Most of what I type here is a little cross between "I'm excited and happy about all this and need to tell someone"..............and not wanting tell someone ie Facebook. So I type it here, where I think its all for me, a diary of sorts with the knowledge that it is public. That being said....
The plans for this weekend are to sail up beyond where I have been on this atoll. I feel completely fortunate to even say...to write that I've been on an Atoll, let alone going past previous boundaries. It's completely amazing and bewildering to me every time I head out on a trip with this little catamaran sailboat. Who, who the hell does this? WHO....who is as fortunate......
SO AWAY WE WENT.......
I'll step in again with the word "fortunate".
The forecast was perfect. South east winds about 12 to 15 mph ..maybe knots...I should pay more attentions to that. Leaving Kwaj with south east winds when you are heading to an island north west is a great thing. It means a nice down wind journey. It's really hard to explain how nice "downwind" is to someone who hasn't spent much time sailing. Its just easier. It's drier, it's less combative, it's calmer, it's quieter, it's not fighting nature.
So we had a downwind sail to the island 24 miles away. Again, to someone who may not have much sailing knowledge or experience, that sentence would quickly be brushed off, comparing it to the car ride to your friends house in the suburbs or something. Most in the states have no way to compare that to anything. There are a few (who may read this) on each coast that may have gone day sailing in waters where they could just head to shore if things got out of hand. This is (the Kwajalein Atoll) the largest lagoon in the world. " a stretch of salt water separated from the sea by a low sandbank or coral reef." That is how its defined with googles dictionary. So this particular lagoon is kind of boomeranged shaped. The widest part is maybe 30 miles wide....and from one tip to the other maybe 55 miles directly, or 70 if you stayed inside the lagoon. It's big.
I would guess, of the folks who have a boat as small as the Hobie Getaway, less than .5% will ever experience the love I have found from mother nature in this lagoon. Mother nature shows you love, sometimes it's tough love.
We left as planned at ten in the morning Sunday. Liz, Alex and I set off from the ramp. Alex was new , but experienced with the water and with mono hull sailing. He mentioned something about having a bad experience in his youth with the hobie catamaran sailing.
The thing about leaving Kwaj to spend the night up on the west reef is, that you can always pick the weather you leave in. Work/life beckons and you have to return the next day. You don't get to choose that weather. Sure you can try. You can look at as many forecasts as you can find, but it's still...….a guess.
Getting out of the Kwajalein harbor in southeast winds is a bit of a trick, but we managed nicely. It's important to make a good show of sailing out and into the harbor here. Lot's of eyes are watching, and I've not seen more than one sailboat a year try it. It's a challenge that I love.
We made it 24 miles up the west reef of the Atoll just fine. 4 hours meant we managed 6mph. A Hobie is capable of 15 to 16 mph, but not in rough water. With 3 adults averaging 175lbs and basically another adult in the crap we brought, the boat was overweight. We made good on time going downwind. I studied a bit the images google earth had of the island we were going to. There was a little inlet where a boat like mine could sail into. Very shallow, but at high tide it appeared (on google earth) that it was possible. It was possible, I just didn't do it quite right. I grounded the boat on some loose coral but all was good. We all jumped off into waist deep water in the lagoon side inlet and walked the boat to the south side guarded by the wind.
We found the Marshallese campsite, complete with D size batteries scattered about and palm fronds stacked up against a rope tied between trees with some on the ground for sleeping pads and various pieces of plastic trash they found useful or that found its way there. Everyone sees this stuff on the news or otherwise regarding the amount of plastic that is in the ocean. All of the islands out here are covered with it. It's kind of depressing. It's extremely depressing when you work with a bunch of people who seem to think water out of a plastic bottle is the only way to consume water out here, when Kwaj has drinking fountains chilled everywhere and the water from the tap is just fine.
From 200 or maybe even 100 yards you cannot really see the amount of plastic and trash on the island. They all look pristine from Google Earth. Just like I was excited about camping on this island. Google earth and the other satellite images had me believing the island was surrounded by sand. It wasn't. Oceanside was covered with the same softball and larger sized coral chunks as most the other islands Oceanside. Lagoon side many of them are a cross between cut your feet coral and sand...but no chunky coral "rocks".
We went spearfishing lagoon side in the evening. This was my total way of getting food, outside of some stuff I had guessed Liz would bring. We braved the breaking waves and got out there. I didn't really like what I saw initially. There was a lot of broken coral. I brushed it off enough to take a shot and a miss at a nice grouper. We spent a little more time out there in the rough water seeing a few more good eating grouper, but I made the call and said let's not take any fish off of this side. Ciguatera is a reef born toxin. Naturally occurring in the coral, ingested by smaller fish which are eatin by larger and so on. I'll leave it to you to look up the symptoms and remedies and all. Its not good. The Marshallese don't eat reef fish off the Oceanside part of the east reef because the wind and the waves batter the coral breaking it up. This reef looked a little tore up. We had some rice and a few oranges we also had some extra fat our bodies could use to get by....except for Alex....he was a little thinner. We also had Beer.
The rice Liz had brought was just fine. Monday morning we woke up with the boat sitting about 30 feet from the water at around 7 am. High tide (ie getting going...ie getting the boat out of the little lagoon) was going to be after 2pm. I expected enough water would be in the lagoon to let us get the boat out by noon. We fooled around a little bit packing things up, then later sat in the shade to the east and read books. The book I picked, well, didn't hold my interest so I asked the other two if they wanted to go snorkeling on the oceanside of the island. Alex sat out and decided on a nap.
Liz and I headed west from the lagoon side of the island to the oceanside of the island with snorkeling gear and spearguns in hand. I don't know why I took the speargun, maybe to poke a too curious shark, or maybe I thought a little breakfast of fish might work out even though there would be not much time to cook it.
On the "rebelle" map the island is pronounced "Ellep", the Marshallese call it "Eller". Either way it was the most beautiful snorkeling I've seen since being out here. The sunshine helps and it was sunny. I've recently heard them called "surge channels". This island had a ton of deep channels cut into the reef on the oceanside. Deep channels cut with white sand infill. Some places there were underwater "ponds" of sand. The contrasts between the sand, the coral and the stunning blue water made it amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Time drug us back from what could have been an entire 2 mile island snorkel. We could have easily just spent an entire 8 hour day just looking at the beauty of that reef. We headed back to walk thru the "jungle" of what is the interior of a barely above sea level island. Its full of small spider webs for one. Not big spiders, but annoying webs as you try to find your way thru the mostly thin vegetation. Sometimes there are piles of dead rotting coconuts covered by palm leaves. Sometimes it just coral rock ranging from softball size to marble size. It amazes me always that there is very very little soil. Its all coral rock. I don't get it. Those palm trees we walk past, maybe ten in an area the size of 30 by 30 feet had to have been dropping fronds and coconuts for 30 years. Why are there only rocks below them, it should be a thin layer of soil. On our way thru we see many of the red "land" crabs that are always on the islands. We passed one larger coconut crab. I say "larger" but that is entirely in reference to what I have seen outside of Kwaj. This one was about half the size of the largest one I've seen on Kwaj. I'll admit, crabs kind of creep me out. I know they taste good but picking them up with my hands even with gloves on, creeps me out. So the little guy lived.
We messed around a little bit more somewhat taking our time breaking camp down and loading the Hobie. I was pushing for a noon departure. Directions were given on how we needed to depart and we started walking the boat out. We got to a point where I just needed to stay in the shallow water and pull the boat out into the oncoming/very small chop in 2 to 4 feet of water. Liz and Alex got on the boat and got the sails rigged and ready to go while I walked the boat out towards the lagoon full of smaller waves. We all noticed the dark clouds coming on the horizon. They meant at the very least rain, but usually always an upgrade in wind speed and sometimes direction.
This time it was only a change in wind speed and rain. It was a bit of a harried exit given the rain and the increased wind speed and the rocks just downwind in the direction we were heading. The thing about squalls is they don't immediately seem to effect the water or wave height. The wind comes first, and it makes you a little tense. The churned up water shows up about 5 minutes after the wind stops, and maybe ten minutes after the rain stops.
So we hit some heavy water. It was no worse than any other water encountered on the return from a camping trip out here. The nose would dig into a 5 to 6 foot chop and throw all the stuff on the front trampoline in the air and send water all over everything else. It was confused 5 to 6 foot chop and we were at full sail making about 6 knots of progress at best when we weren't slamming into a wave. It was no worse than usual, but it was bad. Bad, considering we weren't 2.25 hours away from Kwaj, we were 4 at best if the wind stayed nice and in the right direction. 2 hours away and something happens, it's somewhat easier. 4 hours away and you'd better pray you can make an island. "Make an island" meaning get to one of the downwind islands on the downwind side (read west reef).
We had no problems with the problemed water. We had problems in the smoothish water less than two miles from the Kwajalein small boat marina. Hopefully I can explain this right. The forward rigging on the Hobie includes two small 3/16" stainless steel wires that form an eqalateral triangle with the front spar between the two hulls as the base. The top of the triangle would be the roller furler that holds the same diameter cable that holds the Jib sail to the top of the mast. So picture a small triangle of cables as the "legs" and the bar ( the spar that seperates the two hulls) as the base of this triangle. Then at the top of the triangle another 12 ft or so cable goes to a point 75% up the mast. The forward sail (the jib) is anchored on this shroud. Let me simplify. The mast is held up by two side wires called shrouds, and one wire that splits into two wires close to the bottom. If any of these break, its bad news. If any of the 3 long ones break it could mean death to those below. The mast is 25 feet tall and weighs around 80 lbs.
SO AWAY WE WENT.......
I'll step in again with the word "fortunate".
The forecast was perfect. South east winds about 12 to 15 mph ..maybe knots...I should pay more attentions to that. Leaving Kwaj with south east winds when you are heading to an island north west is a great thing. It means a nice down wind journey. It's really hard to explain how nice "downwind" is to someone who hasn't spent much time sailing. Its just easier. It's drier, it's less combative, it's calmer, it's quieter, it's not fighting nature.
So we had a downwind sail to the island 24 miles away. Again, to someone who may not have much sailing knowledge or experience, that sentence would quickly be brushed off, comparing it to the car ride to your friends house in the suburbs or something. Most in the states have no way to compare that to anything. There are a few (who may read this) on each coast that may have gone day sailing in waters where they could just head to shore if things got out of hand. This is (the Kwajalein Atoll) the largest lagoon in the world. " a stretch of salt water separated from the sea by a low sandbank or coral reef." That is how its defined with googles dictionary. So this particular lagoon is kind of boomeranged shaped. The widest part is maybe 30 miles wide....and from one tip to the other maybe 55 miles directly, or 70 if you stayed inside the lagoon. It's big.
I would guess, of the folks who have a boat as small as the Hobie Getaway, less than .5% will ever experience the love I have found from mother nature in this lagoon. Mother nature shows you love, sometimes it's tough love.
We left as planned at ten in the morning Sunday. Liz, Alex and I set off from the ramp. Alex was new , but experienced with the water and with mono hull sailing. He mentioned something about having a bad experience in his youth with the hobie catamaran sailing.
The thing about leaving Kwaj to spend the night up on the west reef is, that you can always pick the weather you leave in. Work/life beckons and you have to return the next day. You don't get to choose that weather. Sure you can try. You can look at as many forecasts as you can find, but it's still...….a guess.
Getting out of the Kwajalein harbor in southeast winds is a bit of a trick, but we managed nicely. It's important to make a good show of sailing out and into the harbor here. Lot's of eyes are watching, and I've not seen more than one sailboat a year try it. It's a challenge that I love.
We made it 24 miles up the west reef of the Atoll just fine. 4 hours meant we managed 6mph. A Hobie is capable of 15 to 16 mph, but not in rough water. With 3 adults averaging 175lbs and basically another adult in the crap we brought, the boat was overweight. We made good on time going downwind. I studied a bit the images google earth had of the island we were going to. There was a little inlet where a boat like mine could sail into. Very shallow, but at high tide it appeared (on google earth) that it was possible. It was possible, I just didn't do it quite right. I grounded the boat on some loose coral but all was good. We all jumped off into waist deep water in the lagoon side inlet and walked the boat to the south side guarded by the wind.
We found the Marshallese campsite, complete with D size batteries scattered about and palm fronds stacked up against a rope tied between trees with some on the ground for sleeping pads and various pieces of plastic trash they found useful or that found its way there. Everyone sees this stuff on the news or otherwise regarding the amount of plastic that is in the ocean. All of the islands out here are covered with it. It's kind of depressing. It's extremely depressing when you work with a bunch of people who seem to think water out of a plastic bottle is the only way to consume water out here, when Kwaj has drinking fountains chilled everywhere and the water from the tap is just fine.
From 200 or maybe even 100 yards you cannot really see the amount of plastic and trash on the island. They all look pristine from Google Earth. Just like I was excited about camping on this island. Google earth and the other satellite images had me believing the island was surrounded by sand. It wasn't. Oceanside was covered with the same softball and larger sized coral chunks as most the other islands Oceanside. Lagoon side many of them are a cross between cut your feet coral and sand...but no chunky coral "rocks".
We went spearfishing lagoon side in the evening. This was my total way of getting food, outside of some stuff I had guessed Liz would bring. We braved the breaking waves and got out there. I didn't really like what I saw initially. There was a lot of broken coral. I brushed it off enough to take a shot and a miss at a nice grouper. We spent a little more time out there in the rough water seeing a few more good eating grouper, but I made the call and said let's not take any fish off of this side. Ciguatera is a reef born toxin. Naturally occurring in the coral, ingested by smaller fish which are eatin by larger and so on. I'll leave it to you to look up the symptoms and remedies and all. Its not good. The Marshallese don't eat reef fish off the Oceanside part of the east reef because the wind and the waves batter the coral breaking it up. This reef looked a little tore up. We had some rice and a few oranges we also had some extra fat our bodies could use to get by....except for Alex....he was a little thinner. We also had Beer.
The rice Liz had brought was just fine. Monday morning we woke up with the boat sitting about 30 feet from the water at around 7 am. High tide (ie getting going...ie getting the boat out of the little lagoon) was going to be after 2pm. I expected enough water would be in the lagoon to let us get the boat out by noon. We fooled around a little bit packing things up, then later sat in the shade to the east and read books. The book I picked, well, didn't hold my interest so I asked the other two if they wanted to go snorkeling on the oceanside of the island. Alex sat out and decided on a nap.
Liz and I headed west from the lagoon side of the island to the oceanside of the island with snorkeling gear and spearguns in hand. I don't know why I took the speargun, maybe to poke a too curious shark, or maybe I thought a little breakfast of fish might work out even though there would be not much time to cook it.
On the "rebelle" map the island is pronounced "Ellep", the Marshallese call it "Eller". Either way it was the most beautiful snorkeling I've seen since being out here. The sunshine helps and it was sunny. I've recently heard them called "surge channels". This island had a ton of deep channels cut into the reef on the oceanside. Deep channels cut with white sand infill. Some places there were underwater "ponds" of sand. The contrasts between the sand, the coral and the stunning blue water made it amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Time drug us back from what could have been an entire 2 mile island snorkel. We could have easily just spent an entire 8 hour day just looking at the beauty of that reef. We headed back to walk thru the "jungle" of what is the interior of a barely above sea level island. Its full of small spider webs for one. Not big spiders, but annoying webs as you try to find your way thru the mostly thin vegetation. Sometimes there are piles of dead rotting coconuts covered by palm leaves. Sometimes it just coral rock ranging from softball size to marble size. It amazes me always that there is very very little soil. Its all coral rock. I don't get it. Those palm trees we walk past, maybe ten in an area the size of 30 by 30 feet had to have been dropping fronds and coconuts for 30 years. Why are there only rocks below them, it should be a thin layer of soil. On our way thru we see many of the red "land" crabs that are always on the islands. We passed one larger coconut crab. I say "larger" but that is entirely in reference to what I have seen outside of Kwaj. This one was about half the size of the largest one I've seen on Kwaj. I'll admit, crabs kind of creep me out. I know they taste good but picking them up with my hands even with gloves on, creeps me out. So the little guy lived.
We messed around a little bit more somewhat taking our time breaking camp down and loading the Hobie. I was pushing for a noon departure. Directions were given on how we needed to depart and we started walking the boat out. We got to a point where I just needed to stay in the shallow water and pull the boat out into the oncoming/very small chop in 2 to 4 feet of water. Liz and Alex got on the boat and got the sails rigged and ready to go while I walked the boat out towards the lagoon full of smaller waves. We all noticed the dark clouds coming on the horizon. They meant at the very least rain, but usually always an upgrade in wind speed and sometimes direction.
This time it was only a change in wind speed and rain. It was a bit of a harried exit given the rain and the increased wind speed and the rocks just downwind in the direction we were heading. The thing about squalls is they don't immediately seem to effect the water or wave height. The wind comes first, and it makes you a little tense. The churned up water shows up about 5 minutes after the wind stops, and maybe ten minutes after the rain stops.
So we hit some heavy water. It was no worse than any other water encountered on the return from a camping trip out here. The nose would dig into a 5 to 6 foot chop and throw all the stuff on the front trampoline in the air and send water all over everything else. It was confused 5 to 6 foot chop and we were at full sail making about 6 knots of progress at best when we weren't slamming into a wave. It was no worse than usual, but it was bad. Bad, considering we weren't 2.25 hours away from Kwaj, we were 4 at best if the wind stayed nice and in the right direction. 2 hours away and something happens, it's somewhat easier. 4 hours away and you'd better pray you can make an island. "Make an island" meaning get to one of the downwind islands on the downwind side (read west reef).
We had no problems with the problemed water. We had problems in the smoothish water less than two miles from the Kwajalein small boat marina. Hopefully I can explain this right. The forward rigging on the Hobie includes two small 3/16" stainless steel wires that form an eqalateral triangle with the front spar between the two hulls as the base. The top of the triangle would be the roller furler that holds the same diameter cable that holds the Jib sail to the top of the mast. So picture a small triangle of cables as the "legs" and the bar ( the spar that seperates the two hulls) as the base of this triangle. Then at the top of the triangle another 12 ft or so cable goes to a point 75% up the mast. The forward sail (the jib) is anchored on this shroud. Let me simplify. The mast is held up by two side wires called shrouds, and one wire that splits into two wires close to the bottom. If any of these break, its bad news. If any of the 3 long ones break it could mean death to those below. The mast is 25 feet tall and weighs around 80 lbs.
Ben, how are you my friend! I do enjoy your adventures on Kwaj, I am literally on the other side of the planet now, working in Buffalo... keep adventuring, and sharing, thanks for the trip back if only in words. All the best to you and Liz, Safe travels...
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