We departed Tarawa on November 2, 2013 - Saturday morning at 0730 heading northwest to the Marshall Islands. We will clear in at Majuro Atoll. On Friday, we did the "check out" dance in Tarawa heading to the immigration office in Bairiki and then to customs in Betio. Two of the ladies who did our check-in also cleared us out – so it was like visiting old friends. We did get hit with a $50 "Kiribati Port Authority" fee – that is the minimum charge. That was a bummer – we know some people have had to pay it and others did not. But we also know it is a legal fee and got an official receipt.
We did see some of the "auditors" we had met in Tuvalu at lunch – that was a pleasant surprise as we had tried to hunt them out the previous week and were told they were not arriving until the following week. So we had a chance to at least say hello to John and Kevin which was fun.
Friends from the SY Radiance also arrived on Friday morning and it was nice to see them again. They had a long trip from Vanuatu to Kiribati. We enjoyed lunch with them.
Day one of our trip so far has been terrific – though we hate to write that and jinx it. We sailed comfortably throughout the day and did have to turn the motor on at night when the wind totally died. But we needed to fill the water tanks and run the watermaker – so we took advantage of the engine time. This morning, the sails are back up and we are comfortably moving along.
The seas have a meter swell – and the fishing lines are out. (One was out all day yesterday with no joy).
This trip is about 375 miles- though there is an adverse current. We hear its been very rainy and squally in Majuro – so hopefully that will all pass before we arrive (wishful thinking). We hope to arrive by Wednesday – you must arrive during normal business hours for customs and immigration or be prepared to pay hefty overtime charges. So we will time our entrance into the atoll carefully – it may mean sitting out an additional night doing circles!
The "where are we" page should have a daily position report update through the passage.
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