April 24, Day 1

Our first day of the passage is now in the "books". It was a day with a few surprises, and also with "as expected". The actual departure from Majuro was as expected. The channel and water north of Majuro are always rough,and yesterday was no exception. So, until we had passed north of Majuro and then south along the Fordyce channel between Majuro and Arno, we had high wind and really big rough seas on our nose. Elisabeth took a picture of your very wet captain - I'll post it when I can.

Then, while Majuro was still in sight to our north, the wind just quit and the seas went flat. For about an hour, we motored along southbound waiting for the forecast easterly wind to fill in. When the wind did fill in, it was from the south,again on our nose. The difference is that the seas were now pretty flat and the wind was light. Close-hauled in light wind is a joy on our boat, so we had an absolutely delightful rest of the day and evening.

We started out 3 hours, 3 hours off watch schedule at 6 pm with me taking the first watch, and Elisabeth taking the first sleep. We have gotten quite adept at sleeping at the slightest opportunity, and 6 pm seems perfectly sensible in this sailing life. Dinner last night was a simple can of French canneloni (yes, I know it is an Italian dish, but the can came from France). Breakfast this morning was French toast (bread was from Majuro), so you can see that we live reasonably well even onpassage.

All in all a good first day. Hard work to start, then it got easy. Elisabeth is now napping, and as always, we send many hugs to everyone.

Rod and Elisabeth, "Your Rock and Roll Argonauts"