May 10, 2004

We woke up at 4am today so we could get under way for our trip to Aur Atoll. Aur Atoll is about 60 miles North of Majuro and our early departure was designed to allow us to reach our destination in good light to negotiate the pass into the lagoon.

By 4:20 we had lifted the anchor and were motoring West toward the pass. By 5:30am we were steaming out of the pass heading North and by 5:45am it was pouring rain on us. Fortunately this was just a passing squall and by 6 or 6:15 it was clear and the sun was rising. The wind was light from the East or ESE at about 10-15k and the seas were relatively calm with a 4-5ft swell from the NE, the remnants of several days of very high winds.

We sailed all morning at about 6-7k on a course of 348M in sunny skies. By about 1pm the wind had come around to the NE and had calmed to about 10k and we found ourselves making only 5k and pointing very high into the wind with an apparent wind angle of only about 50 degrees. We started the motor and motor sailed the last 90 minutes making 8+k over ground. We arrived at the atoll at about 2:40pm and entered the pass without difficulty with the sun high above us.

The main village at Aur is on the southernmost islet in the lagoon which is also called Aur. Since we are required to first present ourselves to the official in charge at the main village, we made straight for Aur island and anchored at about 3:40pm in about 30ft of clear water in good, deep sand. We spent a few hours resting and relaxing then did some work cleaning up on deck (stowing lines, putting on the mainsail cover, etc.) and then had a nice dinner just before the clouds totally enveloped us and the rain began.