Voyage of Moonshine
Voyage of Moonshine
The title of this article may give the reader the misimpression that I am writing about a booze cruise. I will assure you that it was hardly the case. Last Saturday at lunch one my colleagues Bruce mentioned that he was thinking of sailing his boat from Kwaj up to Roi-Namur but that he did not have a crew as his wife and kids were stateside. I quickly volunteered to help. Bruce gave it some thought and later in the afternoon phoned me to ask me to go. Things fell into place quickly. I managed to book the last seat on the last flight down to Kwaj (only one of the planes was flying that day) and arranged for a room at the Kwaj Lodge. …
10 am the following morning found me caught in a torrential downpour as I made my way through the streets of Kwajalein. It was raining buckets. I caught up with Bruce in the Marina where he was making preparations and by then the rain had stopped so we decided to continue with our plans to sail that afternoon as the radar seemed to indicate we would have decent weather. I made my shopping list and headed for 10-10(the local convenience store, the name is a play on 7-eleven) then back to the boat to deliver the goods. There was another drenching of rain at noon but my spirit was still high.
It was two by the time our final preparations had been made and we set sail north for Roi. It is about 50 nautical miles between Kwajalein and Roi-Namur. The voyage can be done in one day but we decided on a more leisurely trip with a stop over at Omelauk Island on the way. The skies behind us appeared threatening but the darkness was behind us so we plowed on. Bruce’s boat is a J-30 sloop. The boat is known for its speed and if I could find a fault with it, it would be that she had a good deal of weather helm despite the adjustments to the canvas we made. Bruce attributed it to her hull shape. Bruce is a tall man who bears a slight resemblance to Joe Montana. At least Bruce claims he has been mistaken as Joe but I think that might be stretching the canvas a bit tight. He originally hails from Lima, Ohio that relatives of mine will recognize as a city my father lived in for quite some time. Bruce is a very nice guy with a keen intellect. He seemed amazingly calm, even when I ruined the weatherproofing on his forward port. When he saw what I did his only comment was “I guess I will have to completely remove that to replace it.”
Leaving Kwaj we sailed along the eastern edge of the reef. I should digress now to briefly describe Kwajalein atoll. By definition, an atoll is a lagoon surrounded by a series of reefs and islands. Kwajalein atoll is the largest on the face of the earth. From end to end she is 75 miles long. I’m not sure of the width but you cannot see the west reef from the east reef once you leave Kwaj or Roi. Kwaj is at the extreme southern end and Roi is in the extreme north. The atoll is shaped like a gull so if you can picture a sea gull with its right wing tip as Kwaj., its nose as Roi, and its left wing tip as the extreme western end. Leaving Kwaj we sailed past small Bustard island and large Bustard then Ebeye which is the home of most of the Marshallese who work here. With a population of 10,000 it is the second most populous city in the Marshall Islands with the capital Majuro, the largest at a bustling 50,000. As we sailed past Ebeye we could here men whistling at us as is their custom and we could smell the odor of their cooking fires. Unlike Enniburr (3rd Island), Ebeye has electricity, cars, restaurants, nightclubs and even a hotel or two. It is a popular travel destination for the male workers on Kwajalein and Roi alike as there are real women who live there. The Marshallese have built a causeway in recent years that joined several more islands to Ebeye and it was interesting to watch the various settlements drift by us as we made our way north.
Kwajalein atoll is favored by the trade winds that blow consistently from the northeast. People claim that they sometimes change direction but as long as I have lived here I can only remember the wind blowing from any direction other then the northeast once. With the exception of when I am riding my bike in which case the wind is always blowing the opposite direction of which I am trying to pedal. We sailed close-hauled on a starboard tack all the way to Omelak. A catamaran was headed for Omelak as well. They had left after us but were gaining ground on us. The wind was blowing a consistent 18 knots with gusts into the 20s. There were gray skies ahead and the speed of the gusts were increasing so we decided to put a reef in the main. Eventually the squall hit us with gusts over 30 knots and some even reaching 35. We dropped the jib and sailed with just the single reefed main. It gave us more weather helm but was necessary due to the high winds. I found it quite excilerating even when the rain hit us. I had lost my raincoat when a friend left it in the Outrigger club on Roi the previous Saturday. So my only protection from the elements was my torn rain pancho and my Hely-Hanson rain pants. But the combination worked ok and besides it was quite warm so the rain was not that big a problem. If it had been as bad as it was in the morning I’d have been drenched. I think it was more spray from the sea than anything else. The first squall passed us and it was back to blue skies but not with out the threatening presence of dark clouds to the north and south of us. We hoisted the jib again none the less. By this point the islands were petering out but we still had the reef that tends to break the rollers and keep the seas relatively calm in the lagoon compared to the open ocean. This isn’t always true. Up here on Roi sometimes when we go diving we’ll find heavy seas on the west reef so we will go out to the ocean and dive on the ocean side of the reef which on the east end of Roi is in the lee of the island. You usually still have some good rollers though. In time the second squall hit us with winds once again above 30 knots. Shortly before Bruce was musing over whether he should drop the jib. I reminded him of the old adage that the time to shorten sail is when you are wondering if you should or not. He decided to and it was fortunate that he did. The cat behind us was a little slower in dropping her sails but before we knew it we saw bare poles on her. She fell behind us and we never did see her again on this trip. We reckoned she either headed for Biki or turned tail and headed back for Kwaj.
Within a half hour I think we were out of the squall and had pretty fair sailing. Our jib came back up for the remainder of the trip. Eventually we sited Meck Island which is where there is another installation and there are even a few people who live on it. We saw one of the inhabitants, who appeared to be a guard, standing on a point of land watching us. It was well that we filed a float plan because Bruce has gotten in trouble in the past for anchoring off islands without prior permission. There is a channel between Meck and another island that we had to pass through before we sited Omelek. But at this point we were almost there and could see it ahead. Omelek formerly had some sensors on it but had been deserted about 5 years ago. It still had a nice anchorage that had been cut out of the coral somehow. The rest of the island was pretty much overgrown. We made landfall around the end of the first dog watch. By the way, do you know why it is called the dog watch? Because it is cur-tailed (lol – do I have to explain that the dog watches are only two hours long each and were used to keep sailors from always being stuck on the same watch?). The harbor itself is rather small, maybe only about 20 or 30 yards wide. There is a stone embankment on one side and a pier on the other that we tied off to. Our stern was anchored on some coral on the other side. Not long after securing the sails I had my mask and snorkel in hand and prepared to jump in the water for a swim. Beneath the pier was a large school of small blue fish. They seemed to swim in formations that would put the best damn band in the land to shame almost (the Ohio State University Marching band). One time I could have sworn they made the shape of the dive flag only to change to the letter N. Bruce joined me after adjusting the anchor to his pleasing and we headed out the mouth of the harbor and into a large patch of coral. I was quite impressed with the life here. There was a multitude of fish including the ever dangerous trigger fish, butterfly fish, angel fish, and many other colorful species of fish. The coral it self was resplendent with color. There was staghorn coral, brain coral, and may other types of colorful coral. Swimming back we saw the full moon rising behind his boat with the clouds turning various hues of pink. It was then I rued forgetting my camera as I was quite certain that I could have taken an award winning and valuable photo especially since his boat’s name is Moonshine, it would have been perfect. So much for my claim to fame. Later we feasted on burnt steaks, baked potatoes, and salad. Bruce is a heck of a nice guy and a good sailor but not much of a chef. Well, the potatoes were good. Bruce forgot salt so being quite a resourceful type of guy I scraped the salt off of some pretzels and it worked alright. That night I slept like a baby in the gentle rocking of the boat, that is, until it started raining around 4 bells in the morning watch. I got up and shut the port and returned to dreamland until around 2 bells in the forenoon watch. It was then that I ruined Bruce’s weather stripping by propping the port up with a screwdriver in the wrong way. I didn’t quite understand what Bruce meant when he explained how to do it and should have found out before doing it.
It is against the rules here to set foot on any of the islands other then the ones we are suppose to be on without the permission of the proper Marshallese or Army officials so naturally we didn’t walk along the shore looking for shells and better yet valuable Japanese fishing balls washed up on the Ocean side. Those balls can be worth over $500 if you find one. But I was fairly certain there would be some over on the ocean side and I fantasized about walking over there and looking for some and only finding the sponge type of balls (the valuable ones are glass) and an old champagne bottle. I didn’t actually do it of course, but if I had that is all I would have found.
It was about 6 bells in the forenoon watch when we finally set sail once again. Monday was a glorious day. There were blue skies, a warm temperature, and a 20 knot+ wind. Bruce only set the main initially and I noticed quite a bit of weather helm. I thought the jib would help but didn’t want to tell a more experienced sailor what to do with his boat so I decided to play the student and phrased it like this, “are there conditions where you would put a reef in the main and set a small headsail?” Perhaps I was too obvious but Bruce said yea he was thinking of doing that already. So we did and it helped balance the boat. The rest of the day was spent in some of the best sailing I ever had. We were on a beam reach pretty much the whole time. The wind never dropped below 14 knots with gusts in the low 20s. After Omelek there were no more islands for a while, only miles of reef which we kept fairly close to as it broke up the breakers some. We were in its lee. There was a time though when we were pretty much exposed to the open seas and I found steering to be an adventure with the rollers going by (recall that most of my sailing to date has been in sheltered waters such as Puget Sound). About half way up were the remains of a Japanese submarine that had tried to escape from the victorious American Navy undoubtedly led by my father in his sub-chaser. The cowardly Jap had tried to sneak through the lagoon to escape but missed the channel and ran aground. As I went by it I tried to imagine what was going through their minds and the terror they must have felt as the Americans bombed their sub. At this point, between the shelling and the years of exposure to the elements the wreck doesn’t resemble a sub much to me. I was just kidding about them being cowardly. They were actually known for their bravery.
Figure 1 From the cockpit of Moonshine
The next island we spotted was Gagan which is the most southerly extent of where we are allowed to take the Army boats from Roi and so we were once again in my cruising grounds. Gagan has some more of our installations and we use it mostly for taking bore-sights on and maybe some weather observations. It is not manned full-time. It seems a ways when we sail down from Roi but that day it seemed all too soon before we were passing 3rd island and headed into port on Roi. We snooped around a bit checking out the different anchorages, I think Bruce was as reluctant as I was to see this trip end. But we finally dropped anchor at the beginning of the first dog watch. After flaking the main and folding the headsail Bruce had me holystoning the deck. Well, not quite, he asked me to sweep up from the rust dropped by his anchor chain. But I was quite happy to having had a perfect weekend. John came by from Lisa Rae (his boat) and we had a relaxing beverage to celebrate a successful voyage before going ashore to try our palate in the chow hall.
Technorati Tags: Sailing, Voyage of Moonshine, Marshall Island, Kwajalein, Roi, Roi-Namur
One Response to “Voyage of Moonshine”
 Comment by chris December 21st, 2008 at 12:40 am |
Great story! I’m glad you only fantasized about searching for fishing balls on Omelek. Rules are rules! |