The idea as such is not really new, because I carry it already since a while around in my head.

The beaten tracks of South Pacific west ward sailing leads from the Society Islands to the Cook Islands. Thereafter there are several routes possible to further head W.

I always wanted to see the Kiribati Island because there, the effect of global warming is supposedly very well to be seen. So they have since years my attention.

Then, a few weeks ago I got the idea to look into a route which brings me to these islands.

Over the last days I read a lot of information about possible island to use as stop overs.

It turned out that several of the Pacific groups of islands belong to the greater group of the Kiribati Island. These groups are, the Line group in the east; the Christmas Island is the best know. In NW the Gilbert islands with Tarawa, the capital town of the Kiribati Islands. Then in middle west the Phoenix Islands and in the S, the Tokelau Islands.

The first route sketch gave a route of almost 3000 NM.

Considering that the main wind is the SE trade wind, we will have 2 long SN and NS legs with quarterly winds which MaRe likes, thus she will sail fast. The EW leg brings us the wind from astern, which makes sailing very smooth.

Looking at all the things I understand so far the “Kiribati Route” as I call it looks promising.

Let’s see what happens when I look into the details.