Proverbs 19:21

Why a Bible verse for a blog title?  Because the verse states: “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”  That could be the theme of our trip.   Of course, others on this particular crew might exchange “Lord’s purpose” for “the winds.”  Whatever you prefer, remember what I said before about sailing and having a plan?  I suppose it is totally fine to plan, but you just can’t get your heart totally set on getting somewhere in particular when sailing.

We didn’t plan to stay in Majuro for ten days when we set out from Kwaj.  Our goal was to sail to Likiep, then drop off Jer and Uli at Majuro, re-provision, and head south to Fiji, hopefully hitting a Marshalls atoll and Wallis on the way.  This was not to be.

Saturday, August 21, 2010 – Delighted To Depart Majuro

It all started well and good.  Of course, we realized too late (it was the weekend) that we probably needed to refill with propane.  Karen was so kind and shuttled TC up and down Majuro looking for a place to refill and when that didn’t pan out, she drove him to the hardware store to buy a little butane stove and a few canisters of butane.  As TC was waiting for me to pick him up at the dock, he ran into Jim from Fandango (another boat), who offered to trade propane tanks with us since had just filled his.  Yay!  We’d be able to use the stove and oven for at least three weeks.  TC gave the rusty little tank some TLC, and I finished up my easy task (though it took me way longer than it would have Paul or TC) of installing the new regulator. 

TC putting a little ospho on our "new" rusty tank.  It has propane in it, though, that's what we needed for what we thought would be a 3 week long trip.

Yes, my project is finished.  Doesn't that regulator look pretty?  And more importantly, it works!

Anyway, as I said, it started out well enough.  The engine turned over quickly, we picked up our mooring lines, and set off.  I remembered to get a new group shot of the Cherokee crew.  We were all excited to be heading off on the next stop of our adventure. 

The Cherokee Crew for passage number 2.

We said goodbye to the little dock where we’d been stashing our dinghy when we went on land. 

Indies Trader 1 can be seen at the dock (the big blue/white boat).

We waved at the crew on the huge fishing boats. 

These things are massive!

We were sailing downwind and had the sails out, but on different sides.  The sun was starting to set.

We don't often sail like this (sails on opposite sides).

We had a yummy ramen concoction created by Paul for dinner.  Unfortunately for me, as soon as we were out of Calalin Pass, I got terribly seasick.  Oh well.  I’ve been sick before. 

Sunday, August 22, 2010 – The Day the Starter Stopped

I woke up for my lovely midnight to 0400 shift.  I ate some of my favorite sailing snacks, Original Pringles.  I don’t know why, but I just love plain salty chips while underway.  Unfortunately, soon after I got seasick again.  Now, I don’t understand why I was getting so sick this time when on the last passage (which was rougher), I felt much better.  Oh well, my shift finally ended and I was happy to slip back into unconsciousness.

After about 2.5 hours, Paul awoke TC and I to tell us the engine wouldn’t turn over and it was making a very worrying high-pitch whirring noise – even after turned the key off.  Hmm . . . not good.  Luckily, TC had installed this shut off switch for the starter (I think), so instead of it continuing to try and start and possibly catch fire, we were able to stop it.  Anyway, TC figured it was the solenoid in the starter and that a little arm was not functioning properly, so he did what I assume all engine mechanics do and took a rubber mallet and hit it a few times.  We were able to get it to turn over, which was good because there was NO wind.

This got everyone to thinking, “How the heck are we going to cross the Equator without an engine?”  In case you don’t know, the low latitudes around the Equator are usually hot and steamy and windless.  Oh well, we figured we’d give it another day.  Maybe the starter would cooperate tomorrow. 

I saw a Matson type ship cross our path, but it was pretty far in front of us.  I should have gotten a picture, but at this point, I was too seasick.

Monday, August 23, 2010 – Seasick, Sore Throat, and Feverish

I got the lucky 0400 to 0800 shift so I could watch the sunrise.  Unfortunately for me, the morning also included sea sickness.  At one point, as I was leaning over the side of the boat, I thought, “I’m literally tossing my cookies.”  Isnt’t some sort of saying?  I thought so, and it made me laugh to myself as I have tears streaming down my face.  Don’t get me wrong, though, I was not crying.  I think my eyes just automatically tear up while vomiting. 

When my shift finally ended at 0800, I now had a painfully sore throat.  It was kind of sore before, but then I don’t think the throwing up helped.  And later, I got a fever.  Not good.  I felt awful all day.  I am pretty sure getting soaked in a serious rainstorm did little to help whatever it was my body was fighting.  One cool (and slightly anxiety-inducing) moment during the storm was when a ship crossed our path and pretty closely.  It was probably only two hundred yards in front of us.  Later, I took some ibuprofen and drank some Emergen-C.  The only thing I felt like eating was fruit.

Then during the day, there was no wind again for a couple of hours.  When there is no wind, we don’t use our autopilot.  it is too taxing for it to try and keep us on course when we’re going less than 2 knots, which means it also sucks battery juice.  So TC and I tried to turn on the engine.  No such luck.  It kept doing that weird whirring noise.  So, I went back to sleep (again, I pretty much slept this day away), and TC and Paul completely removed the solenoid/starter and tried to repair it. 

It still didn’t work. So, then we had to figure out what do we do?   We knew we needed to the engine to help us motor eastwards and to help us move at all when there was no wind.  If not, we would not reach Fiji.  So, what were our options?  We wanted a place where we could order/buy parts for the engine (new starter/solenoid) and where we could fix our SSB radio or  buy a new one, if absolutely necessary.

1.  Betio (an island in Kiribati) was close enough we could go to, but TC and Paul had been there previously and said the anchorage is not a nice one.  If westerly winds blew in, then we’d need to move the boat in a hurry and the engine would be a necessity. 

2.  Kwajalein – this would probably be our cheapest option, but Paul doesn’t have many 480 days left.  Plus, it’d mean going downwind and losing ground, and I think we all preferred doing as little upwind sailing as possible. 

3.  Majuro – We have access to fast internet and can get the parts here reasonably quickly.  Possibly faster than Kwaj. 

As we are trying to figure this all out, I am still feeling like a zombie with the seasickness, fever, and sore throat.  I didn’t want to eat or drink anything.  Finally, at around 1700, TC came and put a seasickness patch behind my ear, which helped a ton. I was able to eat his yummy enchilada casserole and keep it down.

We also discovered that a bird decided to hitch a ride with us.  He stayed with us pretty much all night.  This was after he (or she) unsuccessfully tried to court our wind generator. 

The bird doesn't look that big, but his wings were pretty wide.  We were afraid he was going to mess up our wind indicators as he kept spreading his wings and turning in circles.

Around 1900, Paul turned to look at his fishing lines, as he did this one of the reels started spinning!  It was a big one.  He reeled in a big old yellowfin.  He and TC approximated 60 pounds at least.  Our new cooler came in handy.  Although, we still have no gaff, so TC lassoed the tail to get it in the cooler.  I like to think of TC as my own personal MacGuyver. 

We had yellowfin for lunch today.  We'll have yellowfin for lunch and dinner tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

I had the 2000 to midnight shift.  In an effort to stay awake, I just do squats, lunges, dips, sit ups, leg lifts.  If I stop moving for more than 10 minutes, I get super sleepy.  It helped that it was raining some, the cool sprinkle helps keep me awake. 

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

We were still motor sailing because at this point, we weren’t sure if the engine would turn back on.  I woke up feeling much better.  I am a big proponent of those Emergen-C packets. 

We sailed and sailed and sailed.  I was feeling so much less seasick that I even read a book (it was a fun book about southern women) and started another one – Gulliver’s Travels.  I am trying to vary my reading – fun, easy-to-read books, non-fiction books, and then some of the “classics” that I missed out on earlier.

Plus I slept a lot.  I could win a sleeping competition, I am pretty sure. 

When I awoke, Majuro was off to our port side. Yay, I thought, no late night watch!  That is definitely a positive about returning to Majuro (or any anchorage/mooring).

I love the bright color houses here.  Think they would get upset on Kwaj if I turned ours from that beige and brown to a blue and green or pink and orange?  

As we were sailing around Majuro towards Calalin Pass, we were welcomed by dolphins.  Definitely a good sign.  Unfortunately I missed most of their flipping and spinning photos.  The baby in the group did most of the show, but the others did a few jumps too.

This little baby was swimming backwards for Paul.

They liked swimming in between the amas.  

Two jumping for Paul.

While Paul and I were snapping pictures, TC was either holding me to keep me steady (though I am now wondering if it were to help me or to prevent me from losing/damaging the new camera and lens) or doing push ups or squats.  He was doing so with a pretty sunset behind him.

TC with the last bit of sunset behind him.

Okay, now I am getting to bed.  More about our future plans (the when and where) tomorrow.  I know I slept a lot, but like I said previously, it's not really good solid sleep.