March 10th, 2018 ..Spearfishing ocenside with Tim and Dave and pics of GPS tracks

Not having the opportunity (read guts) to go Oceanside much given the fears of taking the 17' Hobie Camaran to a place that offers no room for mistakes.

A snapshot of the route we took with Tim's boat on Sunday March 9th maybe.  

So this may not be the best spapshot to explain the fear or maybe respect that is needed while venturing out one of the pass's to Oceanside west reef.  The wind nearly always blows from east to west down here, this time of year its normally fairly strong, around 15 to 25 knots.  So, in the snapshot above from the  GPS tracks app on my phone, the wind comes from the right and goes left.  Any time  a boat is to the right of the west reef -still in the lagoon (ie the land mass in the pics which is the lower western part of the Kwajalein Atoll), it is somewhat safe.  If something were to go wrong with ....whatever is driving your boat, be it sails, motors or whatever....there is always a shallow spot to catch an anchor on if one is on the right side, the upwind side of the reef.  It's a failsafe.

Writing about it now, kind of makes me realize I shouldn't be so fearful.  There are many other "failsafes" other than catching the anchor on the reef as one gets swept out to sea beyond the west reef.  The regulations out here, which aren't always followed, but are by this boat captain, contain many failsafes.  

A float plan is filed before you take your boat out.  You carry a radio, and many like myself, have an PLB (personal locator beacon) which once its been wet for a while, or activated by you, its sends a distress signal to the coast guard.  It works, I've seen it in action, from a PLB 6 years old.  It works, I was there when the coast guard from Hawaii called Jobe.  The regulations also stipulate that you have a "second form of propulsion" if going Oceanside west reef.  The regulation is vague on what that entails.  It could be oars, fins (read flippers), or it could be a second motor, or second sail.  Most people with respect to the danger (read: not many of the Marshallese (that do not of course, fall under our base rules)) have a second motor, or in the case of a sailboat, a motor in case the sails fail for some reason.

The thing is, you don't want to have to be rescued, especially as a private boat owner.  It's tantamount to military justice.  YOU mess up and everyone pays.  You don't want to be that guy.  Also, its a very big ocean, if you screw up late in the evening, the helicopter doesn't come out until the next morning, so there is that.

Ok, now I'll find some more pictures of GPS tracks....

So these are two screenshots taken from my phone with the GPS deal on.  The first one shows a broader view of the second one.  We sailed the Hobie up to go kiteboarding.  If you follow it right, you can see the tacking required with both the sailboat, and the kiting.