Hideko and I got up early to make a supposed slack water, high tide exit at about 6:30 AM. The only problem was that we had to get a DVD player back to Solomon. It was not working perfectly and he wanted to see if I could fix it. It was a pretty outside chance to start with but I tried anyway. No success.

Solomon came by at 6AM and we sad a fond farewell. I would love to come back to visit but there is really no way to get here other than sailing or taking the once a quarter supply ship, which would give you a whopping one night on the island unless you wanted to stay for 3 months.

The pass was already running a good knot or so on the ebb when we arrived. I don't like having the current with me. Exiting was no problem, thoughit did require more concentration that I readily have on tap at 7AM.

We walked the reef around to the west and laid in a course for Chuuk, 335T. We made over 8 knots all morning in a nice 13-14 knot beamish breeze. Then, on my shift of course, the wind died. We started slogging along at as low as 5 knots. The wind came forward and lightened. Oh well, it was still a lovely day and the only squalls we saw were in the early morning and none of them came after us.

We are still on Pohnpei time (UTC+11) so sun set wasn't until 7PM. As the sun dropped a big sunset squall went off to starboard but passed behind us. The radar looks clear now and, given general conditions, I expect a calm night.

We talked to Angelique on the SSB a couple of times today. They are still 90 miles or so ahead of us. Whistler has no SSB and neither of us are in VHF with Eric so we're nbot sure how he's doing, but I think he is probably 30-50 miles ahead of Angelique. We will all probably arrive in the afternoon the day after tomorrow.

We are looking forward to visiting Chuuk and doing a lot of diving. It is one of those places I have read so much about but never thought I'd get to.

Hideko Says: "Kapingamarangi is going to be one of my most memorable spots"

314 nm to Chuuk