October 15

The night was characterized by very light winds. At times we were moving as slowly as 2.5k but mostly we were making between 3 and 4k over ground. This morning with the sun rising, huge cloud banks can be seen ahead of us. Radar shows no rain in them so we can only guess at their distance. Just before dawn some lightning was seen in them.

At about 4:30am we started the engine and now, at 5:15am we are motorsailing at 6.5k on a course of 17M in light air of about 8k from the SE. The sea remains very calm with a 2ft swell from the East and we have about 550nm to go to reach Tarawa.

At 3pm we are still motoring and the wind is at about 5k from the South or SE. We are motoring at 6k on a course of 10M (20 True) and we have 500 miles remaining to reach Tarawa. Our predictions now have us arriving on the Sunday the 19th. Our original hope to arrive on the 18th is now gone as light winds have made that impossible. As it is, we will need to keep up a speed of 5.5k at least in order to make it in before dark on the 19th. This will require a good deal of motoring since wind forecasts do not indicate enough to keep us moving at that speed.

Forecasts for today have proven inaccurate as instead of 10k from the East we have had 5-6k from the SE or South. At about 1pm we passed through a huge series of squalls, again only managing to get a slight wetting when a serious dousing is what we wanted. The cloud did cool things off a bit but not as much as a good downpour would have. It is incredibly hot here and the skipper has managed to get a killer sunburn over his upper thighs and abdomen (don't ask how). Forecasts for tomorrow again call for 10k from the ESE but given the accuracy of today's predictions we are not expecting much. We have plenty of fuel and if needed can easily motor the entire remainder of the distance, however, we would certainly prefer not to as diesel fuel is very expensive in Kiribati, as it was in Vanuatu. Reports from Majuro in the Marshall Islands (our next stop after Kiribati) are that diesel fuel is very inexpensive, on a par with what it goes for in the US (about $1.75/gallon). In Vanuatu we paid close to $3.80/gallon.