Pacific Crossing Part 2

Day 6:

Today at noon marks the beginning of our sixth day at sea. We have approximately 3000 miles before we make landfall in Nuku Hiva. When thinking about writing these blog posts, I tried to think about what might be interesting to read about. After all, we are just sitting on the boat day after day ticking off the miles. I could tell you about wind speed, sea conditions, sail configurations and the like. But, if I were reading that, frankly I would think it was a bit boring!

So, I’ll sum up our current state briefly and try to get to the more interesting parts of our journey. We’re currently sailing along at about 6.5 kts with the wind just forward if our beam. Right now we are sailing with a double reef in the main, full staysail and part of the jib. There is a bit of swell rolling us but manageable. We’ve seen pretty steady winds of 12-17 kts, so we haven’t turned the engine on at all, which is great. We’re still headed a bit south with the hopes of the winds clocking around more to the east, so we can turn west and run with the wind from behind all the way to the Marquesas.

We left Puerto Lucia in tandem with our friend Dan on Kini Popo. He has a very different boat than ours. We have an older, heavier boat made for offshore sailing. It can handle some pretty rough conditions relatively comfortably. Most of the newer boats (unless you have unlimited funds) aren’t designed for it. That is why you see so many 70’s and 80’s boats out there cruising. Dan’s boat is a newer production boat usually used more for coastal sailing and racing, not that some people don’t make offshore passages with them. It sails very differently than our boat. As it is much lighter, it is also much faster. We knew we would eventually end up out of VHF range with Dan, which happened after the third day. We’re still checking in with him twice a day via sat phone and all is well.

Dan did have a little excitement the third morning when he radioed us to tell us he had snagged a fishing line. We hadn’t seen any fishing or boat traffic all night, so it was likely some ghost fishing gear that had gotten away from a commercial fishing boat. Luckily, the conditions were quite calm that morning. As Mike & I stood by on the radio, Dan had to tie a line around himself and jump overboard with a knife to free the fishing gear from his sail drive. A scary proposition knowing there is no one else on the boat! But, in a manner of minutes Dan radioed us back to let us know that the line was free and he had a refreshing dip in the water. Whew!

Earlier that same day, Mike had decided to put his own fishing line in the water to see if we could catch something. He has been talking about catching a yellowfin tuna for almost two years now, as that was the last time we caught one coming down the Baja on our way to Cabo. Well, that afternoon Mike was rewarded for his patience when we picked up the perfect size yellowfin tuna for the two of us for dinner. I made some delicious tuna poke with fresh avocado.

We’ve hardly seen any boat traffic since our first night leaving Ecuador. It certainly makes the night watches easy when a quick scan of the horizon every twenty minutes or so confirms that there is nothing but ocean around us. Surprisingly, even 400+ miles from land, we are still seeing seabirds. I had a trio of three large, white birds fly parallel to the boat for several hours one night. There was no moon and not enough light to identify them but it was quite interesting. And, last night Mike had a brown seabird of some sort with orange rings around its eyes and orange webbed feet land on our surfboards to take a bit of a rest.

Other than the birds and the occasional flying fish that lands on deck, we hadn’t had any visitors. That’s why what happened yesterday was so surprising. I was on watch in the morning with my headphones on when I heard what sounded like an engine. I ripped off the headphones and spun around half expecting to see some boat that had somehow snuck up on me, and was shocked to see a helicopter coming right up behind the boat. He came along our starboard side, waved at me, circled around the bow and stopped pretty low next to our port side. He waved at me again, which I returned, and then quickly took off heading south. Again, we are over 400 miles from the nearest land. I have no idea where he came from or what the range is on those things. I was even more surprised when it happened again this morning. The same helicopter came up to us again, circling around, waving and taking off. It did not look like military or coast guard, and today I noticed the Panamanian flag painted on the side. We are a long way from Panama! It’s possible the helicopter is on a ship, but who knows. We’ll see if they show up again tomorrow.

Well, those are all my sea tales for now. I’ll check in again in a few days with more from our Pacific crossing.

-Katie