Saturday 04th January As you may have gathered, we ended up spending a few more days in Tarawa than originally planned. High winds on the lagoon made it a little more difficult to finalise everything we wanted to do, but finally the weather window opened up and the last minute chores were all done, so by Thursday midday there was no excuse for lingering any longer. Our fears about having to get the marine equivalent of a jackhammer to get the anchor up didn't eventuate - it came up easily and is now stowed back near the davits.

Unexpectedly, the diesel raw water intake got clogged, which we noticed shortly after firing it up, while checking the cooling water that is sposed to be coming out the stern - there wasn't any! Thinking it was possibly a plastic bag over the inlet, Tony dived under the boat, nothing, so then we disconnected the hoses internally and blew air into it, still nothing. Finally Tony got the most verstatile tool on the planet, the good old piece of bent wire, and poked it around in the tube. To our surprise, he hooked a tiny little fish out, the only fish we ever caught in the lagoon... Just as we were starting off and going through our checklist, we also discovered the bilge pump wasn't working. More hoses disconnected, more blowing, and after a year's accumulated gunge flew out, that too was fixed.

Motoring out of the lagoon I was sad to see the familar roof of our home for a year, Parliament House, fade out of view, but was cheered up by the sight of a large turtle near the Betio leads, possibly one of those rescued and released last year by the Utirerei Guest House and the ex-pat community. Four to five dolphins frolicked around the bow, as I took last minute pictures of everything, including the lovely new lead lights that weren't there a year ago.

On New Year's evening we had been treated to a magnificent dinner aboard Mariposa - a 50' catamaran that had dropped anchor at Ambo a few days earlier, and who we had met in January last year when they first visited Tarawa. Our hosts Micheal and Birgit treated us to a four course banquet which really set us up for the next day's departure. Micheal is a dentist travelling through the Pacific treating islanders on remote atolls free of charge and the yacht seemed like a floating mansion compared to modest Irish Melody - boat envy is a terrible thing!

Once at sea, Irish however showed us yet again why we love and trust her, racing along at 6-7kts into the wind, allowing us to make over 260NM in the last two days. The first day of an offshore sea passage is always exciting and a bit nerve wracking, especially after a year in the lagoon. Sadly the timing of this passage has meant no moon, and due to cloud cover, not many stars either, so it's quite dark out here at night! We've had a bit of a rock and roll ride with some rain cells, some strong wind gusts and swells to 2.5 metres, and having to put in a third reef in a 30 k squall, but overall the passage is going well. Currently we are on a gentle reach, a welcome relief after the helter skelter of the last few days, and the boat movement has calmed down enough to enable firing up the computer without it flying off the table.

We have had two scheds now with the crusing community in Marjuro, with our position noted. We also touched base on the YOKWE net with Imajica and Westward II, who are now up in the Marshalls and we are looking forward to catching up with them again.

ETA Majuro harbour is Monday, so will update you all once we are checked in and cleared customs. Till then hope the New Year has started off well for you.