Today we finally left Feni Islands and headed South bound for Misima in the Louisiades. We raised the anchor at about 6:30 or 7am and headed out away from the island and toward the East. Weather conditions were less then excellent with very cloudy skies with 75% cloud cover. The wind was light and appeared to be from the East or Southeast but as we approached and then rounded the Eastern most point of the island we realized it was South and at about 10k was not helping our progress. Our desired course to the SE was about 150 magnetic which put the wind about 30 degrees off the bow and more like 15 degrees apparent wind angle. Furthermore, it soon developed that many squalls were visible on the horizon and the radar showed we would not be able to avoid them by a long shot.

We decided fairly early on that we would make a stop at Green Island (Nissen Atoll) about 43 miles to the SE. As the day progressed, the wind thankfully turned more to the SSW and by noon it was at 225 or even 240 degrees giving us a good angle for sailing and we shut the engine and sailed for almost two hours at 6.5k with the wind at about 55 degrees apparent off the starboard bow. But eventually the wind went South again and we restarted the engine and motor sailed the remainder of the way to Nissen.

We entered the lagoon at about 3pm with almost 100% overcast skies and light drizzle. Fortunately the pass entrance was easy to see with breakers clearly showing the reefs on either side of the pass - although the entrance was very shallow and at one spot we were in only 14ft of water. We headed into the lagoon a bit and then turned South to find an anchorage in about 55ft of water and 150 yards off a village just one mile South of the pass. We do not plan to remain here long, but we have often had that plan and ended up staying weeks. When the weather changes (to Easterly wind) we will leave here immediately and continue South.