The 3,000 mile, 18-night passage across the Pacific!
Sunday 29 May – a final snorkel in a lagoon this morning for Geoff and Sheryl, plenty to see – I opted out and kept the iguanas on the wharf company instead. Didn’t fancy coming face to face with a sealion! Then a last minute visit into “town” in our desperate search for wifi, this time sitting on a hard bench outside the house of our Agent, Manuel, where I ended up leaving Geoff trying to sort out his Iridium Go device and I paid a last visit to the supermarket.
Back on the water taxi to the boat to be welcomed, and farewelled, by a baby seal who had taken a fancy to our now fence-cleared deck (in preparation for our departure). It was a lovely sight and a fitting finale to our incredible Galapagos visit.
4pm and we’re off! We sailed out of San Isabela for our long haul to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. A journey of 2986 miles. Averaging around 200 miles a day we hope to arrive around 12 or 13 June.
Tuesday 31 May – we’ve settled into a nice routine of watches with Sheryl and Mike, and have decided to have a one day on/one day off schedule in the galley. It’s certainly a treat on the day off being waited on hand and foot while you relax in the cockpit! We spotted a fleet of 4 very ugly, rusty fishing boats today – we think they may be Chinese, they certainly looked very dodgy.
I have to say I had a quiet little panic tonight, just thinking of the fact that we are 1200 miles from Panama and heading off into all these days at sea, just us surrounded by a vast body of water two miles deep, for hundreds of miles, for about 14 days! I had to give myself a bit of a talking to as I know I am sailing with an incredibly experienced skipper but given 4 years ago I would barely brave the Waiheke ferry it does seem a little daunting!
Wednesday 1 June – an interesting fact: The Pacific Ocean is 1/3 the size of the earth’s surface and larger than all the other oceans put together, without including the Bering Sea, the Tasman Sea and the South China Sea etc.
Geoff and I have decided that we must have a routine every day so when we get up to go back on watch at 7.00am we are also combining that with a gym routine on the deck – some yoga (although a few of the positions are a tad difficult with the rolling of the boat), some sit-ups and I am also using my resistance band. Then it’s a hearty breakfast at 10.00am when Sheryl and Mike are up, an afternoon tea and an early dinner around 6.00pm before the night watch schedule kicks in. We have decided to skip lunch as it’s too easy to just sit around eating all day and we don’t want to be blobs when we arrive!
Thursday 2 June – we are cruising along very nicely around 8 - 10 knots and so far reaching our target of 200 miles a day. The weather is mild and it’s a mix of sunshine and cloud, with the odd squall. We’ve enjoyed a lovely sunset each night and it’s been nice to have time to sit quietly, gaze at the cobalt sea and reflect.
I’ve thought about my family and my life a lot, it’s almost 14 weeks since I left NZ and whilst I am having one of the most incredible, amazing experiences of my life, it’s the longest time that I have not seen a family member. I miss them. Coming on this adventure was a huge decision for me, especially being away from family for the best part of a year and committing to sailing with my novice skills and fear of water. It has taken me completely out of my comfort zone, but with Geoff’s encouragement and patience, I have embraced it and I have managed to do things I never dreamed of!
Those of you who know me well would know how big a deal this is for me and I am very happy I took this one-off opportunity to have the experience of my life – never in all my sheltered years did I ever see myself doing something so adventurous and loving every minute of it too (well almost every minute, lightning aside!).
Friday 3 June – at 1555 hours we hit our first milestone – we have sailed 1,000 miles since we set off on Sunday, a third of our journey knocked off in exactly 5 days, almost to the minute!
Sunday 5 June – for the last few nights Geoff and I have had our sundowners sitting on the bow of the boat watching the incredible sunsets – I just can’t resist photographing them but the photos never do them justice – I can’t get enough of them. Sitting there with a G&T gliding through the gently rolling blue seas, watching the colours change and the gold flecked glints on the top of the waves – it’s magical as you will see from some of the photographs below. On some nights the clouds look like they are in 3D. We’ve also had some beautiful full moons – hard to capture their beauty in a photograph though.
Monday 6 June – another milestone, at 0658 hours we hit 1500 miles – we are now at the halfway point!
Tuesday 7 June – we are sailing in such light airs that we are sometimes down to 5 knots and this is pushing our intended arrival date back a little. Sheryl and Mike are scheduled to disembark at our first stop in the Marquesas, Nuku Hiva, where they have a flight booked to Tahiti on 15th. The have managed (courtesy of communication by the Iridium) to push back their flight to 17th, but that is the very latest they can arrive as they are booked on a cruise departing Papeete on 18th. Fingers crossed!
We had a bit of excitement today, and not in a good way, the headsail ripped so it was all hands to the deck (so to speak) and the sail was pulled down and patched up with stickyback sail cloth strips in various places. We were grateful that a) the seas were calm which enabled us to spend an 1 ½ on the bow patching and b ) it didn’t happen at night!
Wednesday 8 – A Day of Drama!
The wind, or distinct lack of it, is our major talking point. We are down to 5 knots and we seem to be just drifting along. Whilst it is very pleasant, it is certainly not ideal for Sheryl and Mike with their cruise date looming. So Geoff decided that it was time to put up the spinnaker. Out it came from the locker and was duly set up and ready to be hoisted. However, in the process it caught on the bow and got ripped. It was quickly pulled down, and out again came the precious bag of sticky back strips! We laid it back down onto the deck and repeated yesterday’s process of carefully sticking the strips into place. It had torn quite badly and required patience, with Sheryl holding the tear together on top of the bread board, Geoff cutting up the appropriate length of strip, me separating it from its backing (and keeping the part to be discarded down my shorts to stop it blowing overboard!) and Geoff carefully placing it on the right spot on the sail. It was a laborious process but we finally got there and were pleased with the outcome, especially as we are fast running out of the sticky back!
All ready to hoist again, Geoff and Sheryl on the bow, Mike on the winch and me ready with my finger poised on the dial to turn the boat + or – 10 degrees depending on the wind. Up she went looking absolutely magnificent in all her bright blue and yellow and I felt an immediate surge as she caught the wind and we immediately went up to 10+ knots! Celebrations were in order! I went down to open the bar and whilst I had my head in the freezer getting the ice out I heard an almighty shout on the deck. Rushing up to see what had happened I saw the spinnaker sail past me in the water and out to the stern of the boat, then float back underneath, fortunately not catching on the rudder, and back out behind us again. Luckily it was still attached by a rope. Geoff sprang into action and using all his strength, and giving his shoulders a massive workout at the same time, managed to pull it back onto the deck where it is currently languishing, all bundled up in a very sorry wet and badly ripped state.
The cause, we found out was because the stainless steel fitting at the top of the sail had sheared off. What a disaster after all that effort. No time to waste we had to hoist the headsail back up. Trouble was, the halyard was still at the top of the mast and the sock that contained the spinnaker was twisted, and both had to be pulled down. Nothing for it, the bosuns chair came out and Mike put his hand up to be pulled up the mast to untangle it.
At this stage I have to say that I had also offered my services being the smallest and lightest person on board, but I think the other 3 very seasoned crew felt that it might be better if one of them went up in case I stuffed it up (they didn’t say that to me in so many words, but given my lack of experience I got the gist of it and could understand their decision!). Up Mike went and he did the necessary untangling and we were finally able to relaunch the headsail. I re-iced the drinks and we sat there and toasted the fact that having wasted three dramatic hours, we had at least not lost the spinnaker, even though we were actually now back in exactly the same situation as we had been earlier in the day!!!
It's 12.30am as I’m recapping today’s events and the dial on the chart plotter has just gone onto 1111 miles to go (don’t you just love a set of the same numbers!).
Thursday 9 June – 1512 hours and we are now only 1000 miles to go 2/3 of the way there!
Saturday 11 June – unfortunately we are still in the light airs of the SE Trade Winds and there is a lot of discussion between Geoff and Mike, and a lot of time plotting charts re our arrival date. With no spinnaker to help out, we are struggling along around 6 to 7 knots. This is definitely going to be more than a 14 night sail. The latest estimate is that we have between 3 – 5 days more days at sea before we reach Nuku Hiva.
It’s strange not knowing what is going on in the world! Not that I miss TVNZ News and it’s constant reviewing of daily covid figures, but it would be interesting to know what is happening everywhere in the world, especially in Ukraine. Wouldn’t mind seeing a bit of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations either!
Thank goodness I loaded up my kindle before I left. I have read so many books – it is a rare treat to have the time to do this. I’ve seen a lot of shoals of silver flying fish leaping over the waves, shimmering in the sunshine, although I must say they don’t look quite as pretty when we find them lifeless on the bow deck in the mornings, along with a few other interesting species that have washed up in the night. Do we call it roadkill or maybe boatkill?
We have done well on our provisioning, and although we have finished all our fresh fruit and vegetables, we have plenty of meals and bread in the freezer and tins in the cupboards – and we haven’t had to resort to the sardines yet! The worst news though is that we only have 5 English Breakfast teabags left!
Monday 13 Jun – we had a wonderful surprise tonight – just before sunset, a pod of about 50 dolphins appeared all around the boat – they swam with us for ages, playing and leaping out of the water in front of the bow – it really was a magnificent sight!
Wednesday 15 June – Land ahoy - 1405 hours we can make out the outline of Fatu Huku and Hiva Oa under the line of clouds!
Thursday 16 June – 0300 hours – the 4 of us were up and getting the mainsail down so we could motor in to Taiohae Bay – 9 miles away! As we got closer the little white lights in the bay looked like a string of pearls – so pretty, and there was a delicious scent in the air.
0500 hours – we put the anchor down and celebrated with a champagne mimosa, accompanied by Andrea Bocelli, as we watched the sunrise over the volcanic peaks.
0745 hours – we got in the dinghy to go to the Gendarmerie and do the necessary immigration. What a funny sight we looked, the 4 of us staggering up the road with our 18 days of wobbly sea legs - like 4 drunks after a big night out!
It’s so beautiful to see so much lush greenery and tropical flowers after 18 days being surrounded by so much blue - blue skies, blue seas and even the blue interior of the boat!
We’ve made landfall in Paradise!