Why would I use the word “jolly?” This was probably our most enjoyable passage yet, though it wasn’t without its jolts of adrenaline.
Friday, September 17, 2010 – Early Movie & A Late Departure
We all went to see Eat, Pray, Love for a last movie before we left Majuro. I was the only one who had read the book, and I was the only chick, but the guys were willing to go see it with me. I’m pretty sure that they were thinking, “It can’t be worse than that vampire movie we went to see with her.” In true Micronesian style, during the middle of the movie, there was a power outage. Luckily, it lasted only 10 to 15 minutes.
Once the movie was over, we took our last Majuro taxi ride back to our dinghy. We headed back to Cherokee and prepped to get underway – putting up lifelines, clearing the deck, tying things down, and hauling our massive dinghy up on the rear starboard deck. As we were using the winch to haul it, the line broke with a loud snap that surprised everyone and made me yell (though my scream wasn’t quite as piercing as earlier in the week when one of those massive flying cockroaches landed on my head). TC and I held the dinghy while Paul got a new rope. We were thankful the rope broke then and not while we were underway since it is the main rope we use to secure the dinghy to the deck.
We got underway without any more drama. I headed to bed shortly after leaving the mooring since it was already almost 2200 and I had the 0100 to 0400 shift.
Saturday, September 18, 2010 – Downwind Delight
I awoke for my shift, and TC gave me the rundown of everything I needed to know. The main difference tonight was that we were hand steering. Something was up with our alternator so that it wasn’t charging the batteries like it should, so TC didn’t want to run the auto-pilot (if we could help it). Hand-steering requires much more attention, and I am still learning the art of NOT over-correcting. I am sure if you looked at the movements of the boat under my hand-steering, it would be a serious zig zag across a map.
I loved how smoothly we were sailing. Not the jarring and vomit-inducing motions like before, but a gentle rise and fall. Yay! The skies were clear, there was a bit more than half a moon out, and I could see the stars. Double yay!
I am still learning and still don’t feel comfortable doing any more than minor changes to our course or the sails. If there is a front or if I think we need to tack/jibe, then I wake up TC. Poor guy, but I hate waking people up, so if I am going to wake someone, it’ll be the guy who married me for better or for worse.
Two-thirds of the way through my shift, a big front started to appear, as well as one and possibly two ships on the horizon, so I woke TC. He helped me prep for the front – mainly, he helped me pull in the genoa (the front) sail some. You don’t want a lot of the sail out when heavy winds hit because it can get out of the control and things get ripped/torn. It’s important to get the genoa pulled in before the heavy winds hit otherwise it’s quite a bit more difficult. Then he went back to bed. It actually didn’t rain much, but it got windy and there was some lightning.
One of the boats I had seen had disappeared off the starboard side, which relieved me. It had been the closer of the two boats. As my shift progressed, I could now make out lights of the other boat. Lucky for me, it was Paul’s shift before we got close to that boat. Poor Paul had to zig-zag (jibing) to avoid the boat. He was finally able to contact them to confirm passing port to port and to ask them to not get so close. He said they passed only about 100 yards away.
After my shift, I went to sleep and slept until TC made us lunch (veggie burgers with grilled onions and Monterey-jack cheese on toasted 9-grain bread).
I stayed awake for a while and even read some, but then I got sleepy, so I took another nap. This time I slept until dinner – beans, rice and cheese. We had planned to watch a movie, but it took us a while to eat dinner since we got distracted by an amazing sunset.
We were also slightly disturbed by what looked like a major storm on the horizon. However, it seemed to be dissipating.
Paul had the first watch and found that there was still a big storm. He got the boat going up to 17.3 knots. Again, remember that when we’re going 7 knots, that is fast, so 17.3 is crazy fast. This set a new speed record for Cherokee, as well as sent things flying off from the port side. Lucky for me, I was in and out of consciousness, though I did hear my computer fly off the seat in the main cabin. (I was thrilled when it turned on and am very happy to be typing from it.)
Sunday, September 19, 2010 – Frequent Frustration
By the time TC woke me up for my shift, it was calm and there were no winds. TC woke me up 45 minutes before my shift started/his ended to ask if I’d mind getting up while he went down to work on the engine.
What was wrong? If you guessed, “the engine wouldn’t start again,” you are absolutely right! After about an hour of tinkering, he got it started. He won’t know what to do with all his free time once we get the engine up and running properly.
My shift was fairly uneventful once we got the engine started. We were close to Jaluit Atoll, so I plotted our course every 15 minutes to make sure that we weren’t running into any islands. Plus, my usual routine of squats, lunges, and sit-ups with the addition of dive weights to work out the arms too helped keep me awake and warm too.
TC and Paul woke up as we neared Jaluit Pass. We were warmly welcomed to the atoll by a bright rainbow. What we found on Jaluit is for another post.
However, let me say this, it was a huge morale boost to us all to reach another atoll. We are feeling pretty jolly.
PS I am posting this via e-mail since we currently have wi-fi at the boat, but it's spotty and won't really connect to the internet. I'll try and post pictures later when we're on shore. And I think TC got the SSB working, so even when we don't have actual internet, I should be able to post more of our adventure. I'll probably have to cut down on the content though. We'll see.
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