January 19

We lifted the anchor at 3pm exactly and headed West to the pass at Calalin Island. We are leaving Majuro Lagoon for the first time since we arrived on November 23rd, almost 2 months ago. We are headed for Maloelap Atoll, about 100 miles North of here. Weather conditions are nice with plenty of hot sunshine but not too much wind. We are hoping the wind will build once we are out of the lagoon, though there is a distinct chance we will have light winds the whole way. Cloud cover is about 20% and it is hot hot hot outside. We waited until the last possible minute to strike the cockpit awning which makes it bearable to sit outside during the day and now the cockpit is broiling.

It is about 3:25pm now and we have about 4.5 miles to go to reach the entrance to the pass. Our next leg is about 64 miles in a NNW direction to round the Westernmost point of Aur Atoll, an island just to the South of Maloelap. Following that is another 10 mile leg taking us along the NW coast of Aur and then a final 10 mile leg crossing the channel between Aur and Maloelap. Our calculations, based on a speed of 5.5k, show us arriving at the entrance to the Southern Pass off Maloelap at about 7:45am (sunrise is at 6:45am).

At 4:30pm we have left the Majuro lagoon and are now headed for our first waypoint. The wind is about 10k from the ESE and seas are calm with a 4-6ft swell running from the NE or ENE. The skies remain clear with only some high wispy clouds. We have raised the main and genoa and are motorsailing at low rpms at about 6k over ground. We will try to shut the engine and see if we can keep our speed up to 5k. We may try the spinnaker as well if we can keep a decent wind angle. Right now it is a bit forward of the beam which I fear is too close a reach for the asymmetrical.