Drama on the high seas

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First and foremost everything is fine on board, we are continuing on toward Fiji as planned still with a stop in Tuvalu.

We left Majuro bound for Fiji with 2 stops along the way, Kiribati and Tuvalu.  Its the end of cyclone season, Yippie, except for the one that just popped up between Vanuatu and is heading toward New Zealand.  We are heading to “Bula” country, home of friendly people and kava ceremonies. 

When we left the Marshall Islands we had 2 steering helms, 2 rudders, 1 auto pilot and 2 souls capable of steering the boat with any of those.  And we have an emergency tiller too, in case everything goes pear shaped.  Let me say, we have had some “challenges” on this passage south. 

First arriving Kiribati, one of the steering boxes on the starboard side decided 24 years was enough, and demanded attention.   One its bearings on the inside the steering gears rusted through and burst into pieces.  One steering station down. Now we can no longer steer the boat from the starboard helm, and that is also where the gas pedal is.   So picture a clown car with the clowns carrying around the steering wheel, yet the car won’t turn. Turn as you might the steering wheel, helm, just spins indefinitely.   To actually turn, you have to run to the other side of the drivers end clown car to steer and run back to give it gas or slow down.  What can go wrong?  🙂  The clowns always make it work, right?   I actually removed the steering gear (red below) where the bearings disintegrated, so that the pieces and wobbly gear wouldn’t lock up the steering completely.  So whew,  order bearings to repair and head off to Tuvalu.  Not ideal but we have 2 of everything, part of being a catamaran.

Left Kiribati bound for Tuvalu.

The sail started out as champagne sailing doing great speeds and making short work of 700 miles we were making toward Tuvalu. It devolved a bit into prosecco sailing when the speeds dropped a bit, but still great fun.   Day 3 the squalls of the ITCZ (convergence zone between north and south hemispheres), quick wind shifts and gusts made for some exciting times.  Nothing out of the normal for this part of the pacific crossing the equator and the convergence zones.   When the wind went too light and on the nose, it was time to check the engine fluids before starting and to spot any potential issues.  I found the port rudder “control arm” broke at some point, probably during one of those pesky 30kt squalls.  The ones that steel your perfect wind and force you off course.  Thinking back, the broken bit might explain why it took longer than normal to turn downwind to run in the storm.  So the port rudder is down till we find a stainless welder.  Its lashed to the central position now, its just not wobbling too and fro willy nilly, and getting a free ride.

So for those keeping count, we have 1 working steering helm station (port), 1 working rudder (starboard), 1 auto pilot(starboard), and 2 less than pleased souls on board.   And of course the emergency tiller when all else fails.    So now we still use the gas pedal on the starboard side, run to port side to steer, the steering rudder is actually on the starboard side.   Got it?  A bit complicated but we are still trucking along, albeit a bit more conservatively till we arrive Fiji and work on getting cold beer to tackle fixing the steering project.

Is it Fiji that doesn’t like our steering?  2 years ago, one of our rudders vanished on the way to Fiji.  This year, other steering components are making their voices heard. 

275nm to Tuvalu, then another 500ish to Fiji.. we will get there!

A Pause for Live Post Action

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We are at it again!  Matt and I will be underway for the next 2.5-3 weeks.  I will pause our previously scheduled blog posts so that we can “live post” while underway.

Passage Plan

Our current plan is to depart the Republic of the Marshall Islands on the 8th or the 9th of April.  We will be heading toward Tarawa, Kiribati which should be a 3 day sail.  We will stay in Kiribati for a few days. If weather permits, we will head out toward Funafuti, Tuvalu.  This is a 5-6 day passage. We will stay here for a few days. If the weather is right, we will then make the 4 day passage to Savusavu, Fiji. The entire trip could be made in one trip over 11-13 days.  However, we have never been to Kiribati or Tuvalu so we thought we would stop for a few days in each place. Along the way we hope to share our experiences with  a live post or two while at sea (which is why we are pausing the previously scheduled blogs).

Decision to stop or go

As most of you know, I get terribly sea sick on long passages. I take Stugeron and wear scopolene patches.  But it is still a struggle for me.  Matt and I decided it would be best to break up this long passage into 3 smaller ones.  We may decide to keep going direct to Fiji.  However, if we are tired or I’m not feeling well, we will stop in Kiribati and Tuvalu.  We shall see.  We found a cool pinnacle to snorkel on at Eneko – come read about it.

Snorkeling a Pinnacel at Eneko

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We take our friends Curtis and Kate (Sweet Ruca) for a snorkeling adventure.  We take the dinghy to Enekohttps://www.infomarshallislands.com/eneko-island/, a short 2 miles from our anchorage.

Matt had paddled over here a few days ago.  He discovered this large pinnacle that was begging to be explored.  It was a little too deep to anchor the dinghy so we had to tow her behind us.  We were in awe once we jumped into the beautiful turquoise, clear water.

I love snorkeling with the schools of fish!  There were so many little fish enjoying this pinnacle.

All types of hard coral were thriving in this area.  They formed lovely mounds and valleys in the ocean.

I did not have a red filter on my gopro so everything is a funny hue.  But, there were vibrant green patches and colorful coral all around.

Eneko pinnacle

Eneko pinnacle

It was incredibly peaceful snorkeling this pinnacle.  I loved floating over this wonderful sea world!  There was no current and light winds so we could just float.  The fish dart in and out of the coral.  But once the fish are used to you they swim really close to check you out.

The water is really warm and bleaching is really prevalent. But not here. It is really wonderful to see so many thriving corals.

Eneko Anchorage

We took our time “tooling” on the way back to the boat.  Hugging the shoreline, admiring the sea life, and waving at a few locals.  It was really quiet on shore with very little activity.  But the few locals we saw gave us a hardy wave which was nice.

There are only 3 boats here in Eneko.  A vast difference from Majuro.  Makes for a super pleasant anchorage.

Eneko Anchorage

Eneko Anchorage

We went snorkeling at Eneko in mid-February.  Our blog posts run 4-6 weeks behind actual live events.  Check out our last blog where we celebrate Super Bowl.