In Saipan, On to Pagan

In Saipan, On to Pagan

We are in Saipan! We had a pit stop in Rota and strong winds most of the way up but we made it here in record time. Our stop in Rota was unplanned but convenient. Our favorite crew member, Aries (the self steering wind vane), was under a lot of stress and one of the welds in a support bar snapped in the night. We were already on the north end of Rota but decided to turn back and fix it. If we had noticed earlier (and not had to backtrack) we would’ve been in Rota in a record breaking 11 or 12 hours. Compared to the 18 it took us in March and the 16 it usually takes us, this would’ve been the fastest trip by a long shot. We were moving really fast through the water but the wind and waves were sometimes a bit intimidating rushing by, with one of us on an active watch at the helm, the other trying (in vain) to sleep.
We were happy to get a chance to rest and have a break from the weather in Rota. Ann Marie, who happened to be on Rota for work, even brought us pastries for breakfast! Pete drilled a few extra holes to stabilize the Aries and put it all back together. We took naps, made some lunch and left at 3:30 the same afternoon feeling much rejuvenated. Then an hour or two later the wind got even crazier. I got up on deck to reef the main so we could slow down some and even though I was strapped in it was a little overwhelming with noisy flapping sails and the hull crashing in the trough of the short period waves. I felt like this whole sailing thing was crazy and even thought maybe just going to rota would suffice instead of going all the way to Pagan. I managed to reef the main and once back in the cockpit the weather didn’t seem as bad. We took a few deep breaths and motor sailed until we felt comfortable to bring out the jib again.
We had a long night of switching back and forth on watch and once we got up closer to Aguijan (Goat Island) plotting our location every 30 minutes making sure we had plenty of space between us and the reef. Once the sun started to come up and Pete had gotten some sleep I finally was able to go down below and rest myself. We could see all three island and were no where near the reef on any of them. Without anything more to worry about now that it was light out, I fell dead asleep and had the best boat sleep I’ve ever had, not even stirring for three hours. It was wonderful.
We made it to Saipan by 1:30, in 22 hours, way better than last time when it took us 36 (because we had to sail back and forth all night waiting for dawn so we could sail into the harbor because our transmission was broken). We had checked the charts so we didn’t even worry about not having a depth finder (our chart plotter is broken, but last time our depth sounder was also not working and made us super anxious). We just turned on the engine and motored through the zigzaggy channel and into the marina! Met some cruisers from HI and Australia who are also here for a few days and went to grab some lunch. We didn’t eat much on the way from Rota. Pete and I were both sick (Pete because he had to go down below to look for screws to reattach one of the blocks for Aries that detached in the early evening and do some minor drilling underway in the crazy weather) so eating was an hypersensory experience.
After food, we (mostly) had the energy we needed to walk the 25 minutes to the port office to get permission to go to Pagan. This was pretty simple, just answer a few questions about what we want to do there (hike, look around, meet the people that live there) and get our stamped form. One guy at the office was excited to tell us about the hot springs you can swim in and black sand, but warned us to be careful of the cows. Turns out his father-in-law, who passed away last year, grew up in Pagan and so he (the son-in- law) has visited 8 times before. He was excited to meet other people who were interested in visiting the island.
Our friends Yousef and Nadeah were generous to offer us their guest bedroom for the night so we went up to their house and got a beautiful night and morning view of the whole west side of Saipan. We went to run some errands this morning, laundry and a search for line to replace the jib furler line that has frayed through the outer sheath. We’ll leave for Pagan late this afternoon. We expect seas to be much calmer this leg, turns out we sailed through a bit of a depression that we could see on the weather map when we arrived in Saipan. It will take us about 2 days to get to Pagan. We will be satellite phone and VHF until we get back to Saipan in 10-14 days. More stories to come.