s/v Field Trip

Sweet kids of MogMog MogMog Island, Ulithi Atoll “It’s turned into a tropical storm, but all the weather forecasts show it going well north of us.”  Famous.  Last.  Words.   On our way from Yap to Guam, we opted to stopover in the Ulithi Atoll, just to regroup and rest.  It wasn’t a planned stop, but we all needed a welcomed break from the seas.  Of course, because it wasn’t planned, we hadn’t told anyone in Ulithi we were coming.  When we dropped the anchor just off the beach of MogMog Island, we immediately got a call on our VHF radio with a polite voice asking why we were there, how many people were onboard, and what our intentions were.  We assured them we meant no harm and were simply stopping to give our family a rest.  Then we all piled in the dinghy with a small gift in hand for the chief (an LED flashlight) to say hello to our new neighborhood. Chief Stanley offers a warm welcome Chief Stanley greeted us on sh...

The Land of Stone Money, Jam Sessions, and Birthday Bashes  Traditional Meeting House and Stone Money “We have a weather window that might get us all the way to Guam,” Mark announced one morning at breakfast.  The typhoon season is supposed to be coming to an end, and the tradewinds are scheduled to fill in fiercely at anytime.  This trip up to Guam was going to be tricky.  Our choices of typhoons vs. head-on tradewinds left no easy option.  The best scenario would be to wait until a low weather system passes and brings with it uncommon winds from the south that would be pushing us the entire way, or a period of little to no wind in which we could motorsail most of the way.   The entire trip from Palau to Guam is about 700 miles, which would take us about 5 full days to complete.  Yap Island is about 250 miles from Palau, on the rhumb line to Guam, and offers a great stopping point if we need a breather.  Would we stop or continue on...