Sailing Sweet Ruca · video

What this video covers

The crew of the 40-foot sailboat Sweet Ruca departs Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, abandoning a planned route to Kwajalein Atoll in favor of an upwind passage. Before leaving, the crew celebrates a local holiday with island caretakers and tours the site of a former nuclear fallout monitoring facility. To prepare for the upwind transit, the crew departs just before sunset to navigate the pass in daylight. They start the passage with a single-reefed mainsail and a staysail to manage squalls reaching 20 knots. Once offshore, the wind settles to 10 knots, prompting the crew to furl the staysail and deploy the Genoa to increase boat speed from 5.5 knots to 8 knots. They tension the opposing checkstays to support the inner forestay and adjust the mainsail to account for back-winding from the overlapping Genoa. The passage confirms the effectiveness of their Evolution Sails and Micron Premium bottom paint in maintaining speed while sailing close-hauled.

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