We are now mariners….some of us may almost qualify as ancient mariners….wet behind the ears, filled with a sense of bravado, salty, casual….
Time flew and crawled by, the sea shifted colors from indigo to deepest purple black and back to turquoise with lace. We ate, slept and watched wind and clouds. We swam mid-ocean, leaping over the side into the mountainous Pacific swell. We had moments of trepidation in the beginning watching squall lines approach but grew to welcome the lift they gave our solid (slow) boat as she briefly flew over the waves.
We had many days when the airs were light and our sails were stalled but we also had days of steady light winds when we were able to practice sail trim and cloud reading.
From an email I sent at sea, May 8th (5 days in to our passage)
No wind! We are at N21 33.999’ and W 113 48.118’. We have our route plotted in the chart plotter. It is fairly straightforward. One big green waypoint labeled Hilo. A line from our general position to Hilo with no other waypoints cluttering the chart up. We are slowly eating up degrees of longitude – 3 so far! That is exciting. We have sailed off the edge of one paper chart which we keep out for a safety margin and for interest.
We motored with no wind from LaPaz to the South end of the Baja peninsula- stopping briefly in San Jose del Cabo to refuel. We rounded the cape at sunset – I can confidently say we saw the biggest seas we have yet been in- Winds were not too bad at 29-32 but the cockpit was taking significant spray with waves breaking over the bow and the side decks awash. I got a full wave over me while at the wheel. We had to head south to get the seas off our bow. It was intimidating, exhilarating and we all rose beautifully to the occasion. This is the cape effect that makes things hairy everywhere you have seas and weather meeting where a large land mass narrows to a point( Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope etc).
And now no wind. After a bumpy first night at sea the wind dropped. We motored until we felt like we could not spare another drop of fuel. Even when motoring we questioned whether or not to motor sail or go due west as fast as possible.
We chose motor sailing NWish ( sails up and filled so using low engine rpm’s to save fuel and enhance the sails’ power). Now we are beating upwind verrrry slowly in 5k of wind on the nose. We are looking forward to wind filling in to the NE in a few days
We are learning a lot, not moving a lot. We are devouring our books on sail trim and obsessively monitoring our VMG ( velocity made good- progression to our final destination vs SOG, speed through the water- they are two very different things when sailing NOT in a straight line)
We have had some nice diversions- a trio of blue footed boobies on the bow- mama booby and two baby boobies. They all arrived separately and squabble over who gets to have their feet on the part of the railing that is wrapped with tape. They have been here for 3 days and I have tried to offer them cereal and water. They aren’t interested. Paul is mock furious about the poop. At one point the booby lowest in the pecking order sat on the mast spreaders for a while. The poop dribbled down the mainsail and sprayed all over the solar panels and our dodger windows.
When we finally stopped motoring we floated for a whole afternoon. We dropped knotted lines in the water to hold onto and a boogie board and went swimming. The Pacific swell looks mountainous and it was intimidating to jump in 100’s miles from land but the water is super warm and the most astonishing deep but bright blue you can’t imagine. It is also clear as glass so when you jump in you can see the person’s entire body almost without distortion. Rosie swam to the bow to photograph our boobies from beneath until they dive bombed her with poop missiles- after which we understood where the brown clouds we had seen floating in the water were coming from. Rosie also had a smooth largish thing brush up against her so that was the end of swimming. We also saw one piece of white plastic floating past which was super depressing.
I don’t even want to know what the math looks like on how long it will take. We should have decent wind in the next day or two
Last night we bobbed around and listened to a radio play while we ate dinner. This morning we watched the sun rise while the moon fell. It is a lovely place to be. Also saw what I think must be a small group of sharks.
Must dash- time to organize my recipe book. So little to do, so much time (sigh) and I need to knead the bread. Oh yes, and So much to eat, so little time
oh yes, and there goes the alarm at the helm ( Boat speed under 2 knots). Have to go turn it off.
Love
Jo n Slumbering Crew
Sailing Tomten 