Shearwater has arrived safely at Palau, an independent island nation at 7deg North latitude (400miles or so north of the Equator). The latitude is significant for a decreased possibility of typhoon activity for the time of year, which is the beginning of the north hemisphere typhoon season.

We came through the fringing reef entrance about 0800hrs local time 10 May (which made it 2300 UTC 9May). You may be wondering in our blogs the constant reference to UTC (or GMT); if so, UTC or Universal Time Constant (older name is Greenwich Mean Time GMT; and sometimes referred to as "Zulu") is the agreed upon standard, so that in weather, space flight, astronomy all know "when" we're talking about. When I'm talking to our weather guy Lee (who is back and forth between US east & west coasts) we need to be in agreement about when the weather will be where and UTC is our common language. Using "local" time on a trip like this is a moving target. While the local Hong Kong time is the same as PI, we have literally moved out of that time zone in our passage to Palau. ZD or Zone Description is based on one's longitude (East or West of Greenwich by the way), and what is described is how many hours to add or subtract from local time to get GMT / UTC / Zulu. For instance Palau is ZD -9 and that is the reason our entry through the barrier reef at 0800 local on 10 May actually occurred at 2300 9 May UTC.

If you're really confused about the paragraph above, check with Dana "Future Girl" Spaulding; she'll explain the whole thing to you.

So off the bounding, bouncy, bumpy main means no stress right? Actually we traded the physical stress for a couple hours of stressful frustration, or maybe it was frustrating stress, running SW through the (admittedly quite spacious) inside reef passages, where (electronic and paper) charts, GPS and reality agreed not at all -- at least 100 yards out. Fortunately once we got inside, the real-life visual cues were sufficient to keep from running aground, and get the 10 miles or so to the commercial dock where we dealt with Palau officialdom -- polite, friendly and helpful, Thanks! -- and beyond to the Royal Belay Yacht Club / Sam's Tours anchorage. Many / most? of the lateral marks were missing, and virtually all the green and red numbered placards for the lateral marks were AWOL -- like running up Wrangell Narrows without the markers. Whew!

Burger and a beer at the YC; watching the dive groups come in; Internet! Ahhhh. Already ran into a fellow who lived in Sebastopol in the 70s.