October 19

At 12:30am the wind finally became too weak to keep us moving over 3k and we started the engine again. It was a wonderful 7 hours of sailing and we enjoyed it immensely. It is now 1am and the wind is 6-8k from the East and we are motorsailing at 5.5k over ground with 55 miles remaining to reach Tarawa. Our estimates are that we will reach the entrance to the atoll at about 11am in the morning at this pace.

Early in the morning at about 4am we came into the lee of Maina Atoll, the island just to the South of Tarawa. The current, which has been trying to push us West with great force suddenly ceased. Just after sunrise we could make out the ribbon of land surrounding the atoll on the Northern side and by 8am we were only 10 miles South of Tarawa.

It is now 9:15am local time and we 6nm to go to reach the entrance to Tarawa. During this morning's radio sked we spoke with our friends on "Piet Hyne", "Green Nomad" and "Wind Runner" as well as Joe on Navigator. Joe left the same day as us and fell behind early on and is now about 60 miles SW of us and has decided to skip Tarawa and make straight for Majuro in the Marshall Islands, another 360 miles to the North. William on "Piet Hyne" who left 2 days before us, but has a smaller boat and not much fuel is about 80 miles out and will get in tomorrow morning. "Wind Runner" who left 3 days after us is still down around 5 and a half degrees South and is making about 40 miles a day in the same light air we had. Martin and Christie don't like to motor and are perfectly happy if it takes them 15 or more days to reach Tarawa so we won't be seeing them any time soon. "Green Nomad" with Marlee and Louis aboard left 2 days after "Wind Runner" and are just above 9 degrees South and are having contrary winds. They also have a small boat and not much fuel so I think they will be quite some time out there as well.

We will enter the channel at about 10:15 this morning and should be at anchor by Noon. It's Sunday so we are not sure whether we are going to be able to clear in today. Frankly we'd be just as happy to sit on the boat and sleep the afternoon away and go to shore tomorrow morning if they let us. Some places will other places will require you to clear in the day you arrive (especially if they stand to pocket the overtime charges they invariably collect on weekends and after hours).