We awoke early as we wanted to be away by 0730. I got up at dawn and oh my, I was glad we were leaving. The volcano was no longer breathing puffs of smoke, it was billowing. It is currently graded as “restless”. Time for us to be on our way. It did look magnificent for sunrise though.
Our day was fabulous. Another blue sky day. The wind was perfect, the swell was down, and we just sailed all day between 5-7knots. Ironically we don’t want to go too fast as we want to reach Maug in daylight tomorrow so we can go in and take a look.
As Pagan faded into the distance behind us, Agrihan emerged. People used to live on this island, which also has an active volcano. Afterall, we are in the Ring of Fire! There is a not very protected anchorage here, but we were content with passing close by and continuing on our way. This volcano too was puffing smoke and the whole island had cumulonimbus over it. The islands are definitely rainmakers, attracting the clouds to form.
We hadn’t fished up to now because it was just too rough, however we put out a line while we had calm conditions. Dean had gone down for a rest and I was just looking out the back when I saw a fish jump, then the line went off.
It was another big Mahi Mahi so we had to slow the boat down because they fight like crazy. Dean just wanted a tuna, but once again, I am very happy with this. Unfortunately as he was reeling it in the rod broke. But this fish will keep us going until Japan, at least eight good meals from it.
We snuck in a gorgeous sunset at sea.
Our last pit stop before Chichi-Jima was Maug. This is the sunken and eroded caldera of an ancient and thankfully extinct volcano. The remnants of the rim is broken into three islands. There are two passages you can enter by, but we chose to enter and leave by the wider one. As we approached the birds were either inquisitive or not happy with us, and many were swooping and soaring around.
Apparently you can anchor in the middle, we’ve been told it is sand, but we didn’t want to risk snagging our anchor, so we just floated in the middle. It was amazing. The swell had build up a bit again through the night, nothing terrible and it was so nice to have a calm anchorage for a break.
We could see hundreds of birds on the island, circling, nesting in tree tops. A bird paradise mainly undisturbed by humans.
This is a shot of our chart plotter, showing us floating in Maug.
We had a hot breakfast and a long hot shower. I washed my hair, ahhh bliss. We also had time for a game of backgammon, and after my losing streak became the Maug Champion, with a gammon against Dean! It was a most worthwhile detour. It isn’t everyday you get to sail into a volcano, albeit an extinct one!
I took a video of inside Maug. I think it is the only way you can appreciate the enormity of where we were. Since it was still early in the morning only one side is lit up by the sun.
We spent a couple of hours in Maug then it was time to get a wiggle on. Farewell Maug, what a great experience!
Run to Paradise 