Island Explorers

We hiked parts of the atoll, swam in a crystal clear lagoon, saw sharks, sooty terns, reef fish, manta rays, coconut crabs, giant cockroaches, squishy King spiders,  glow worms. We had dinner on the island with the scientists and learn alot about their conservation efforts here.

You'll Never Know Just How Much I Love You

I used to say that the Missouri River in Montana is the most beautiful place. And now it is Palmyra.

Dolphins! A lot of them!

Greeted by over 30 Pacific Common dolphins upon arrival at Palmyra. For chow: tuna veggie handrolls with sriracha.

Avoiding hard points

Currently, we are skillfully avoiding hitting hard points like Kingmans Reef.

Food!

FOOD: our galley has a hob, stove, fridge, freezer. Everyone shares in making meals. Most are delicious vegetarian dishes. Local HI produce, limited packaging, and recycling is part of the program on board.

Luminous seas

We were driving to the compass in the pitch black. Lightning storms on both sides. Tropic birds and bioluminescence.

Sea Dragon

It's a Challenge 72. We have had speeds of 6-10 knots. Sleeps 14? We have 10 on board.

It's getting hot out here

Fasten your seatbelts, it was a bumpy night! The 20-35 knot winds and 5-7 foot seas died down but the lightning  storms went all night.

Meteor Showers!

Night watches have endless stars, Alpha Scorpiids/Sagittarids meteor showers, distant lightning storms. The weather is very unsettled this close to the equator

lumps and a little speed

We had the main, jib, and staysail up but now have a reefed mAin and jib. I hit 10+ knots of Boat speed but the swell is coming from an unfortunate direction.

boat bombs!

Yesterday, the winds and sea piped up. Gusts to 34 and swell 4-7 feet. It's really rolly on board and quite hot. We are excited to explore Palmyra tomorrow! I made cinnamon apple raisin walnut "boat bombs" (thank you fo the cool name Corey) for the crew and some extras for the scientists on Palmyra.

Aircon and showers? How did I get here?

Sea Dragon is a former Challenge Race boat BUT it has AC! We turn it on in evenings to break the heat. I showered which took some balancing as we bounce along.  We are allowed unlimited showers - WHAT?

Amazing stars

Exiting the companionway for 2200-0200 watch was like stepping into an Asimov text book. Today is clear with sapphire seas. A few masked boobies flying about

HAPPY SUMMER SAILSTICE FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE PACIFIC!

Happy Summer Sailstice from Sea Dragon at lat 13 under the Milky Way, Southern Cross, & shooting stars. Joseph, we are enjoying every moment.

No pirates - yet

Jason: no sirens, Downton Abbey pirates, or Tardis sighted – but there's still time. Amelia Earhart is supposedly out here too.

Bad Watch

Everyone, at some point, gets the bad watch (0000-0400) and the good watches (sunrises and sunsets). And we have more time to sleep than when racing.  Just because you are "off watch" doesn't mean you aren't up on deck -especially during the day.  It's hard to sleep when the on watch is having so much fun (FOMO!).

Standing Watch

WATCHES:  Because we do not "pull over at night," there are 4 of the 10 of us "standing watch" at all times.  We keep sailing, day and night until we are at anchor at our two stopovers (Palmyra and Kirimati).

We all stand watch. 4 up at a time with 2 going off 2 new coming on every 2 hours. This is called a "rolling" watch.  It ensures that everyone has the "best" and he "worst" (0000-0400 hours) watches.  If you are on watch during lunch or dinner hours, you make or clean up after the meal.  In the morning, it means you clean the entire boat.  On the hour, every hour, those on watch will keep the log (noting visibility, temperature, boat speed, wind speed/direction, distance traveled, and also checking the bilges for leaks/water intrusion).

Day 2

Day 2: brilliant sailing. Lots of HELM time. Amazing stars. Saw Hydra Scorpio and Jupiter. Light winds during dog watch.

Day 3

Day 3: winds up sea state down. More amazing helming. Then, lost three hours of my life with bad reaction to Dramamine. It's all good. Another jammy sunset.

Day 1: travel

Day 1: Early flIght to HNL. Met 6 crew mates & 2 skippers at Sea Dragon. Safety, rules, orientation talks. Stowed gear. Stephan (DFW) gave talk about Palmyra.


We landed at HNL and made our way to Ko Olina Marina. We were there a bit early, so we walked over to the resort for lunch.  It was swarming with tourists. Not my kind of Hawaii or vacation.  We were happy to return to the quiet of Sea Dragon and the marina.

We met our skipper Eric, first mate Shanley, biologist Mary, working crew Sarah and Merit, and regular crew (like we are) Elaine, Jessica, and Crescentia. We unpacked and organized out gear and chose our bunks.  I have a knack for picking the worst bunk... so, I immediately chose the bottom bunk that had to be stepped on to get into the two upper bunks, with no personal fan, something that poked my back if I slept a certain way, and directly under Marrrk who had a habit of dropping items in my bunk...

We are assigned a red basket (think large milk crate) and I promptly began laying out my numbered dry bags and whatnots for easy locating in the dark. I also hung a couple of little bags in my bunk for night time things (headlamp, ipod) and daytime things (sun block, sun glasses).

It was a nice touch that Sea Dragon provided sheets and pillows so that we did not have to schlep these things during our travels.