March 21

This morning we moved back North to the second most Northern island of Enijibro in the Ailuk lagoon. We had been planning to leave tomorrow morning for Majuro but the wind has picked up again and we are going to wait till Tuesday morning. The main reason we moved was not the wind however, it is the swell which is now coming in over the reef at high tide. We are at spring tides now with a new moon and it was very uncomfortable yesterday anchored off one of the little islets in the middle of the lagoon. We were literally rolling and rocking all over the place like we were at sea, then at low tide it was flat calm like a lake. Hopefully up here there will be less swell though James from "Rainbow Chaser" who is also here says there is a bit of swell at high tide even here. Right now at 11am it is dead low tide and we are flat calm.

Otherwise everything is great and we are very relaxed. Kate and I are doing a lot of reading and Jonah is having fun too. We are making bread today and the dough is now rising. This evening we are going to make pizza for dinner so Jonah is very excited about that. Last night I made a Beef Curry which turned out a bit hotter then I had planned and Jonah complained and drank a ton of water. I was using a new package of chili powder which it seems is a bit hotter then the last one I used. It wasn't anything like as hot as I like it (I added more hot pepper to mine at the table) but it was definitely what most people would consider spicy. Jonah complains that he hates spicy food and always says at the table that I should stop putting hot pepper in the food but he always eats it anyway. He is slowly developing a tolerance and hopefully will soon find food without spices bland as I do. Already he eats food which is much hotter then the average American and doesn't even notice it, though last night was a bit hotter then he is used to as I said.

Tomorrow we will pack up everything that is loose, stow away everything that needs to be stowed, haul up the inflatable dinghy and deflate it and lash it to the deck. The first light Tuesday morning we will head out. Its about 223 miles to Majuro and at an average estimated speed of 6.5k we will take about 34 hours to get there. That will put is in the pass at Majuro at about 3:30pm. If the wind is strong as it is now we should go even faster and get in a bit earlier. We may anchor at Anemwanot island once we enter the lagoon instead of heading straight for the town. The advantage of that is that it is an hour closer and that means one hour less of moving. Plus it's a peaceful and beautiful place to decompress after an ocean passage. A good place to re-launch the dinghy and clean up. Thursday morning we will head over to the town.

Saturday afternoon is the Coconut Cup race at Majuro which is a big event there. Multiple classes of boats race for fun and prizes including an outrigger sailing canoe division which should be very exciting. Friday evening is the pre-race meeting where boats sign up for the race and learn about the course, the starting time and have a chance to socialize and line up crew if needed. We are hoping Louis and Marlee from "Green Nomad" are going to crew with us as they did in the last race we participated in. That was just a warm-up for the Coconut Cup. We have also asked Roger, his wife and their son Alan to join us. Roger runs a local business and his son Alan is Jonah's age and the two had several play dates last month before we left Majuro. Alan's birthday is this week and they are having a party for him on Sunday at their home so it will be a busy social weekend for us!