As the Winds Shift: The Soap Opera Drama of Cherokee’s Shakedown

The Cherokee Crew as of 8/4/2010

WARNING: This is long.  However, we sailed 500+ miles (we think, we’ve got to double-check), and for three of us it was our first extended passage.  Plus, we’d only put Cherokee in the water only 9 days before we left, and our trip was the equivalent of the so-called “shake down.”  I’ve got lots to say. 

If you don’t want to read the details (Jeremy says you won’t want to), here are the basics and then you can just skip to the pictures:

We left Kwaj at sunset on Wednesday, August 4^th and we finally arrived in Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands, one week later. The “plan” was to sail from Kwajalein to Likiep, so that we could show Jeremy and Uli the wonder of the outer islands of the Marshalls.   As I’ve quickly learned, if you are sailing, you should never count on a plan. 

For those with time on your hands, here’s my attempt at a quick breakdown of each day (with a picture here and there). 

Wednesday, 04 August 2010 – Bon Voyage Finally

We had “planned” to depart in the morning from Kwaj.  Rick even brought us delicious breakfast burritos that we could eat as we got ready to go.  Well, we ate the burritos for breakfast as planned, but our departure took place as the sun started to set.  During our sail from the marina to North Point, people would wave at us as Paul hooted and hollered.  We were finally underway!  Many thanks to the people who helped us get to that point; there would have been much more of a delay in our departure without you. 

Friends and Family Waving Goodbye

Sunset as we departed

(Interesting side note: As I type, TC is informing me that he never planned a specific time to leave.  He planned to leave when things were done.  Hmm . . . apparently we are not communicating clearly.)

We had a nice leisurely sail to Bigej where we anchored for the night.  We ate our dinner (a delicious green chili/chicken enchilada casserole prepared for us by Denise) at 11 PM.  It was heated in our new-to-us oven.  Yes, after more than four years, Cherokee has a working oven again.  Pizza or brownies at sea, anyone??

Thursday, 05 August 2010 – Bigej Bliss, Midnight Madness

After a relaxing sleep, and eating delicious banana muffins from the Petersons, we awoke to the beauty that is Bigej.  

Jeremy and I at Bigej

Paul, Uli, Jer, and I kayaked, snorkeled, and swam a bit while TC tried to figure out some electrical issues.  We pulled up anchor late in the afternoon and motored our way down to the south end of Bigej.  TC and Jer broke out the surfboards and paddled off into what looked like a storm.

TC and Jer paddle into the storm

TC catches a wave

Jer catches a wave

Paul got a kayak to play around with in the waves.  Uli and I dutifully recorded the fun with cameras and video cameras. 

Paul plays in the surf with the kayak

Once again at sunset, we hauled up the sails and headed out Bigej Pass.  We were so excited to be headed to Likiep.  I’d heard a lot about it from TC and Paul.  Soon after setting sail, Paul caught a dogtooth.  Yum!

Paul's 1st trip of the trip - dogtooth tuna

We were all pretty much seasick.  Thank goodness for seasickness meds – it didn’t make us feel great, but it helped.  I headed to sleep early knowing that my shift started at 5 AM.  However, I was awakened by lots of rattling, knocking, and scrambling across the deck.  I figured it couldn’t be that bad, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. 

Then at approximately 12:50 AM, TC woke me up and said  (very serious, but trying to be somewhat relaxed), “How are you feeling?  Can you help us?”  I wanted to tell him that the last thing I wanted to do was regain consciousness since being unconscious is usually what prevents me from visiting the side of the boat.  However, I could tell that this probably a big deal since I was being awakened.  What was wrong?  Oh, something like our rudder was stuck and a couple of our stays (those silly things that hold up the mast) had almost come loose.  Needless to say, I was praying while trying to also give more help in whatever way I could.  there are more details here, but they’re not really necessary.  If you want to know more about, we can talk about it later.  Thanks to TC and Paul, we’re still floating with a working rudder and the stays are all seized, so they shouldn’t be coming loose anytime soon.  (Don’t worry, Mom!)

Friday, 06 August 2010 – Still Seasick

We also discovered our Single Sideband Radio is not really working properly.  This is the device that would enable us to talk to people, get weather updates, and even send out text e-mails while in the middle of the deep blue.  Hopefully this will be fixed during our stay in Majuro.  We started to feel slightly less seasick.  I tried to read a book.  That lasted about seven pages before I really started to feel seasick.

Saturday, 07 August 2010 – Shift Workers

Everyone was feeling even better this day, much less seasick.  I was starting to get a little antsy for land, though.  I really was hoping to be in sight of Likiep soon.   I couldn’t wait to be able to spend a night at anchor where no one had to be on watch, so everyone could sleep through the night.  Since there were five of us for this passage, we had the luxury of having five three-hour shifts that overlapped each other by an hour.  An example of the shifts one night:

            2100 – 0000 – Jeremy

            2300 – 0200 – TC

            0100 – 0400 – Christi

            0300 – 0600 – Paul

            0500 – 0800 – Uli

We did switch shifts so that one person wouldn’t be stuck with an especially undesirable shift.  I have to say that I don’t really know which shift is the worst.  The best is definitely the 0500 – 0800 because you get to watch the sunrise.

Sunday, 08 August 2010 – Likiep At Last!

I was actually excited on my 0100 to 0400 shift when I woke up and we could see land on the radar.  YES!  We were getting close.  We thought we’d be at Likiep by that evening.  I couldn’t wait to go on land, see what it was like, meet the people, and SLEEP while anchored.  I’d told Jeremy to spend the summer with us, so he could sail to places not many others had visited.  He was finally going to get to do that.  Then on my shift, the winds died down and we started moving very slowly.  Apparently, after I went to bed the winds picked back up some, but they were not in our favor.  They had shifted.  No problem, I thought, we would just use our engine to get up to the pass and through it.

Unfortunately, when we tried to start the engine earlier in the day, it wouldn’t.  We’ve had a similar starting issue for the past few years.  However, this time, when we turned the key to the off position, the engine kept trying to start.  From down in the engine room, TC was yelling, “Turn it off!”  At the helm, Paul yelled, “It is off!”  This same message passed back and forth at least three times.  Then it stopped, followed by a burning smell.  Later, we discovered two large fuses had blown.  Unfortunately, spare fuses  (at least large ones) are other items that we forgot.  Poor TC would have to spend the rest of day rewiring the boat and installing new switches. 

Later in the day it was discovered that there was water in the oil.  Despite two full semester of Auto Mechanics, I don’t know much about engines and that type of thing, but even I knew that was definitely not good.  Upon further investigation, TC discovered it was salt water.  Paul and TC tried to figure out how salt water had gotten in the engine.  They drained the oil, put in new oil, and hand cranked a bit.  Bad news, salt water was still getting in the oil.  That was without even starting the engine.  This called for a new plan – be true sailors – we would not even try to use our engine except for an emergency. 

The only problem with being a true sailor is that you really can do nothing when the winds die, which they did for a good part of the afternoon.  And even when there were winds, they didn’t want to blow us towards Likiep.  At one point, when there was absolutely no wind for about an hour or so, we just drifted around.  It was a beautiful day – hardly a cloud in the sky.  Likiep also looked beautiful.  Since we couldn’t seem to get to Likiep, we decided to jump into the deep blue for a cleaning session.  All of us did since it’d been about three days since our last real thorough shower.  It was highly refreshing.

Jer smiles because he feels clean

As the day came to a close, TC and Paul were still working on the engine.  Jer, Uli, and I just went with the wind and tried to sail upwind as much as possible.  It was not meant for us to get to Likiep.  Instead, we would sail directly to Majuro – not quite the beautiful, pristine outer islands that we had hoped to show Uli and Jeremy.

Bye Bye Likiep!  It would have been nice to actually visit your shores.

Monday, 09 August 2010 – Literally - A Stormy Shower

Paul caught 3 fish on our first full day headed to Majuro.  First, a small Galapagos shark (we let that one go), then an aku (it made delicious poke), and lastly a mahi mahi, made into sandwiches and fish curry.  In the morning, when the sun was shining, TC installed a new solar panel.  More power!  However, the wind generator was of more use in the afternoon when the wind was blowing so hard there was smoke on the water.  Paul, TC, and Uli estimated that were 30 to 50 mph winds (for approximately 20 minutes).  It was crazy. The rain came down in buckets, but it felt like needles because of the wind.  Still, Jer and I took advantage of the opportunity for another shower.  Too bad for us the sun never came back out.  We were COLD.  We also lost one of the tops to our cooler to the winds. 

This shower hurt!  The rain was like needles.

Tuesday, 10 August 2010 – Jer Becomes a Man

By this point, I had pretty much gotten over the seasickness, which was wonderful.  Actually, I think all of us were feeling pretty good.  I was feeling good enough to read two books: Sex Lives of Cannibals and Getting Stoned with Savages.  I figured since we were heading to the areas the author writes about (they’re travel memoirs), it’d be good reading.  Now I am interested to see if Kiribati has changed since the author lived there.  We may or may not get there on this trip. 

Jeremy pulled in his first fish – an ono.  He almost got another ono, but just as he got it to the boat, it fell off the hook.  Too bad.  Jer entered into adulthood as he filleted his first fish ever.  Congratulations, Jeremy!

Jer's first fish!

Jer becomes a man as he fillets his first fish.

Wednesday, 11 August 2010 – Made it to Majuro

I had the 0100 to 0400 shift again.  We could see land on the radar once again, but now we also had to start looking out for boats heading out or into Majuro.  I saw three on my shift.  I went back to sleep and when I awoke, everything was so calm. I got up and found out the winds had totally shifted in our favor, and we were already in Majuro Lagoon.  This is when I started to wonder/worry about how we were going to get to a mooring without an engine. 

As we got closer to the island we were going to moor off of, we realized there were many, many fishing boats.  We started to tack and tack and tack.  We probably tacked 8 times or so.  Once we actually got into the mooring field where a bunch of other boats were sitting, I gave up the helm to Paul.  We tacked 3 times in the mooring field alone.  As we went back and forth through the mooring field, a head or two popped out from the moored boats.  They were probably wondering, “Who are these crazy people weaving through our boats with only sail power?”  We explained our situation as we sailed past them.  Three guys from Fandango, Hanoah, and Katie Lee helped us tie a line to the mooring ball, so we could tie up to the mooring.  We thanked them by almost running them over with our boat. 

It was only noon, we had the rest of the day to explore.  We went ashore and ate at the Tidetable Restaurant (part of the Reimers Hotel).  A burger and fries never tasted so good, along with the ice cream that followed.  I also took joy in using the real toilet.  The cockroach in the bathroom didn’t even faze me (it was a small one).  We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, and then chatting with people that TC and Paul met the last time they were here in Majuro. 

The Fishing Boats and Sunset

And I think that’s where I’ll end for now.  More about Majuro and my thoughts on sailing in general to come. 

 My apologies for any grammatical errors, missing words, etc.,

Christi