by Judy Handley | May 1, 2006 | Passage To French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 196, Year 1: Another Mahi Mahi–Day 10
Date and Time: Monday, May 1, 2006
Weather: Cloudy Morning Turning Sunny with Scattered Clouds
Air Temperature: Daytime 79 degrees F
Latitude: 06 degrees 05 minutes S
Longitude: 112 degrees 38 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 10
Miles to Go: 1577 (~ 160 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: 1370
The winds are still in the 20 to 25 knots range, the seas are still causing us to rock and roll, but we are doing great. We will be at the half-way point sometime tomorrow, so we will have to plan a celebration. Today we caught another small Mahi Mahi so we are all set for dinner tonight. Life is good.
Today was baking day again, but this time I escaped getting burned. By the way, the burn on my leg is doing fine. Anyway, I needed to use up the multitude of ripening bananas, so I made two loaves of banana bread. It is great as a first breakfast and saves on the use of precious cereal. That is something that is very expensive in French Polynesia, so I welcome the banana bread while it lasts. I also made brownies. That will be our treat during night watch. And it was shower day. When you are on a long passage like this one, you do everything you can to conserve water “just in case”. We have the water maker, but you never know when something could go wrong with it. We have plenty of water to get us to the Marquesas if all goes well, but in case of no wind and a motor failure, you really have to make sure you don’t use up your reserves. So we shower only every third day and on those days, I use the shower water to wash any dirty clothes. I use fresh water to rinse the clothes, but using the shower water really saves water and works fine for the wash. So I am sitting here in the cockpit with clean clothes blowing in my face. With all this wind, they will be dry soon and can be taken below.
The sun is setting. There have been clouds on the horizon most evenings, and we have yet to see the green flash. When you watch the sun set over the ocean, you are supposed to see a flash of green light just as the sun sinks below the horizon, but it keeps escaping us. No green flash again tonight. The new moon is high in the sky right now. It will set before midnight, but in a few days as we get closer to the Marquesas, the moon will be filling and not setting until early morning. We will once again have the light of the moon to guide us.
by Judy Handley | Apr 30, 2006 | Passage To French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 195, Year 1: Rockin’ and Rollin’—Day 9
Date: Sunday, April 30, 2006
Weather: Sunny Day with Scattered Clouds
Water Surface Temperature: Didn’t Check Today—Too Rough
Air Temperature: Daytime 79 degrees F
Latitude: 06 degrees 48 minutes S
Longitude: 110 degrees 16 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 9
Miles to Go: 1733 (~ 164 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: 1210
Today was sunny with no rain, but other than that nothing has changed since yesterday. We are still being tossed about – with the great winds come the rougher seas. We are making great time and even though it is a bit uncomfortable, the conditions are safe. Our friends on Quantum Leap, a catamaran out of Mobile, Alabama, have passed us. They are making 200 plus miles a day. We are making about 160 to a 170 a day, but that is about as fast as our little monohull will go. There is also a Benateau 45′ that was still close to us this morning, but they should be ahead of us by this evening. Randy and Sherri on Procyon are well behind us, as well as a couple of other boats that we don’t know. We enjoy our contact twice a day with everyone and continue to enjoy the passage.
This afternoon I mentioned to Mark that I wanted to hear the song “Old Time Rock and Roll” as that is what we are doing-rockin’ and rollin’. That prompted him to get the MP3 player out. We hooked it up to its little but powerful speakers and searched through the music that our daughter Heather and her husband Jed put on the player. No “Old Time Rock and Roll” but we came across songs from the 1950’s and had a blast listening to Fats Domino, Elvis, the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, and on and on. There was plenty of rock and roll music to go with the movement of Windbird. We also found some Bob Marley on the player. I was reading this morning that the chief in Fatu Hiva likes Bob Marley CD’s, so we might have to burn one for him before we arrive.
Some of the first wave of boats have arrived in Fatu Hiva. We don’t have radio contact with most of them, but on the evening Pacific Seafarer’s Net, Mark has been able to keep track of Bud and Kathy on Invictus out of Mountain Home, Arkansas. They are a great couple and they should have arrived in Fatu Hive this afternoon. I keep talking about Fatu Hiva as if anyone reading this knows exactly where that is, but I, as most people, had never heard of this island until well into this trip. There are a number of islands in the Marquesas, the first group of islands you come to when crossing the Pacific on the classic route that we are taking. There are 10 islands and numerous rocks and islets that make-up the group. Fatu Hiva is the southern most island. Although it is not an official port of call, we have heard from other cruisers that the gendarme is currently allowing boats to stop there for a few days before heading north to Hiva Oa, the largest island in the group and the one where we will officially check into the Marquesas. There are a couple of reasons that we want to come into Fatu Hiva. One is that it will be an easier path to sail north-west through the other islands and second, it is the most beautiful island in the Marquesas. As you come into Baie Hanavave (Bay of Virgins), you first see the rocky spires near the head of the bay and on either side of the bay there are dark green steep-sided mountains. The spires are supposed to be even more dramatic in a setting sun. This Baie des Vierges (Bay of Virgins) is said to once have been named the Baie des Verges. This translates as the Bay of Phalli, so named because of the shape of the rocky pillars. Evidently when the first missionaries arrived, they didn’t approve and they inserted an “i” changing Vierges to Verges. Whatever, I look forward to arrival there.
by Judy Handley | Apr 29, 2006 | Passage To French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 194, Year 1: The Grill is Gone–Day 8
Date: Saturday, April 29, 2006
Weather: Cloudy Day, Mid-day Squall with Wind and Rain
Water Surface Temperature: Didn’t Check Today
Air Temperature: Daytime 79 degrees F
Latitude: 05 degrees 48 minutes S
Longitude: 107 degrees 16 minutes W
Miles to Go: 1896 (~167 miles last 24 hours)
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 8
Miles to Date: 1046
“The Grill Is Gone.” Not a title for a new song, but a fact. We lost our grill off the back of the boat today and I am greatly saddened. It is just a grill, but a lot of meals revolve around the use that handy little gadget. Hopefully we can find a replacement in Tahiti. Until then all meat will have to be prepared on the stove top as we have no broiler in our oven. I’ll get over it, but I hate losing any piece of equipment.
Now to the reason we lost the grill. The Coconut Milk Run has turned into a butter churn. We kept the 20 to 25 knot winds all through the night and this morning, but near noon the seas began to build and we hit a squall with 30 plus knot winds. We double reefed the mainsail and the headsail and we are doing fine, still traveling between 6 and 7 knots, but the ride is a lot lumpier. The seas are choppy and the swells are between 6 and 8 seconds. That means that every 6 seconds the boat rises and falls. The swells are hitting us on the port (left) rear quarter which is good, but once in a while one hits us broad-sided which causes a jerk. The 30 plus knot winds were short-lived and we are back to 18 to 22 knots right now. The sky is totally overcast, but once in a while a see a little patch of blue here and there. So back to the grill . . . It probably went over around noon when we were reefing the sails. It was a little rough for a few minutes and we have always known the grill attachment was its weak point. We looked for a better attachment in Panama and didn’t find one, so we probably should have rigged something up to save it if it broke, but we didn’t. Live and learn, and we seem to be learning a lot these days. But rest assured, it is not just us. When we check into the net it seems that someone is always working on something that has broken. About midnight on Thursday night, Quantum Leap lost their spinnaker halyard and had to spend an hour pulling their spinnaker out of the water. Yesterday Jade had to turn back to Puerto Ayoro in the Galapagos because their boom vang broke and their water maker stopped working. We talked to Doug and Sylvia on Windcastle this afternoon and in addition to the ripped headsail, their freezer has stopped working. And Vol (pronounced “yawl”) has lost its alternator. The list goes on. If you took your home and put it on the constantly moving ocean, you would have similar problems. It’s all part of the territory. So in perspective, a lost grill is not such a big deal.
Weather reports indicate that we should continue to have good wind through Tuesday. Wednesday looks a little lighter. Until then we are trying to head due west with the wind behind us. When the wind lightens, we can turn south on a broad reach. That’s the plan, at least.
by Judy Handley | Apr 28, 2006 | Passage To French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 193, Year 1: Easy Ride–Day 7
Date: Friday, April 28, 2006; New Time Zone EDT
Weather: Clear Skies with Cumulus Clouds on Horizon (Cloudier Morning)
Water Surface Temperature: 79 degrees F
Air Temperature: Nighttime 79 degrees F; Daytime 82 degrees F
Latitude: 05 degrees 44 minutes S
Longitude: 104 degrees 31 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 7
Miles to Go: 2057 (~146 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: ~879
Things are going well out here. The wind is still with us and because it is behind us, we are having an easy ride. This is why they call this the Coconut Milk Run. When things are working as normal, this is a great passage. The days are absolutely gorgeous with clear blue skies and just a few puffy clouds around the horizon. There is a swell but it is gentle and the winds are consistently 15 to 20. Each day the temperature is rising just a tad, but it really feels cool in the breeze. The forecast is for more of this for the next five days except the seas are supposed to build. I’ll have to wait and see how that affects the ride, but right now it is fantastic.
Yesterday after I sent the log we caught a small Mahi Mahi and had it for dinner. What a treat. We didn’t put out the line today as Mark was doing “investigative” work in the engine room. We are hypersensitive now to every little noise and we wanted to check all connections of engine to transmission to prop shaft one more time. It seems like all is well in the engine room, but we have no fish for dinner tonight.
There are two other boats that are very close to us, but not within sight yet. When we check in with the evening net, we will see exactly where they are. This morning when we reported our positions, the net controller joked about us being able to meet and have a barbeque with the other two boats. It is interesting that having a boat within 60 to 100 miles feels close! There are now four more boats that we know of that are behind us and numerous boats just ahead of us, so we have lots of company. We like checking into this net that we all established twice a day. It helps us feel connected. Our friend Patrick of Aqua Magic is net controller for the evening check-in and since we are further back, Mark helps with the relays from boats that are even further behind.
We have traveled almost 900 miles in our first seven days out here. Our average daily distance traveled has been 138.5 miles per day. If we can continue that, we will be in Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas in about 16 days from now. That’s the best case scenario, but it sounds good to me.
by Judy Handley | Apr 27, 2006 | Passage To French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 192, Year 1: Calmer Day–Day 6
Date: Thursday, April 27, 2006
Weather: Clear Skies with Cumulus Clouds on Horizon (Cloudier Morning)
Water Surface Temperature: 79 degrees F
Air Temperature: Nighttime 77 degrees F; Daytime 80 degrees F
Latitude: 05 degrees 23 minutes S
Longitude: 102 degrees 07 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 6
Miles to Go: 2203 (~133 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: ~733
Today was a much calmer day than yesterday. No flying squid, no whales, no getting burned while cooking. We are moving along, one quarter of the way to the Marquesas. When the wind stays above 15 knots, we make great time, but there are periods during the night and again during the afternoon when the wind drops to 10 to 12 knots. When that happens, we move much more slowly, but we are still averaging about 140 miles a day. The total number of miles to our destination from the Galapagos was about 3,000, so if we keep up this average the total trip will take us about 22 days. If we lose the wind entirely due to the weather system in French Polynesia, of course the trip will take longer. But we are settling in and enjoying the days.
The weather has been gorgeous. We are well protected from the sun and it actually feels cool at night and sometimes during the day. When the sun goes behind a cloud, I get chilly. At night we wear long pants and jackets-not what I expected south of the equator, but I’m not complaining, just explaining. The first couple of nights we had to zip our jackets and it was so humid that dew covered everything. It rained our third night out and since then the air has dried out and there is no need to zip a jacket at night. During the day, there are never clouds overhead but the horizon all around is decorated with puffy little clouds. The night sky has been phenomenal-so many stars. As we look to the south we see the Milky Way clearer than we have ever seen it before.
I got an e-mail from my friend Linda back in the Concord School District in response to my mention of being hit in the head with a flying squid. She said she didn’t know squid could fly, but she looked it up on the internet and learned that squid, like flying fish, don’t really fly. They literally shoot out of the water and glide using their fins to help them glide across the water. A certain species of squid can actually “glide” at 24 miles an hour. If the squid that hit me in the side of the head was traveling that fast, he probably had a good concussion from hitting my hard head!
For our sailor friends out there, I just want to remind you that you can check on our position daily by going to Yotreps at Pangolin on the web. There is a link on our website in the “Where We Are Now” section. I’m not sure that section is up-to-date on the site, but the link there will get you to Yotreps. Our son Justin that manages our website is leaving for a three week trip to Africa so I know that part of our website will not be updated from now until the end of April. Checking directly with Yotreps is the best way to get our position. All you need is our call sign to enter on the Yotreps site. It is KB1LDP.
by Judy Handley | Apr 26, 2006 | Passage To French Polynesia - Marquesas, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 191, Year 1: Encounters with a Squid and a Whale–Day 5
Date: Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Weather: Clear Skies Above with Cumulus Clouds on the Horizon
Water Surface Temperature: 77 degrees F
Latitude: 04 degrees 47 minutes S
Longitude: 099 degrees 57 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 5
Miles to Go: 2337 (~137 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: ~599
When you get hit in the head by a flying squid at exactly midnight, you should know that your day is going to be an interesting one. I was on watch and moved back to sit at the helm at exactly midnight last night to record the “vital signs”. At least twice a day, every night at 2400/0000 and every morning at 0900 the person on watch records wind speed, boat speed, course, weather, position, and all of the other details in the log book. I had just moved back to do this, when WHAM, a flying squid hits me in the head. Who knows what the squid was flying away from, but after observing the strange creature that was still wiggling, I threw him back in the water.
The next event happened at 0730. I was sleeping but I awoke to see Mark rushing past me to get the V-berth. I asked why he was in such a hurry and he said he had to fix the knot meter. Still a bit groggy, I asked what was wrong with it and he replied that we had just hit a whale and that the prongs on the knot meter were bent. That woke me up. “We just hit a whale?” Mark confirmed and I hopped up to help check to see what other damage was done. Hitting a whale at sea is always a threat and one of those things that you never want to happen. Once the knot meter was fixed, I asked for more detail. What other damage? Was water rushing into the bilge? What kind of whale? I had at least 40 questions and Mark patiently assured me that all was well. He saw a whale blow and then the boat lifted slightly out the water and the whale emerged on the port side. It was at least as big as our boat, maybe longer. I went to the cockpit to look for other whales, and sure enough, behind us and to starboard I saw at least two others. Mark saw more. I spotted a blow, strange, at an angle like it was being blown by the wind, and then I could see part of the whale’s back and small dorsal fin. It was moving fairly fast and came up three more times to blow and show its back and then it disappeared. We think we crossed the path of a pod of female sperm whales. The one we hit must have been close to the surface and then dipped when we hit. Unlucky to hit a whale; lucky we didn’t sustain more damage. Two other boats that are part of our net have had similar experiences. I hope this is our last whale encounter on this voyage.
Then came the news on the net this morning that there is cyclone in the French Polynesia – Tuamotu area. We had heard that there were 40 knot winds in Papeete, Tahiti, but on last night’s Pacific Seafarer’s Net, Don Anderson, the weather forecaster for the net, was reluctant to call this weather system a cyclone. By this morning, however, our Fatu Hiva Net was calling it a cyclone. Whatever, it is far from us right now, and will not move this direction. The bad news is that a cyclone in that area will probably suck all of the air out of this region. People two weeks ahead of us are already feeling the effects. Hopefully we are far enough away that the winds will return as we get closer. In a normal year, there should be no cyclones in the eastern Pacific after the first of April. I guess this is not a normal year.
I decided to spend the day baking bread and making banana bread from all of the bananas that fell on our deck yesterday. It looked like it was raining bananas! We bought a huge stalk of bananas for the trip and hung them from the boom gallows knowing we would probably not be able to keep them for long. When the winds picked up yesterday, the motion of the boat caused those that were a little ripe to fall. We collected those that fell and put a mesh bag around the remainder. So the bananas are under control for now and we have banana bread and whole wheat bread. Unfortunately, I got thrown against the hot oven when the boat lurched over a wave and have a nice size burn on my thigh. Another “interesting” event for this day.
The good news is the sailing right now is great. The seas are fairly calm and we still have about 15 knots of winds from the ESE. Except for a little rain on Monday night, we have had wonderful weather . . . so no complaints. I’ll try to make sure tomorrow is a calmer day aboard Windbird.
