pm and 11pm but after over an hour and a half of waiting, one by one, we lost interest. Shawn and Ally both saw a dull orange flash in low clouds over Ebeye, but weren’t sure if that was it or not. A bit disappointing.

Apparently, there is a saying in the sailing world which states “ Gentlemen do not beat into wind” – sailing into the wind can be a slog with wind and waves onto and over the bows which can make it a slow, wet and bumpy ride. We, therefore, are definitely not gentlemen for we spent 12.5 days ( 1385nm) doing just that and we had a real mixed bag of conditions. From no wind to 39kts ( 45 mph) within seconds, no cloud cover to wall to wall black cloud, thunder and lightning, very sunny to very rainy, silvery, smooth seas, to choppy white capped waves and then every combination inbetween. As ever with sailing, no two days were the same and we had a few issues to deal with underway. Firstly, the headsail clew ( the metal ring that ropes attach to on the front of the sail) tore off so we had to get it down, into the cockpit and take 5 hours to get it repaired so that we could put it back up the following morning when condtions allowed. A mainsail reefing line ( a rope that holds the back end of the sail down tight to give it a good shape) snapped, but was easily replaced with a spare that was already in postion just in case of this kind of situation. And then the D ring in the the dinghy that has the lifting chain attached to it broke which meant a great clunk and massive vibration through Imagination as the dinghy suddenly dropped by 2 feet, thankfully stopped by going any further as it was tied onto a stantion ( metal upright post). Rope was passed around the nose and onto the stainless solar panel framework above to lift it up againand then secure it – we would have to deal with that when we arrive in Tuvalu. Another mishap was the very unceremonious end to our headsail’s life when it was ripped in 2 during the 38kt squall ( obviously in the pitch black and pouring rain!). We have nursed it through the last year with multiple repairs ( including the 5 hour one just a few days ago) and having been very well used over the last 9 years, we knew the end was nigh and were already negotiating a replacement, but it was sad to see our Manta Ray sail go like that rather than just be “retired”. We managed to get the tattered remains down and get our spare up the following morning. The spare sail isn’t quite the right shape for efficient sailing on Imagination as it wasn’t custom made, but it will help get us around until we can figure out where to get a new one delivered to. Engines cut out and needed fuel filters changing and one of the mainsail cars broke. Apart from all that, it was great?!?

All weather predictions we downloaded along the way were incorrect but trying to forecast weather in this area is notoriously very difficult as it is in the ITC Zone ( Inter Tropical Convergence Zone aka the doldrems) which brings inconsistent conditions and the area is constantly moving and changing shape. So, you just have to go with what you get. We were all looking forward to being on anchor again but with such a long sail and unpredictable conditions it was difficult to plan our arrival time and so we ended up goin through the pass of Funafuti atoll, Tuvalu under cover of darkness at 8.30pm on the 1st May. We then crossed the lagoon to the anchorage both of which are thankfully very well charted and relatively deep and we also had the moon helping to light the way. The anchor went down at 22.10 after which we all enjoyed a drink or 2 together before going to bed for a wonderful night’s sleep!