October 12

This morning at 5:30 am we raised the anchor at Waterfall Bay on Vanua Lava in the Banks Group of Northern Vanuatu and by 5:40 we were motoring out of the anchorage on our way to Tarawa in Kiribati (the Gilbert Islands). The weather was calm with almost no wind since we are in the lee of the island. We are expecting fairly light winds on this passage but as we will be sailing on a close reach the whole way this will not be a big problem for us. The sky is about cloudy with about 60% cloud cover but the morning sun should burn off most of it, especially as we get further away from land. The crew is well prepared for this passage which should take us about 6 to 8 days. The distance to Tarawa is app. 970nm and passes no dangers once we are clear of the few off-lying islands just North of Vanuatu. The first of which is a small rock called Vot Tande which we may pass within a few miles of. After that we have the chance to come close to Tikopia a Polynesian island which is part of the Solomon Islands, though it is 115 miles from the nearest island of that nation and 386 miles from the Southernmost island of the main part of the group, San Cristobal.

At 7:20am we raised the main and genoa and shut off the engine. We have about 14k True wind from the SE and we are making 6.5 - 7k over ground with calm seas on a heading of 11M. Cloud cover is about 50% and it looks like it will be a beautiful day.

It is now 1:30pm local time and conditions are much the same as in the morning. The wind has moderated a bit and as a result our speed is down to about 5.5k over ground. Surprisingly our speed through the water is 7.5k (earlier it was 8.2k though I failed to mention it). This indicates a fairly strong adverse current which we could certainly do without. Our course remains fairly constant at about 30M (41True) and we have 918 miles to go to reach Tarawa. We are steering far to windward of our rhumb line so as to gain extra Easting while the wind allows us. The possibility of the wind shifting more to the North, even to the North of East remains always in our minds and this will allow us to reach our destination on one tack. If we follow the rhumb line we stand the chance of finding ourselves well to the West of Tarawa if the wind becomes Northeasterly. The sea remains fairly calm with a gentle 3ft regular swell from the East and the sky is mostly clear though we are grateful for the cloud cover which helps make the sun somewhat less vicious.

At 6pm the sun is setting and we continue to make good time on a course 20 degrees more Easterly then the rhumb line. At 4pm we raised the mizzen sail and right about then the wind came up a bit from 11 to 15k and has remained there since then. We are making 7 - 7.5k over ground though our boat speed is now 9.2k. We are sailing on a course of 25M with the wind still from the SE. Tonight's watch schedule has been set, mostly based on weather fax broadcast times since the skipper likes to be up when they come in. Therefore, Kate will take the 7:30-10:30 watch with Jordan on from 10:30 to 1:30am after which Kate comes on again from 1:30am to 4:30 then Jordan has the dawn watch till 7:30am. During the day we don't really have formal watches though we always keep at least one person in the cockpit and we do take naps during the day.