0900 saw us standing off the pass at Fanning Island. This was a bit earlier than we had planned, but we had good light, the pass is wide open – so after a leisurely perusal with the binoculars, we headed in.

We are pleased to report that the data contained on our SoftCharts Region 400 disk is almost spot on. (This disk is available exclusively at SetSail if you’re planning to explore this part of the world).

We had been led to believe there was a ferocious ebb current. However, the norm is for the current to ebb and flood, and we came in on a very quick flood – three knots. (We would have preferred an ebb to slow our speed over the bottom.)

No problem, though, as the pass is very easy to negotiate. We dropped the hook in 16 feet (5m) of water, soft, thin sand over a coral pan. Not good holding, even for our giant ROCNA hook. Best we could do was 1200 RPM on both engines, which we reckon is equivalent to 35 knots or so of breeze.

This is a lovely spot, with turquoise water, and friendly Gilbertese locals. There are now 2000 folks living on the island. Industry consists mainly of two things: farming a type of seaweed that is dried and exported; and catering to a cruise ship which drops by for six hours once a week. Lots of crafts are being made in the various homes.

Customs and Immigration came out right away to clear us in. They also gave us our outbound clearance, so we are ready to leave when the weather is right.

There are five other yachts here. Three have been here for some time. This is a favorite spot for cruisers who live in the Hawaiian Islands to visit – 30 yachts a year come through. One of these boats has been hanging out for four months, enjoying the diving, surfing (nice left-hand break at the pass), reading, and just chilling. Not much in the way of supplies is available.

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We’ve had some questions about the shape of our bow fairlead. It is designed to work with a parachute or towing drogue, and to take our snubber line so that it does not chafe on the chain or chain rollers. Took this shot today as we were coming back, to show the color of the water.

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Here is a close-up of the fairlead. You can see it has soft corners. This is the equivalent of running the rode around a 6-inch (150mm) block.

We have not had much time to do chores, what with checking out the local scene, clearing in and out, and meeting some of the cruisers. We have written up the log and were somewhat surprised to find that we averaged 9.3 knots over the bottom for 1288 nautical miles, which makes our average speed through the water a little over 10 knots. Considering this was mostly uphill, with average wind at about a 20-degree angle off the bow and blowing 15 to 18 knots, we are very pleased. Our fuel burn for this trip was 1.39 nautical miles per US gallon. This includes running the air conditioning full time, hydraulic power for the stabilizers, induced drag on the stabilizers, rough water drag on the hull, and windage. We have not had time to carefully analyze the data, but this is somewhat better than we would have guessed.

As efficient as this was, and as comfortable as we were, we are going to try to do better on our weather routing for the next leg. Now that we’ve got the data on an upwind passage in the database, we want to keep the breeze on the beam or aft for the remainder of the trip. Whether or not we succeed remains to be seen. But we’re going to get the boat ready to go tomorrow, so when the wind gods allow, we can depart without delay.