Sailing Galapagos to Marquesas

Pacific Crossing March 21-Apr 12, 2002
Most of the blog is taken directly from our Log write ups during this time. Julie & I both wrote parts of this story.

We had sailed 1000 miles from the Panama Canal not really sure whether we would continue with the other 300 boats in the flotilla that were going across the Pacific. We had talked about turning back if we didn’t like the Pacific. But, by the time we got to Galapagos we realized there was no turning back, there would be too much wind and waves against us. And, if we got across the Pacific, we would be halfway around the world. So that meant we were going to go all the way around. Decision made!!!
We spent about 3 weeks in Galapagos getting provisioned up and partying with all our new friends.
We checked out all the wildlife which was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, the islands were also packed with tourists.

This trip would be the longest we had ever done, but we were ready…

Mar 23 – This is our 3rd day of our trip to the Marquesas and the seas are the calmest I have ever seen. No wind, blue water that looks like a mirror with oil on it. Not bad except this is a sailboat and we have only enough fuel to motor about 1000 mi and we have 2700 left to go… Then I guess Julie will have to paddle.

Yesterday we spotted a small fishing boat way off a couple of miles. One of those open boats with a 100 HP outboard on it. It made a Bee Line for us, so expecting the worst I loaded up the double barrel 12GA hand gun with Rubber Bullets and hid it in the cockpit. It turned out all they wanted was to trade fish for Coca Cola! We gave them cola & cold beer & passed on the fish. Our fridge is full from fishing. They left us with big smiles & Spanish good byes.

This morning, we were greeted by a school of Dolphins which at first we thought were sleeping whales on the surface of the water. This can be dangerous if you hit them because they can sink your boat…. but no they were just a bunch of friendly Dolphins.
Ok that’s it from here I have to go and dump some fuel out of the “Jerry Jugs” into the tanks. This is work out here…
Mar 25 – Well, it is day 5 and we sail on & on & on. Julie is reading a trashy novel in the cockpit. At 6:45 AM our time or 7:45 AM in Ontario I called in on the “Ham Net” out of Mississauga Ontario and reported our position and got a weather prediction. Then I posted our position on the web site for those following us to look at. After that I kicked off the weird squid that landed on the deck last night (looked a little like some people I used to work with!!).

Meanwhile back at the ranch Free Radical is sailing herself along at 5 to 6 Knots  (1knot=1.15 miles per hr.) with “Auto” steering much better than we do. We have about 11 Kts of wind and on a broad reach. Weather is pleasant at 80F with some cloud.

We added a reading light to the cockpit so the person on watch has something to do. There is just nothing out here except for a few other sail nuts that may be a couple of hundred miles from us. Some long timers out here actually let the boat drive itself at night and go to bed. We don’t think it’s a cool thing to do, since there are some commercial boats out here some place.

Mar 28 – Its day 7 on the spaceship yacht – we are motoring right now – ran out of wind last night when we practically drowned in the rain. But we filled our water tanks right full and now we can take showers!!! Oh, the little things in life…

Yesterday afternoon I was in outside, and Ed was inside sleeping. I heard a little noise and when I looked up from my book, there was a helicopter! Real close too, and only about 20 feet off the water, coming to have a look at us. He circled and I waved like a madwoman. The chopper was a nice one – a 2-seater and very quiet like a sewing machine, with floats. They flew around and then took off, probably thinking a mad person was on the boat. Later that night we sighted a huge ship all lit up, maybe military? So probably the chopper was checking us out.
Anyway, that was the highlight of yesterday, oh, and did I say it rained? Yeah, the boat is all hung up inside with clothes, towels, raincoats etc. Not much sleep last night with the sails acting up and flapping around, so Eddy is sleeping it off now, and I am plying myself with coffee and Hershey’s kisses to keep up my strength.

There are about 10 boats out here right now, all in a long wagon train to the Marquesas. We talk on the radio twice a day and compare weather, so its fun.
Mar 30 – We are flying downwind 2 head sails. Our regular plus a 100% Yankee we were given off a CSY44. It still has the hank ons, but I fly it loose footed. The main is up with a reef for now to allow enough wind to the jibs. Anyway 6 kts in 10 to 12 kts of wind sailing downwind in big swells. Getting pushed along nicely. Have not touched the sails for 3 days and are just reading, eating, sleeping and looking after the boat. 2 radio schedules, morning and night to keep track of each other – there are a dozen boats all in contact with each other on the radio net. 1500 miles done, 1500 to go. All is well, the sun is out.

Day 14 – Still here. The sun is out, and we saw a great full moon the other night. Nice for night sailing, no moon is the pits.
1130 miles to go. Still broad reaching with reefed main, jib on pole and 20 knots SE winds. Have not touched the sails for 4 days now (or is it 5?)
April 5 – Let me tell you that those sailors that look towards the end of this as a disappointment are very sick people. This is a marathon…
Needless to say we have had some fun but we will be glad when we get there.
There are now about 15 boats all strung out and it’s competition although we don’t talk about it… We have a 48 ft Tayana (Llyn & Larry) after us… about 300 mi back…
Got to lay down..

April 6 Day 15 Here we are – 780 miles to go to the Marquesas. Can’t believe we are doing this. Its blowing 15-20, broad reach, reefed main, jib on pole, doing 7 knots in front of 10 ft l-o-n-g swells. Have not touched the sails for 6 days. Nice trip, if you like the colour blue. Have not seen a ship, boat, bird, dolphin or anything. Just rolling along.

April 8 -Day 18 Exciting night last night, or should I say early this morning. 500 miles to go and the autopilot decided to break – just before dawn (bad things always happen in the pitch dark!) and we could not turn the wheel. On top of that, the wind (not blowing strong, thank God) turned the boat in a big circle and hour glassed the jib (it was on its pole) so we had a hell of a time getting it down – all flapping and noisy for 40 minutes or so!
Luckily, we have a spare linear arm on board, and fearless Eddy went into the little cubbyhole under the cockpit and replaced it. Within 2 hours we were on our way again.

Right now we have very light winds (10-12) and have ALL the sails flying trying to make some miles. Can’t fly the DRS since the spinnaker halyard is at the bottom of the mast. (Did I forget to mention we were flying our great twins and the spinnaker halyard chafed through at the masthead and the sail ended up in the water? Also at night) Seas are flat (except there is always an ocean swell but l-o-n-g so you don’t notice it) and clear blue skies. Our whole waterline must be festooned with gooseneck barnacles – we can see the little buggers at the transom – so maybe that is slowing us down a little. Doing 5 knots, average and for the whole trip 6.1

April 9 Day 19 – In the middle of nowhere. We are 380 miles from the Marquesas and have run out of wind…SE8 knots, wing on wing. We are drifting along at 4 knots. Almost flat seas too and would have been perfect for the DRS!
Looking forward to getting an ice cream cone when we hit land!
It’s really weird, not nearly as tough as the Caribbean, but you just know if the weather got nuts, it would get really nuts.

We have not seen another boat or anything for 15 days now, this actually seems normal. Julie & I take turns on deck watching for ships 24 hrs. a day, so it is like shift work. Tonight, we are going to barbecue rib steaks served with mashed potatoes & corn… Julie made some chili up the other day… just like old times, hot or what.

Things have been breaking, but I have been able to fix most of the stuff underway. Today the desk top computer had a Brain Fart and started beeping like crazy. Turned out the fan on the CPU wouldn’t turn on when it heated up. So, I shorted it out so it is on all the time.
April 12 – Landfall. Why do ‘they’ call it a fall? We have arrived at Fatu Hiva around 10AM this morning. Stunningly gorgeous spot – real lush, green and Jurassic park-like. But iffy holding on gravelly scrabble bottom with steep shelf that drops off to China – feel like we are holding on with our fingernails and hoping for no wind off these sheer cliffs around us. Tiny spot though, room for 2 or 3 boats (comfortably) only. Only one other boat here.

Glad to be here. Rained lots after we anchored so that rinsed the salt off this crystal palace and filled our tanks. Just what the doctor ordered. A little village here with a little white church. A bunch of guys in yellow fowlies in an outrigger canoe (complete with Yamaha outboard) stopped by and asked to borrow a spear gun for lobster fishing. Being suspicious Caribbean cruisers, we told them we didn’t have a spear gun.

Total trip 2970 nm, motored 66 hours.

Heading to Hiva Oa tomorrow morning (45 miles) – this is a pretty place but we don’t trust the bottom, difficult landing unless you have a tiny dinghy that you can carry well up off the concrete ramp. Need to clear in with customs and immigration, and work on our long list of things to fix and clean.

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For years we really never told the story of what really happened on our 10th night out.
It was my watch and around 1am in the morning pitch black. I was in the middle of my watch and feeling kind of happy in a quiet content way. I was reading my book and decided to stand up and take a look around for ships. We hadn’t seen anything for over a week, but you still had to take a look.

As I was looking around, I glanced down into the interior of the boat. And there stood my father with a big grin on his face. But he had died 7 years before. The feeling I got from him was that he was very happy and proud of us. At some point I realized he was gone again and after sitting there stunned for a while I realized that I was hallucinating from all those days at sea. Pretty weird. The mind is a powerful thing.

When Julie started her shift at 3am I never said a word to her because I had already decided I had had a mental lapse.

Usually after the night shift we would sit up in the cockpit and have a coffee and talk about our day coming up. Quiet and soft. Who ever was tired would nap whenever they wanted through the day.
As we were sitting there Julie said “Something happened last night” “I was looking down in the galley and your father was there. He looked me straight in the eye winked and gave me a thumbs up”
She had seen him too, totally independent of my shift. Julie and I don’t bullshit each other so we both knew something special had happened.

Maby it had something to do with being 1500 miles away from land in any direction. But it had happened. We still talk about it to this day and we both know there is something going on after we die.

And it also occurred to me 20 years later that the other important thing from the visit was that dad had been HAPPY. So wherever were going can’t be all that bad….