Day 11 – Pacific Crossing

Day 11 (0100) 13 May 2022

1300 nautical miles sailed
2500 nm to go
Current position: 4°S, 95.5°W
Speed: 6kt (Our max speed is 10.9 kr)
Sail plan: double reefed main and jib
Wind: 12 kt from the SW
Temp: 75°F
Waves: 3 ft swell from the SE with a period of about 6 seconds. (Too short for our liking.) Clouds: none
Stars: awesome

It’s my midnight watch as I start to write this. A waxing gibbous moon has gracefully lit up the horizon which is a very welcome change from many previous nights of not being able to see anything past the running lights on the bow. During those nights it feel like instrument flying – trust the instruments. And turn on the radar every now and then.

But really, there’s not much out here. We’ve seen a few ships on the distance but otherwise all we can see is water, air and sea birds. Then when the sun goes down, the veil to the rest of the universe is lifted and if there aren’t a lot of clouds, we can see into the surrounding heavens.

As it’s all of our first time near this spot, it feels like we’re exploring a new planet. We’re on some planet, exploring, and traveling across, the boundary between two fluids – the water and the air. How wild to contemplate sailing across an ocean back when one didn’t know what one was going to find on the other side.

We have the luxury of multiple GPS but I still brought my sextant and have been taking navigational sights. For a 4000 nm crossing it feels good to have a non-electronic means of navigating across the open ocean. It’s nice to see stars I haven’t seen in a while; it’s like seeing old friends.

When not doing celestial, one activity has been writing a star program on my phone. When I type in a star of interest, it now spits out whether it’s above or below the horizon, the direction to it and also tells me where on Earth you’d have to be to have the star directly overhead, and how many miles away that is. So a star that’s going to pass nearly overhead, I can watch, before it gets dark, it pass over South America and then on to the Pacific where it’ll cross paths with us. Other stars to the north hover over North America. As time goes on, I hope to update the code so, geographically, it’s more and more specific. Then I could look at a star and know that directly under that star is, say, Boston.

After a thousand miles of trailing fishing lures behind us, we finally caught two Mahi Mahi (also known as Dorados). Talking about our lack of fish was becoming a daily past time. We’d seen lots of flying fish over the thousand miles but had had barely a nibble on the lures. But then, I yelled “fish jump!” while at the helm for my 8-10am watch, after seeing two light blue arcs across the water. As we caught up to the jump spot we all turned around to watch the lures. Then…zingggggggggg goes the rod as it spoils out line to the fish now on the lure (as we hoot and holler)! Cleaned on the back deck it had enough meat to later feed the whole crew of 7 tonight as the main ingredient of fish tacos. We gave many thanks to the fish and to the sea after the catch and before eating the fish. Mahi #2 is now in the freezer.

So far, I think Daphne and I could handle these conditions. We still have a long way to go but it’s always fun to imagine being out here with Daphne. Being only 27 feet long and a monohull, we’d definitely be slower than Noonsun’s 50 foot catamaran speed, but I think we’d do okay. We weren’t able to go to the Galapogoes because of permitting issues so Daphne and I may just have to come back.

The night routine has been to try to manage the lighter winds vs the swell which can sometimes overpower the wind and lead to banging of the rigging. Daphne and I will have to do some test runs – perhaps to Nova Scotia and/or Newfoundland soon!

My sailing routine starts ten minutes before midnight. My alarm (currently the Overture to The Who’s Tommy) wakes me up and I grab my headlamp, a long sleeve shirt, my water bottle and phone. I then head up on deck to greet Amie, finishing her 10pm to midnight watch. We discuss the sail plan, wind speed and direction, boat speed and other pertinent info, then she retires to her cabin and I climb up to the helm to assume the watch.

After getting a feel for what’s happening, I type in all the navigation and weather info into a spreadsheet on my phone. This serves as a log and reference for later when I wonder what were the winds actually like on this passage years down the road.

From then on, it’s the balance of trying to keep the sails full, trying to beat head in the direction of the Marquesas and minimize the banging of the rig – this often means trying to keep the swell from our stern quarter instead of directly on the beam, or side. Watch also entails keeping a lookout for ships, debris in the water and also involves keeping an eye on the rigging and weather. (We may now have finally made it to the southeast trade winds as we’ve had relatively steady winds from the SE.)

At 2am, Calder emerges from the dark into the red glow of the cockpit lights. I pass on the relative info and we trade positions – he climbs up to the he, after I step down and head to my bed for the second half of my daily sleep. I awake somewhere in the sixes once the sun and kids have risen. At 8am I have my two hour morning watch. At some point I make a quick breakfast of cold oats and half a frozen banana (while they last). Once off watch, there’s usually a variety of activities from Legos to board games, celestial sights to programming and sometimes the need to just watch the ocean.

After lunchtime, I often try to take a nap. At 3pm, I try to do some elastic band exercises in the cockpit or on deck and then give myself a hose shower on the back deck before my third watch of the day from 4-6pm. Somewhere we have a family dinner, tonight eating fish tacos up on the helm seat with the rest of the crew around the cockpit table.

After dinner, I do some cleaning, or other activity (tonight we watched the second Lego movie) and I try to go to sleep before 8pm for part one of my nightly sleep.

So that’s a bit more about the daily routine out here! We’re all doing well. All the best from the Noonsun crew and thanks to those who sent messages!!

Happy Anniversary to my parents, Tommy & Sheila!