Chasing the tradewinds

Tradewind Sailing at its best!

It’s day 9 and we are almost half way to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands.  Nine days into our voyage, maybe 9 days to go and we are settling into our routine.  

The transformation to offshore sailing does take some time.  Among many of the adjustments, the two biggest are constant movement and disrupted sleep.

Our galley at an agle. The stove top and cup are actually straight, everything else is leaning!

It is hard to describe how much the boat is moving even in the best of conditions.  There is no real pattern to the movement.  We will roll to starboard, half role port followed by full roll starboard then the bow drops off the wave.  This movement has been constant and has continued over the last 216 hours.  Sometimes more, sometimes less.  We have the bruises to prove it.

Jeanne taking a nap while off-watch with the lee cloth up on the salon setee

This movement means that you cannot put anything down.  An item on the counter or table will only occupy that space for a moment before jumping to a new location.  This makes cooking a bit of a sport and something I enjoy the challenge of.  I put the pepper down only for it to slide away long enough for me to add some salt and then the pepper returns, if I played it right.  Knives and hot pans need special attention even more than the errant bowl of diced onions now scattered along the galley floor.

One of my projects this week has been to recharge the freezer.

We maintain a 24-hour watch.  With only the two of us, we need to divide our time.  We have come up with a watch schedule that has worked well.  Dinner with the two of us at 6pm.  I am on watch from 7pm until midnight (5 hours), Jeanne is on watch from Midnight to 4am (4 hours) I then go back on watch from 4am until 7am (3 hours).  During the day we have a flexible schedule alternating between naps, projects and watch.

Stella the Boobie stayed with us for several days. She fished off the boat and would come back to her perch to take a rest (and make a mess of the deck below)

After the end of the watch, we discuss sail configuration, weather, traffic and navigation.  Then take a quick shower to rinse off the salt and go to bed.

We are aware of the effects this sleep schedule has on us, especially in the first couple of days, and must exercise a very determined demeanor of patience and positive affirmation.  In an exhausted sleep deprived state, the simple mistake of not fully wiping down the galley counter can turn into a full-on crisis.  Our goal is to avoid simple mistakes.

Controls for night watch -- with a movie for entertainment

The first half of this trip has not been a typical trade wind passage to French Polynesia.  Stories of setting the sails and not touching anything for weeks cursing downwind have not materialized for us yet.  The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) or Doldrums are sitting between the Galapagos Islands and the Marqueses and are exceptionally wide right now.  

Stormy looking weather when we were expecting sun!

The ITCZ is the buffer between the weather systems and patterns of the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere and is typically unsettled with wind shifts, squalls and calm.  This has kept us busy with multiple sail changes and adjustments a day.   

Jeanne on a squally day

All in all, it has been a very pleasant passage so far.  My favorite time is my watch from 7pm to midnight.  Experiencing the endless expanse of the ocean turn dark as the sun sets and the stars reveal themselves gives me a sense of amazement in the vastness of it all.  Listening to the boat slide through the waves and the wind in the sails is like no other feeling.  How isolated and simple our lives become isolated on a 52 foot boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The doldrums and a few days of motoring.

Onward…