Passage from Majuro, Marshall Islands to Savusavu, Fiji
Now that the southern cyclone season was ending and our anchorage mates were making plans to head south to Fiji, we started making plans for the 1,500 nautical mile trip back to Fiji. First we had to finish our battery replacement and upgrade project. Our AGM batteries were no longer usable and we had made the decision to upgrade to lithium batteries back in January. Lithium systems are lighter, last longer, and charge faster and we found a supplier in Florida that helped us figure out what we needed. We ordered the system components in February and arranged to have them shipped to Long Beach, California where they would be put on a ship to Guam (yes that is 1500 nautical miles west of Majuro) where they would be put on a another ship for the trip across Micronesia back to Majuro. It would only take a month or two, and besides, what could go wrong?
You might be surprised. Being cruisers, we are experienced in creative problem solving. Since the refrigerator is the single biggest consumer of electricity on the boat, we found a suitable battery at the local solar power store and set up a refrigerator circuit powered by one of our solar panels. This will get us by with minimal faff until we can find another battery. One of the things you have to sort out with lithium batteries is making sure they play nice with your alternator on your engine. If the lithium batteries get cranky they will tell the system to disconnect whatever is charging them. Alternators hate this and respond by self-destructing. Helpfully, there are a couple of very complicated devices called regulators that will protect the alternator from catastrophe. We chose one called Wakespeed WS500. It was designed by an engineer who knows the one, single best way to do things, even if there are better and simpler ways. In this case, they tell you can use a Windows laptop to configure it, and this is kind of true. They recommend using a mobile device. Except that it has to be an Android device. And you can’t use bluetooth. You have to use something called an “on the go” adapter. And a USB cable popular a few decades ago with printers. Good luck finding either of those in the Marshall Islands. Or Kiribati.
After a few days of faffing about, we were able to find the elusive USB B cable at the only office supply store in Tarawa. I’m getting ahead of myself. We configured the regulator with the Windows PC and gave it a quick test. And figured we were good to go.
Next up, find a time to leave based on the weather. Also known as finding a weather window. This involves running scenarios using a weather routing app. Usually one looks for favorable combinations of wind (just enough), waves (not too much), rain (not much), and convection (an indicator of lightning). For this passage, which crosses the equator and 2 convergence zones, think doldrums, unstable weather, squalls, and maybe lightning. And motoring. Practically, this means finding the weather window that sucks the least.
The plan for the 1500 nautical mile journey (about 2 weeks of sailing) was to skip Tarawa, Kiribati and go straight to Funafuti, Tuvalu and wait for a weather window for the 5 day passage to Savusavu, Fiji. We planned to skip Tarawa because it is pretty close to Majuro, taking only 3 days. After 3 days, you’re just getting into the rhythm of the passage and it is a shame to stop.
The first night of the passage was a doozy. We had good strong wind around 20 knots and crazy seas. And the wind was forward of the beam. This means lots of heeling and waves splashing over the bow and occasionally across the top of the cockpit If it sounds as if it is not relaxing, it’s nothing but. We made good time, but we were exhausted. Things settled down after that. We also figured out that the regulator was not set up right so our batteries wouldn’t charge with the engine. The primary charging source is solar panels, but the weather was very cloudy and we couldn’t rely on just solar. We do have a portable generator, which meant we could have used it, but it is suboptimal and kludgy to use it out at sea. Plus we didn’t have enough gasoline on board to last us the 10-11 days to Funafuti. We made the disheartening decision to stop in Tarawa to sort out the regulator or pick up some more gasoline for the generator. In addition to the electricity issues, we had both come down with a bug and were feeling pretty crappy. So it was welcome back to Tarawa for us. Tarawa has a wonderfully wide pass and open passage to the harbor and we had our anchorage waypoints and tracks to follow. This meant we didn’t have to worry about when we came in day or night and we dropped anchor safely at 9:30pm. We also know the ins and outs (there are lots of outs) of clearing in and out so we knew how to minimize the hassles and delays.
Thanks to the help of the very wonderfully warm and welcoming iKiribati, we found the elusive and otherwise obsolete USB B cable. We also found that we were missing a 2 inch long little jumper wire. Once we got that all sorted, the alternator came to life and we were free to go. We arrived Thursday night and left on Tuesday afternoon. All in all, it was a really nice stay, but we were eager to move on.
The passage to Funafuti was uneventful. What wind we had was forward of the beam but in the end the convergence zone was wide and we motored a lot of the 7-day passage. It was really nice to be in Funafuti again, even though it was for only 2 nights. The weather for the foreseeable future looked OK, so we didn’t need to delay for weather. Fueling was the usual island bonanza of dinghying our jerry cans to a big old concrete wharf, watching the workers get the fuel from a massive tank through a huge hose to a funnel made from a water bottle spout into our jerry cans. They then transported the jerry cans to the wharf on a motor scooter. Rinse and repeat four times. We also went to the grocery store for ice cream cones. At least four times.
The 5-night passage to Savusavu was the best passage yet in terms of crew morale and relations. We had some nice sailing, then motoring across glass seas, then 50 nautical miles of hell as we motored across the swell from a big southerly wind that had stirred up the seas something fierce.
Here's a summary of the passage:
- Left Majuro the afternoon of 6 May
- Arrived Tarawa night time on 9 May
- Left Tarawa the afternoon of 14 May
- Arrived Funafuti in the morning of 21 May
- Left Funafuti the afternoon of 23 May
- Arrived Savusavu in the morning on 28 May
- 21 days total
- Wind always ahead of the beam when we could sail
- Weird confused seas
- Last 50 miles were roughest
- Yet it was the best passage yet for the crew
We’re so glad to be back in Fiji for 5 to 6 months. We’ll be able to take our time and really explore and engage this time.
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