Tuvalu to Nanumea December 1, 2015, (Posted from Majuro January 2017) *** Dec 3, 2015 Janet journal We left Funafuti several days ago after rushing around getting final provisions and food. Clearing immigration and customs, we then had a leisurely lunchtime beer at the pub with the remaining fleet crews. Back at the boat we raised anchor, motored across the lagoon, and headed out through the wide northern pass into the long smooth ocean swells. Day one out was pleasant with a reasonable amount of sailing, the winds generally light. But day two was just not Janet's day. I was hot. I was very tired. I was struggling to sail the boat in the light fluky winds. My whole body was covered in itching red infected patches. A brigade of sandflies (so I thought) from Funafuti had hitched a ride. They'd wait till I was asleep before they began their nightly feasting. After a while the intense itchiness woke me and I scratched and scratched with no relief, then sleep came no more. My bum looked like it had been used for target practice. Then my back gave out. I just wanted to go home and lie down, somewhere quiet and still, and have a good cry. To have someone hold me and assure me everything was okay. Also to take off my sticky red spotted skin and don a sleek, cool, clean one. *** We 'd decided to try six hour watches at night so we could get at least five hours sleep in a row. I was noticing a pattern on my watch. I was wakeful for the first three to four hours, 12-4ish, then really sleepy for an hour or so, then came right till dawn. Trouble is I hadn't got the hang of sleeping from 6-midnight when I was off watch. We had other hitchhikers besides the 'sandflies'. At dusk last night two large birds took up residence in the rigging, one perched right on top of the mast. They were still there at midnight when I came on watch. I popped down below to check the chart and heard a squawking sound in the cockpit. I came back up to see one of the birds sitting on the lazarette. Inside the stern rail. I yelled at him but he didn't budge. Grabbing the boat hook I tried to prod him gently towards the sea. He wasn't having it and started flapping around the cockpit. I squealed and leapt out of the way of his long sharp beak. My shrieks woke David and he came out and did battle. It was awful. The bird just wouldn't go and we couldn't leave him in the cockpit. I grabbed another pole and we both prodded the very unhappy creature towards the stern. Then he got a wing caught in the windvane rope so David had to untangle that with the boat hook. We finally tipped him over the side. It was dark so I couldn't see how he fared. Our other stowaways were cockroaches, millions of them. We soak our fruit and vegetables in salt water when they come on board but the bugs come in with the groceries too. Inside the boat they are in clover, plenty of food and warm breeding conditions. I've sprayed many of the lockers but every day we see more creatures scuttle across the floor, up the walls and across the benches. Ideally I would take every thing off the boat and spray it heavily. But there is no way we can do that out here. *** Janet email to friend It's dawn and my six-hour night watch is nearly over. My bunk is looking very appealing. We are out in the ocean, north of Tuvalu, six degrees south of the equator. I'm sending this email via single side band radio. I haven't had my gmail email for ages. Its all satellite internet in the countries up here, very slow, unreliable, and expensive. I look around at the empty empty sea, although David saw fishing boats last night, not a welcome sight as they often have miles of prop fouling nets strung out behind them that you can't see. Most years there are very few yachts up here but currently there are four behind us and five ahead. Its fabulous traveling in a convoy, I like the sense of having a community. We have a radio net and check in every morning to see where everyone is faring. I just checked the horizon again and there are squalls all around us. I have to remain vigilant in case one hits with its treacherous load of rain and wind, and quickly leap into action to reef the headsail. Our destination is 250 miles, and two days travel away, Nanumea, the rarely visited northernmost island of Tuvalu. You have to jump through a whole lot of bureaucratic hoops to get permission to visit an outer island after you have cleared customs and immigration, and the officials don't always say yes. We persisted for weeks to get approval. One of our fleet is at the island already and said the local people are delighted to have us come visit. =46rom there we go on to Kiribati, almost on the equator. We'll probably have Christmas there at a remote island with a few other yachts. There are a couple of foodies in the fleet and we are planning the menu and day's events already. The Americans (we have yachts from US, Sweden, France, and Australia) know Secret Santa, so we may do that. It's nice to have some familiar things to look forward to. *** 0800 Dawn saw us hove to off Nanumea. We arrived in the dead of night but needed daylight and slack high water to enter the very narrow, very shallow pass into the lagoon. The pass was eight metres wide and three to four deep, with a strong flow when the tide was running. Fortunately it was a perfect sunny coral spotting day. We had three hours to wait till high tide. It was nice having this rest before we went in, usually its days and days of sailing then straight into a passage all the senses muted with tiredness. A mast appeared on the horizon. The first of the four boats behind us arrived and went on safely through.=20 *** =20