This was our big moment of truth. Rose & Oskar had flown home to Portland, and we were now looking towards our first big passage together! I had thought about this moment many times, and had contingency plans I hoped wouldn't be necessary. Why? Well, Jody has on-going issues with mal de mer (aka seasickness), and has suffered to the point of total debilitation many times previously. Very serious condition that experience sailors never joke about. She was sick the entire trip from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, even while medicated. So I had a reasons to be concerned. And since seasickness is caused by the boat's motion, the captain has almost no ability to control it. Not only does the sick person feel terrible and become incapacitated, but an equally serious problem for me is that I become a singlehanded sailor!
The facts about seasickness; research says about 90% of people will experience seasickness or motion sickness at some point in their lives. The good news is that 75% of people eventually get acclimated to the sea and are naturally cured of the affliction. Even worse, women are more sensitive to motion than men, by a ratio of about 5:3! I've been seasick twice over the last ~7,000 miles during the acclimation phase. Unfortunately, Jody is one of the 15% that will not acclimate - ever. When going to sea, it's worthwhile to take steps early to prevent seasickness. Because once seasickness occurs, it's too late to do much more than cope with it as best you can. When I'm being smart, I follow the well-defined path to avoid the symptoms'. Simple things like avoiding alcohol, caffeine, spicy & greasy foods etc., work! However, I've sailed with people that just take the drugs and eat & drink whatever they want, so it depends on the person.
Jody does all the right preparation and has recently discovered her wonder drug. After trying the popular prescriptions (e.g., Scopolamine patches, Dramamine and Bonine, Meclizine), her relief now comes from 25mg of Sturgeron (generic name Cinnarizine). Ginger, coca cola, and saltine crackers still have their place aboard as well. Okay, enough said. You get this how important this is.


On our departure day (July 26th.) Jody did laundry all morning (nothing is easy here), while Gerry walked the 6 km to the propane distributor to get cooking fuel, then we added diesel to Huzzah's main tanks and were ready. At 4:30 pm we raised anchor, cleared the harbor, and set the autopilot for Huahine 105 nm to the NW. With clear skies, and a beautiful sunset we sailed (motored actually) a course of 298 degrees into the night. Unfortunately, the seas' were sloppy, and the winds were light and against us. Sometime after midnight, I asked Jody for relief at the helm and even got an hour or two of sleep on the cockpit bench seat - until a pink object appeared on Jody's radar. Rain, as it turns out, but Jody is learning all the tricks of night navigation. She is such a trooper! She never got seriously nauseous, and did wonderfully throughout the night. By 9:30 am the following morning (17 hours later) we had our anchor down off the village of Fare, Huahine. Whoop, whoop as Jody says. Okay, now it's nap time!