We’ve completed 3 weeks of our crossing from the Galapagos to the Marquesas!!!
*again, posting from sat phone equals no photos. I will try to add some when/if we find wifi on the islands that supports uploading images.
May 8 – May 9th, 2018:
Day 21+++: Wow what an exciting day! With just over 100 miles left, all aboard are anxious to get to land. It’s so close, but so far! We watch are speed, at 6 kts we’ll get there by dark morning tomorrow (May 9th), if we maintain 7 kt average we’ll arrive before midnight. Dark is not ideal, but the anchorage is pretty straight forward and open.
As we think about our arrival, we long for a full night’s sleep on “flat seas” . Any anchorage (well almost) is less rolly than out here crossing the Pacific for 3 weeks.
The passage has been A LOT quicker and “easier” than we all expected. Yes, we all agree on this. I think most of that has to do with us already having done the 19 day passage, 1/2 the distance and upwind, from Mexico to Costa Rica. The days went by quickly, routine with watches, sleep, school, meals all fell right into place. I know that not everyone keeps a “schedule” on their crossings, but for us, it seems to work well. It gives the kids something stable everyday in a situation that is “unstable”. We can now say, after a few longer crossings under our belt, day 2 is the hardest, after that routine sets in.
The kids did 6 days a week of school. Sundays we took off and called it “Sunday Fun Day”. I cooked all meals except Christian’s and Taj’s first breakfast. Yes, first breakfast… they both eat oatmeal every morning and then when the girls eat (9-9:30) they eat another breakfast of usually eggs, pancakes, or cereal and yogurt. Lunch is pretty much always at 12:30. Snack sometime between lunch and dinner. Usually frozen fruit juice, apple and peanut butter, or pop-corn. Dinner is between 5:30 and 6pm. I try to switch cuisine ethnicities every night (Asian, then Mexican, Italian etc.) This gives me something to focus on everyday. Oh and I made bread almost every other day. That helped with lunches when left overs weren’t enough for us all.
We provisioned in Panama City and the did a fresh produce and restock what we used in Santa Cruz, Galapagos. Thankfully, Santa Cruz had an amazing farmers market with tons of produce that lasted really well. Today, for fresh produce, we still have a dozen green apples, a bell pepper, eggplant, carrots, cucumber, one tomato, purple onion, a purple and a huge green cabbage, potatoes (sweet and regular), winter squash and butternut squash. We have a few more frozen veggies and Fruit that we’ll save for another time. After yesterday’s fish catch, we now have extra fish in the freezer along with frozen beef from local organic cows in the Galapagos!
Other daily activities included trolling with two hand lines, drawing, writing, knitting, origami, card games, story telling, listening to kids music, some audio books, and lots of reading (Both Christian and I read 6 books, Nina read 6 + some re-reads, Ellamae has also read 6, plus all of the books we read to Taj)! Taj like to take videos of himself and play them back over and over, that’s pretty entertaining. He also, finally, got really into legos. So between books, legos, magnet toys, and some other random toys and games, Taj had a more tame passage than the previous ones. He still had some good moments of torturing the girls and a few screaming fits. But really, what can you expect when you take a active boy and keep him stuck on a boat for 22 days?
Our watches were regular as well. Nina took 8p-11p, I slept from 7:30 p-11p and took watch from 11p – 3am, then slept again from 3a – 7 ish. Christian slept in the cockpit the entire passage to be help for Nina or myself durning his sleeping times. He slept 8p-3a and then napped at 1p-2p. For time changes, we had 3, we changed during the day as to not disrupt our watch schedule. Every 1,000 miles we fell back an hour except for the last one (the 3,000), which required a 1.5 hour fall back. For some reason, the Marquesas are on a 1/2 time difference. Example: when we left its was 10:30 am Galapagos time (16:30 UTC). Now at 16:30 UTC the time in the Marquesas would be 07:00.
At 22:00 we reached the south east end of Hiva Oa. We still had 20 miles to go (~5 hours by the time our anchor is down), but the excitement in the air was strong. The waning crescent moon had not risen yet, but a slight shadow of landmass was discernible on the horizon. “Land Ho” I wanted to shout out, but the rest of the boat was sleeping expect for Christian. We sat silently, taking in our last night of the passage across the Pacific Ocean. We were both awake and Nina got off early, as we new we’d be anchored and back to bed soon enough.
At 0120, on May 9th, we started our engine to head into the anchorage. The smell coming from the island was so sweet. The aroma of citrus, damp earth and flowers filled the air.
At 09/05/2018 12:00 (UTC) our position was 09°48.24’S -139°01.92’W
Day 21 + 19.5 hours , our Pacific Ocean crossing from The Galapagos Islands to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia completed with anchor down at 02:30 our time. 3 weeks! Another great day sailing. Wind speeds up, 18 kts – 24 and Boat speeds up to 7 kt average, allowing us to make it in less than 22 full days.
Total miles: 3140 miles
Miles over last 19.5 hrs: 125 miles
Miles to go to Hiva Oa: 0 nm
Arrival to Hiva Oa: May 9th @ 02:30 (21 days and 19.5 hours).
Total engine hours: 7 . (3 the first day, 2 the second, 1 the day before arriving to check the engine, not for propelling, and 1 hour coming into port to anchor.)
Generator: we ran the generator, Honda 2,000, twice to recharge the batteries and make water. With afternoon clouds and wind from behind, we didn’t quite bring in enough solar and wind generator power.
-Shawnigan
(Christian, Josie, Nina, Ellamae and Taj)
cinco de mayo dinner of Tamales, rice and beans and Mexican Slaw.
A Family Afloat 