Moku pe'a Report

0600 position 2-07N 157-30W. Day's run 78 miles. 3 miles North of NW
Point, Christmas Island

This has been one of the slowest and painful 24 hours that I can remember
in sailing. Our track on the GPS plotter looks like a street map of the
Old Pali Road. Wind direction has been all around the compass, but it is
primarily from the North. Not bad, since we are headed South you say, but
when there is less than 4 knots of wind, downwind is not the direction you
want to sail. It is the incessant slatting of the mainsail that is the
worst.

Normally we would have given up and turned on the engine far sooner, but
there was no point in that since we couldn't make it to Christmas Island
before sunset yesterday. Why power in there in the dark just to have to
sit offshore and wait for daylight to safely anchor? So instead we tried
to sail for eight extra hours in next to no breeze and a confused swell.

There were squalls everywhere all day, and we were engulfed by a few.
Some had wind in them and some took away what little wind there was. They
all had rain. As we closed on the island more and more birds came to
visit us. We couldn't see them in the blackness, but could hear them
calling all around us. Even though we are near the equator, it was quite
a bit chillier tonight than it has been. Perhaps it is the dampness from
all the rain, or maybe the rain is bringing cooler air down from aloft.
Both Rocky and I had sweatshirts on after dark.

The loom of Christmas Island's big city, London, came up over the horizon
at 2300, and continued to brighten as we closed in on Northwest Point. We
finally turned the engine at 0440 for the last ten miles to the island.
We can just see land as it gets light now, and we should round the point
in about an hour. If all goes as planned the hook will be down in the
roadstead anchorage at about 0900. Then we get to deal with Kiribati
Government officials. Oh boy!