Karen - October 27, 2007

Arrival in Funafuti
We arrived in Funafuti this morning. It was a beautiful, clear morning with the full moon setting at dawn. We had to slow down a little to wait for daylight to come through the pass: were all anchored by 9am. Two nights ago we saw our first ship at sea, but at dawn we realized it wasn't a ship, but a sailboat! We've been talking to Walter and Gisella on Atlantis all the way in and they were actually right behind us as we went through the pass. We had never met them before. They are Germans and had come out of Lautoka (Fiji). We finally met after we were anchored and we all did the clearing in together. We are the only yachts here right now. Just a week ago there were three yachts here, but they left here when we left Fiji and they are all in Tarawa now, in the Gilbert Islands. We are all headed up to Majuro (Marshall Islands), probably arriving just before Christmas.
We finally made a good decision and left at just the right time. We took advantage of an unusual westerly wind to push us east 40 miles; then the wind accommodated by turning to the south to push us north through Somosomo straight, then shifted to east for a nice beam reach once north of Fiji. There was some serious weather happening to the south and west of Fiji, including the first tropical storm of the season (very early!). We heard reports of high wind warnings and rough seas right after we left. We never saw over 22 knots on the whole trip. We had to sail through a convergence zone, but even though we had torrential rain there was hardly any wind; in fact, we had to motor a couple times to keep moving north. The wind did shift into the north the last few days and we had a frustrating time trying to move north with very little wind and a strong westerly set to the current. Last night the wind freshened and shifted to the southeast and we had a beautiful sail.
Funafuti is an atoll. It is the capital of Tuvalu and a major shipping center for the area. I was surprised at how big (and run down) the town is. The people are obviously used to seeing yachties; most just ignored us. The anchorage is gorgeous turquoise water and we are anchored in 20 feet of sand with good holding. The islets around the lagoon are not more than 6 feet above sea level and this is one of the first places that will probably be underwater with the sea level rising. We have left the lush, green hills of Fiji, but although it was beautiful there, it was so humid that we had trouble getting anything dry. I had trouble sprouting beans because they would mold so quickly. And the solar drier was the same thing. I think that maybe up here I'll have better luck. It's all atolls from now on.
We have a few projects to take care of before the next passage, which will probably be another week at sea. But you know what cruising is: fixing your boat in exotic locations! By the way, the new wind vane is the best we've ever had. We are slowly getting this right!Ted is well known out here. He has been talking on the radio for so long, and the "Rag" is such an established net, that we meet many people who say they've heard him on air. It's almost like being with a celebrity!! Karen