Happy New Year to everyone! We’re still sending these reports in from our Satellite phone, as civilization is a world/a day’s sail away. It was a pretty quiet night here – a bottle of wine and a night under the stars, sleeping out in the cockpit of Confederate. We watched the sun set on 2013, as well as see it show it’s face again for the first time in 2014 (through the coconut trees). The decision was made to stay on Aur atoll which meant no raging parties but the opportunity to bring in the new year with a couple of amazing kite surfing sessions on the 1st and 2nd. An epic way to start 2 0 1 4.
It’s been a while since we’ve felt the trade winds rush across our faces – After leaving Fiji in October we headed north to Tuvalu and Kiribati, both too close to the equator to get consistent breezes. However we’re now at 8 degrees north and at this time of the year the Nor easterly trade winds are really going for it – setting the scene for a kite surfing paradise. Not to mention, we’re in one of the atoll capitals of the world. The Republic of the Marshall Islands is made up of 29 atolls containing 1225 islands.
For those interested in the geology an atoll forms when an underwater volcano shoots land to the oceans surface and a coral reef starts to develop closely around the volcano. Gradually (over millions of years) the volcanic island sinks back to the ocean leaving behind a lagoon of water surrounded by a barrier coral reef with low lying islands along the fringe. This lagoon becomes a great spot for boats to anchor, tucked in behind the islands. When I say boats, I’m talking about us and the other 9 boats that have come to Aur in the last year – we discussed this tally with some of our local friends. Actually, because this is one of the closest atolls to the capital of Majuro it probably gets the most boat traffic. However of course this is a far cry from Fiji, where you might see 10 boats per night in a Yasawa islands anchorage.
Our coordinates are 8 deg 09.4 N 171 deg 10.0 E – just in case you’re one of the 10 boats heading in this direction in 2014 and happen to have kiting gear on board. We’re anchored super close to where we set up the kite, primarily because our dingy went walkabouts the other night and we’re now using a paddle board to get ashore (an elaboration to come in the next blog :-)) Mid tide is best – enjoy! We hope this is the first of many kite surforages (kite surf anchorages) in the Marshall islands. Whoop.
Thanks for this report. Perfect to know the location and tide conditions. We’ve been kite surfing Maloelap and Ailuk last year and look forward to kite surf Aur and other atolls this year. Happy to share our spots, when you come back!
Safe cruising
Philip
Hey Philip, We’ve heard of Bluebie! We’re back in Majuro but keep enjoying the kiting. Actually I think some of the spots in Maloelap were better, but Aur is pretty nice, we wished we’d done a downwinder from Tobal to Aur in the Easterly but without a dinghy engine it was a bit dodgy. Enjoy and hope to cross paths someday!
What a wonderful place, we’ve been one of the ’9 boats the last years’. We were lucky to spend there 10 days in Dec. 2011. We got invited by the little village for Christmas Ceremonies. I will never forget. Hope to come back again one day.