Passage to Marquesas: Day 9 and 11

10. Apr. 2015
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Author: Pete

Location: 07°48.444S 113°22.160W

Date: 11:00 April 7 to 11:00 April 10

Day 9 – 11 at sea.

This marks the longest we’ve ever been at sea so far and the half-way point of our passage! Our Panama to Galapagos passage was our longest to date at 9 days land to land. Pretty exciting. We’re some 1500 miles of the 3000 miles along. Had some rum and peaches to celebrate! I guess we’re the farthest from land that we’ll (hopefully) ever be on a boat. Celebrated with a little tasty (albeit weak) adult beverage.

GOPR1995

The boat makes a wobbly fishtail motion when the bigger rollers come through from port aft (back left). The stern lifts to port, our bow swings slightly to starboard, we surf a touch with the wave as it passes under us, the autohelm kicks our rudders 5 degrees to port and our bow pulls back left and pitches up as the wave exits out from under our nose. When the waves are oncoming just right it’s graceful, like an airplane gently banking back and forth. When it’s not right there’s a lot of slapping and bucking. Story of my life.

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No connection possible in the last couple of days. I think there has been heavy weather between Tayrona and the mainland. Having difficulty connecting.

Passage to Marquesas: Day 8

09. Apr. 2015
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Passages
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Author: Pete

Location: 07°03.742S 106°38.596W

Date: 11:00 April 6 to 11:00 April 7

Day 8 at sea.

One third done! 1000 miles in the bag! That’s the distance from Michigan to Miami, 48 hours driving straight. The passage from Galapagos to Marquesas is approximately 3000 miles, so 2000 to go, or about the distance from New York to San Francisco.

We still have plenty of food, water, books, and snacks, so don’t worry about us. On sunny, windy day we churn out about 12 gallons of fresh water, so we haven’t even broken into our 300 liter onboard tanks yet.

I’m always impressed with how devoid of scent the high seas are. I always expected it to smell like the salty, sea sprayed lighthouse piers of New England or the low tide plains of a delta in the Gulf. Nope. Neutral. So then everything else in the boat smells that much stronger. The home made bread toasting on the stove, coffee in the press, oiled tools under the bunks, musk of damp towels drying, sort-of recently washed hair, fishing lures in the tackle box.

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Tayrona cruises along happily without much interference from us. Haven’t touched the sails aside from putting in a reef at night and shaking it out in the morning. Reminds me of that infomercial, ‘Set it! And! Forget it!’ We don’t forget it though. No lights on the horizon for a few nights, but Wavelength reported a cargo ship passing 6 miles from them last night, so we can’t get complacent about our night watches. Or day watches, for that matter.

Reefing is a pretty easy task with the in-mast roller furling. No need to go on deck, one person can handle putting in or taking out a reef. This also allows for more delicate sail trim, unlike slab reefing which requires you to decrease the sail are by 1/3, then 1/2, or the like.

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Cloudy skies tonight and a fresh breeze. But we have wind in the sails and charge into the batteries. Makes for a happy captain.

GOPR1975

Between the wind and towing generators, we charge at about 12 amps during the day, and 2 amps at night. Haven’t seen significant discharge, even with the water maker going. Haven’t run the diesels or gas generator yet, and don’t expect to. Nice to have the surplus, free power.

Popcorn and board games- one of our favorite ways to end a day at sea.

Passage to Marquesas: Day 7

06. Apr. 2015
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Author: Pete

Location: 06°41.359S’ 103°59.124W’

Date: 11:00 April 5 to 11:00 April 6

Day 7 at sea.

It’s Easter Sunday and one full week on the water! We had home made granola for breakfast and followed it up with an Easter basket: five pounds of Jelly Bellies smuggled aboard by a castaway! Thanks Mom! We’ve been trying to ration them, as dialysis clinics are few and far between ’round these parts. We’ve only eaten about a half pound so far. It’s a good boat snack because they all have different flavors and you can’t mow handfuls at a time like popcorn, puppy chow, peanuts, M&M’s, pretzels, Chex Mix… am I giving the impression that we go through a lot of snacks aboard?

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Weather continues to be good for sailing, if not for comfort. 13-16 knot winds, making 6.5 knots on a beam reach. Had another PR day with 157 miles covered. The waves on the beam still make for a rowdy ride, but we’re getting used to it.

It’s funny because topside on watch at night is gorgeous. There’s always some light noise of the wind generator whirring, the sheets creaking, and the water rushing by, splashing. But down below it sounds like the boat is coming apart. The wavelets slap on the underside of the bridge deck, and bounce off of the hulls, reflecting off one, smacking into the other. It’s like being in a bass drum sometimes. The bulkhead joints groan. You get used to it, but you can even feel the impacts through the fiberglass. Once you pop up topside, it’s whisper quiet though, and out on deck the boat shrugs off all but the biggest waves that come in broadside to us. When it sounds and feels scary down below, go up top!

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The other boats in the Tangaroa Trans-Pacific Fleet (cool name, eh? The Scots came up with it!) are doing well. There are two or three 60 footers that can really cut through the chop. They’re averaging 7 or 8 knots. In calm seas with wind we’d be able to give them a run for their money, but not out in the big waves. So we’re hanging in there with the normal boats. Nice to hear everyone on radio every day, see where they are and hear some yarns about fish caught.

No fish today for us. Trolled the waters with a very unhappy flying fish who ended up on our deck. No bites though. We made up for it with pizzas for lunch, and Greek chicken, potatoes, and our last surviving broccoli for dinner.

Other than my poor fishing skills, all is well on Tayrona.