POHNPEI

29 April 2018
1500 Local
Mangrove Bay Marina


Since I haven't written an update since we were underway from Palau 8 long months ago and we will soon depart here to cross back across the Pacific to our homeport of Newport Beach  California I figured some sort of an update was necessary.

My last blog entry of September 1 2017 found us mostly motoring from Palau to Pohnpei. I had so much trouble trying to connect with position reports over either our Sailmail or Winlink connections. I just failed to continue with entries once we arrived here.

Our passage from Palau was definitely a motoring one and thankfully we had put additional fuel on in the form of a 55 gallon drum.

PUMPING FUEL

ONE OF THE FEW VESSELS WE SAW

NO WIND BUT LOTS OF SQUALLS

On our arrival we had only 24 gallons left! We sailed whenever  but the winds were never truly in our favor. The worst of our problems was the inability to get weather forecasts. No matter when I tried I was unable to connect via the high frequency radio. It was not the radio as I managed to check in daily with the Pacific Seafarers net. This difficulty has led us to make a purchase of an Iridium Go and signup for the PredictWind offshore app for weather forecasting on the upcoming passage.

We arrived in Pohnpei on the 14th of September, 354 after our departure. We logged a little over 1500 nautical miles at an average speed of 4.2 knots. 260 hours of motoring and 94 hours sailing.

Shortly after our arrival we moved into the Mangrove Bay Marina. The docks are sort of funky constructed of plastic and put together like legos. We have water but no electricity . Our moorage fee is $200/Mo. The restaurant and bar are only a few steps away.

THE HOTEL FROM OUR SLIP

Shortly after moving into the marina we added a new crew member. Lucy is a black and white tuxedo and our best guess is that she was perhaps 6 weeks old. Our older
cat Chica was not to happy about the new addition but she has gotten over it.

Enough typing for today I will continue Pohnpei adventures tomorrow.