March 23, 2004

 We left Ailuk this morning at first light raising the anchor at about 7am. Skies were mostly cloudy with about 75% cloud cover but with clearing to the East. The wind was light at about 10-12k in the anchorage and we motored across the lagoon to the Northernmost pass which we exited at about 8am.

At 9am we are approaching the island at the SW extremity of Ailuk Atoll called Agulule and the winds are now 17-20k from the East or ENE. Skies are better with about 60% cloud cover. We are in the lee of Ailuk of course so seas are very calm with a gentle swell from the North.

We are bound for Majuro and the total distance is about 223 miles. We expect to be sailing all day today, through tonight and all day tomorrow arriving at Majuro sometime in the evening, depending on wind and conditions.

We caught a very small tuna (a baby really), probably a dogtooth or perhaps a big eye as we were exiting the pass and since then we have been sailing through massive clouds of birds feeding on jumping baitfish of many varieties but no other fish have hit our lure. We hooked two Mahimahi at this spot on the way into Ailuk a month ago and we know there are many of them in this area so we are still hopeful we will catch one before we leave the area.

The afternoon brought us strong winds and rough seas. We had 18-20k most of the day from the East instead if the NE as we had hoped for and expected. Seas were 6-8ft on average. Skies remained clear through the evening. After sunset the winds came even more to the East and were even a bit South of East. By 7pm we had 20-25k and by 8pm winds were steady at 25k. We rolled in most of the genoa, not wanting to reef the main as I was concerned the wind was temporary, which proved to be correct. By midnight the winds had reduced to 18k but were firmly South of East forcing us to the West of our course.