November 24

We actually left Butaritari this morning! The wind was about 10k from the SE and the sky was partly cloudy with abut 30% cloud cover. We lifted the hook at about 8:00am and by 9:30am we were outside the pass heading dead downwind along the Western side of the atoll. By 10am we had the main up and at 10:30 we raised the spinnaker (for the first time since leaving Australia and in fact the first time since last September, more then a year ago). We are sailing now at about 4.8-5k over ground in about 5k of apparent wind from the SE.

Our destination is Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands which is about 280 miles to the NW or NNW. Our first waypoint is just off the Western side of Mili Atoll, the most SouthEast of the Marshalls, from there it is another 65 miles to the Eastern end of Majuro then another 15 or so miles to the entrance to the lagoon which is about 15 miles from the town where we will anchor to complete formalities with customs and immigration.

It is now 3:15pm and we have been sailing at 3 or 4k for the last 4 or 5 hours. The wind is still very light, perhaps even a bit lighter and worse, more from the South. Additionally, a nice rolling swell from the NE came up as we passed North of Butaritari making the sails flog nicely with each roll. To make matters worse, our friends on "Roxanne" are rapidly gaining on us and are actually complaining that they are only doing 6 knots. They are on a 60ft custom designed Wylie which is a very fast racing type boat that can easily make 20k in a decent wind. So for them, 6k is painfully slow. I hate them. Of course, for us, a 6k speed is average and would make us very happy right now.