We are now in the developed trades, after making a lot of southing last night to get to 3 degrees south. Averaging 6-7 knots of speed with only 500 miles to go to Nuku Hiva!!! Looks like we will make landfall on the 15th.. or the 16th if we get there too late in the…
We are finally in the south east trades, at about 8 knots! It was amazing the way it filled in last night on my watch just as I contemplating using our dwindling supply of diesel (down to about 17 gallons now) to head south because both the latest NWS forecast and pacific surface analysis weatherfax…
All three of us pollywogs swam across the equator tethered to the boat with spinnaker sheets! At 11am (17:00 zulu) we jumped into the pacific ocean at position 00*00N 131*01W. The water was amazing, blue blue blue.. Couldn’t see the bottom, probably because it was 5 miles deep! After the crossing all three lousy stinky…
We are only 70 miles from the equator, still in the Doldrums sailing and motoring in fickle winds. We have been using the rain squalls to get more wind to sail! Last night and today the sky cleared up and we thought we were done with the convergence zone convection.. Alas, the last couple of…
Marquesas, French Polynesia: 958 nautical miles La Cruz, Mexico: 1759 nautical miles We are 2/3rds of the way! Cyrille asks nearly everyday “Are we there yet?”. Now I can finally say “nearly!” Still in the Doldrums, dealing with fickle winds and rain squalls. We were heading due south to cut through the Doldrums as quick…
Still in the Doldrums, sailing in light winds and motoring when it completely dies. Latest NWS forecasts put the Doldrums up at 5N and we are currently at 03*37N, so we may be out of it.. but the thing can move 120 miles in 12 hours, so you never know.. Had 3 showers today.. can’t…
We are now in the middle of where the Doldrums live, but so far we have been sailing in a light breeze (7-8 knots) which is pushing us along on a close reach at around 5 knots. Beautiful blue skies with a few tradewind cumulus here and there. This trip has so far delivered some…
Today we passed 128W longitude and are now heading south to cross the convergence zone (Doldrums).. Dun DUNN DUNNNN! Everything looks good to cross: 1) The GRIB weather files are showing 8-10 knots of breeze all the way to the equator, which would be amazing except the computer models that produce the GRIB files don’t…
From where we are at 08N126W: La Cruz Mexico is : 1435 nautical miles Nuku Hiva, Marquesas is: 1311 nautical miles We crossed the half way mark (as the crow flies), with around 1300 miles to go to the Marquesas. Unfortunately we are not getting there too quick, we are stuck in 6-8 knots of…
We are fast approaching the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) otherwise known as the famous Doldrums. Crossing this area of no wind and squalls to get to the equator and then the south east trades is actually the trickiest part of the passage I think. I want to minimize our time in dead calms waiting for…