November 6, 2007

Northbound for Kiribati
We spent Wednesday (yesterday) afternoon with Jan and Trevor from Watea, getting cleared out from Funafuti to depart this morning. We intended to take a taxi to Customs, at the north end of the island, clear with them, then take a taxi back to the Immigration office, with a stop at one of the small stores where we had arranged to have some fruit and coconuts gathered for our passage. The best laid plans....
The electric power failed twice during the morning, which shut down the cell phone transmitter. Since their cell phones wouldn't work to allow them to be called, all the taxi drivers took the day off. We all loaded into our dinghy, and took a 2 mile run across the lagoon to Customs, then made the run back at full speed (4 knots with 4 on board!) to reach Immigration a few minutes before they closed. That done, we walked up to Salamani Store, and Trev and I carried the fresh supplies back. One must always have a "plan B", mustn't one?
I'm still covering the Rag of the Air radio net for Jim, so we waited this morning until I'd finished that, then hoisted anchor. We motored a couple of slow circles in the lagoon to calibrate the autopilot, because we'd not had good conditions to do it since we put it in service. Now the flux gate compass reads the same as the main steering compass....less confusing that way. Then it was away across the lagoon, 6 miles to the pass, and off to Tarawa. The breeze was extremely light crossing the lagoon, but was starting to fill in from the east as we made the pass at 10:30 local time. Since then it's held steady between 8 and 12 knots, giving us a beam reach in a very smooth, rolling swell. Lots of small puffy clouds, but strong sunshine on a sparkling, indigo blue sea. Sequester loves these conditions, and we're averaging better than 6 knots very comfortably. It's late afternoon, and the admiral has just called for me to make her macaroni and cheese for dinner, so it's time to send and cook. I love it when she has an appetite at sea! Ted