Sailors from the Mieco Beach Yacht Club, located in Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands, were very likely the first to raise their sails for this Sailstice! Below is a description of how the first Sailstice sailors kicked it off with a bang, written by Mieco Beach Yacht Club commodore Karen Earnshaw:
“Of all the Summer Sailstice Sunday events, the Mieco Beach Yacht Club’s is very likely to have been the first because of where our beautiful islands are situated: In the Pacific, just west of the International Date Line and seven degrees north of the Equator.And while Sunday was June 19 here in Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands, it’s actually June 18 in the States … so were we the first?If not, we were certainly one of the merriest bunch of cruisers!
The yachts De La Mer, Moonbird, Hawkeye, and Bint al Khamseen, and the power boat Wasabi (yes, a stink boat, but the owners have a 38ft Ingrid called Seal!) voyaged four and a half miles from downtown Majuro to tiny Enemanet Island to celebrate the Summer Sailstice. There they picked up mooringbuoys that were installed by the yacht club, with funding from the United Nations Development Program, to save the reef from anchor and chain damage.
Dinghies were loaded with food and beverages and the group made it ashore just before the heavens opened. Fortunately, the island’s owners (the Kramer family) have built a large thatched meeting house, to where we moved the homemade barbecue and stayed dry from the rain.
Onto the barbie we tossed some fresh wahoo caught by Cary Evarts on Wasabi, some marinated yellowfin tuna kindly provided to De La Mer by one of the many purse seiners that off-load their catches onto motherships in Majuro lagoon, and frozen squid, bought by newcomer to the fleet, Laurent Bassaler and his girlfriend Louise who have just bought John Jameson’s James Wharram catamaran Taraipo.
The sun came out and the newcomers snorkeled, the kids splashed about in the shallows, and the coolers were gradually emptied of their Budweisers, Victoria Bitters, and New Zealand chardonnay.
Photo time and Bonny Taggart of Moonbird and Kathy Hutton of De La Mer posed next to one of the Kramers’ island huts with their Summer Sailstice ‘burgees,’ which we would have purchased from the web site had there been a chance of them making their way across the ocean in time for the event.
Thanks to the organizers of the Summer Sailstice for giving us the idea to have yet another happy picnic rally at our little paradise isle. Next year, we’ll make sure there’s a bigger fleet … and we’ll order the burgee with lots of time to spare!
Footnote: You can find out more about the Mieco Beach Yacht Club by going to the web site www.sailingmarshallislands.com.
