The crew is healthy and happy. We had no system failures, and overall it was a great passage. We really appreciate everyone’s support. Seeing land after 21 days at sea is as wonderful as you would expect. Nuka Hiva is beautiful sight. We have lots to do, so look for more of a recap later. Land ho!
The numbers: We traveled 2835 miles on about 1000 gallons in 500 hours. That means 5.67 knots, 2.83 miles per gallon, and 2.00 gallons per hour.
It is time for some current talk, as in flow of water kind of current. On Tuesday evening our speed magically picked up by about 1.2 knots, which means we have finally escaped the clutches of the evil equatorial countercurrent (translation: where the current goes opposite way of our travel direction near the equator). Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! After 4 whole days of painfully slow speed (low of 4.4 knots), we are singing and dancing in the aisles to celebrate the restoration of our speed. While still keeping Continue reading
We crossed the equator! Yipee! The exciting event occurred at 5:52 am this morning, local time (one hour later than PST). It was still dark outside. It was a rare, clear night with the stars brilliantly shining. The stars are amazing out here. Our wake was sparkling and glowing with specks of bio-luminescence, which is stunning. It was a spectacular setting for our huge milestone. We gathered in the pilot house, watching the countdown on the GPS, then celebrated by Continue reading
The trip meter went over 1000. We are officially arrived to the vicinity of the middle of nowhere! Pretty soon we will be half way, which is still the middle of nowhere.
Yesterday, we deployed the paravane fish. We wanted to see how much it helped with the roll. It helped some, slowed us down, as expected. We decided that the fish didn’t stop enough of the roll to justify the loss of speed, so we put the fish back in their holders after a day. It was a bit tricky to bring them in out of the open ocean, but we did it.
We are still experiencing good size waves from the front at regular intervals, while simultaneously getting Continue reading
We are almost one third of the way.
The routine has pretty well set in. Doing watch, eating, sleeping, doing engine room checks, checking communications, etc. The obvious fact that we are about hundreds of miles from the nearest land (Mexico’s Guadalupe Island) occasionally comes to mind. The seas have picked up, and there is no doubt we are on the open ocean. We get a combination of a swell and wind wave about every minute or so gives us some strong roll, even with the stabilizers. We estimate these waves to be about 8 feet or so. Anything requiring moving around takes extra concentration and careful timing between rolls. Continue reading