05/02/2011, Out on the ocean
The winds have shifted enough that we can now make a more beeline course for the islands. We're now doing a course of 245T from 04 39.336S 133 25.488W with the wind over our port stern quarter. Still flying just the main sail and the forestaysail and they are doing just fine. We heard on the net(all us Puddle Jumpers that are left out here) yesterday evening that one boat lost the use of his mainsail when the headboard at the top of his sail ripped off the sail. Now he is faced with the same problem we have --going aloft and trying to get it back. They are unfortunately past any place where they might have a semi calm bit of water so they will have a slow time getting to the islands. If we had still had the use of our Genoa, we probably would have been there by today. It has really slowed us down not having that sail available.
Last night was full of squalls. When I came off watch at 2300, the skies had turned from starry to cloudy and by the time I came back on watch at 0300, Tracy had had at least 5 squalls pass in that time frame. During my time on deck, I had another 3-4. At least the decks are nice and clean.
We have about 460 miles to go and at our present rate, we hope to be at the islands by Friday afternoon. We did 116 miles over the last 24 hours and that seems to be about our average with this sail configuration. We've done 2711 so far so it's almost over. This has truly been one of the hardest things that we have ever done. It just continues 24 hours a day--day after day after day. If you are lucky, you might get 4 to 5 hours of any kind of sleep but even that is not quality sleep as you have to be ready to get up at a moments notice if there is any kind of problem on the boat. Once we get in and drop anchor, I know we will try and get some sleep, but I expect that to not come easily as we have to decompress from what we have been through for the last 28 days. We have some friends(Angus & Rolande) that got in a while ago and it took them a good week to get back to feeling regular. They are now cruising around the island of Nuku Hiva to see other harbors. We expect to see them when we get in this weekend.
So only four more night watches and then we can relax. This was truly a tough journey. If you have any questions about anything in specific, leave us a comment on the blog and I'll get back with you. Oh, by the way, internet in the Marquesas runs $5.00 per hour!!!
Tracy's two cents:
Wahoo, only 4 more night watches! Yeah....you would think we don't like night watches or something. They have there ups and downs. I love them when the seas are not restless and the skies are full of stars. I enjoy looking at all the constellations, the Southern Cross is awesome. I hate squall lines and washing machine seas. I don't particularly enjoy having to hold onto everything as you walk downstairs.
I think this passage has been much harder on Bill than it has on me, I can see him wear down day by day. Hopefully, several full night sleeps will get back into the groove.
I'm looking forward to: Fresh fruit, new cultures, actually being somewhere I've always dreamed about and stunningly clear water that is warm with more kinds of colorful fish than I can count.
I think once we are there for a while all the bad on this trip will go back into the recesses of our minds and only the good parts will remain. It has taken us longer, but it is hard on only two people to do. If I had it to do again, I think I would seriously think about getting two crew to help, that way you can have time to sleep and maybe function on a better level. We knew Zephyr wasn't a fast boat, but I think considering what we've been dealt, she doing just fine, creaking insides and all. Life could be much, much worse. I just didn't want to be eighty and be sitting there wishing I'd done this...at least now I can say we did it with no regret. Isn't that what life is about?
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05/01/2011, Out on the ocean
A storm came through last night with a vengence. We had winds to 44 knots and boy it hit fast. We were lucky enough to have put a reef in the mainsail before it happened and that is what saved our sail. We were heeled over till the rail on the starboard side was in the water but we remained in control not loosing much of our momentum. This baby lasted about an hour and then two more came after it, both lesser storms(thank goodness). The rest of the night was about 12-15 knots of wind so we just marched along at 5 to 6 knots all through the night. We still have the reef in the main and expect to keep it there as we are still making good speed and headway toward the Marquesas. With luck, we will be there in 5 days, maybe 6 at the outside.
Let me tell you, none of the seminars tell you about how it is while you are out here. The constant and continual swells throwing you around. The wind comes and goes and you always hope for the best you can get to speed you on your way. I know that we have taken a longer route that others but it is what the weather router wanted us to stay on. Some that left the same day we did got there a few days ago. We'll end up doing about 3200 miles for the trip versus the projected 3000 we had thought. This voyage wears you down and you just can't wait for it to be over. I figure a good week at anchor in Nuku Hiva once we get there just to recover and try and fix the few things that need attention. There is now no way to get up to the top of the mast till we make landfall. We're in and have been in a washing machine on agitate for the last many days. Oh well, we just keep plodding along making the best speed we can.
We're currently at 03 12.651S 132 18.209W on a course of 228T having covered 126 miles in the last 24 hours and 2595 total. Our current speed is 5 to 6 knots with the wind out of the Southeast and the swells are running at 8 feet out of the east. We get closer each day.
Tracy's two cents:
While I was off watch trying to sleep, I'm suddenly plastered against what is usually a vertical wall at the head of the bed, I hear flying projectiles going across the room and crashing into the starboard wall. The clasp had come undone on "Bill's closet", the printer, tool cases, a gallon jug of distilled water, shoes, the list goes on and on. I tried my best at putting things back into the closet,as soon as I put them in they were flying right back out, but with me in their way this time. I did get the tool cases and printer put back in as well as the water, but that was it and the rest has a happy home on the floor until tomorrow. Right now, I just don't care.
Today's sail is wonderful, a beam reach with speeds around 6kts. It is hard to walk downstairs because we are heeled over, but for all intents and purposes it is comfortable. The ocean is a gorgeous shade of dark blue and the skies are mostly clear, very unlike yesterday, squall after squall, very tiring.
I'm starting to look forward to the sights when we get there and am reading up on what's what and where things are...I think I'm letting myself get excited. I don't think Bill is there yet.
Oh, Happy Rabbit Rabbit Day.
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04/30/2011, Out on the ocean
It was three years ago that we moved aboard Zephyr in Newport, Oregon having to smuggle the cat tree down the dock in the night so people wouldn't laugh at us. Now three years later and well over 10,000 miles under her keel with us, we have learned a lot about boating. Boy were we green when we started. It's lucky we didn't kill ourselves that first year. Now in the three years, you have to throw out most of the first one as it was spent doing the refit on Zephyr. Then take out another 5 months last Summer when we had to go home to take care or our house. So out of the 36 months since we moved on board, we have actually been moving about 19 months of that time. We've covered as far North as Juneau, Alaska to where we are now, South of the Equator on our way to Tahiti. Not bad for two lake sailors. I can't tell you how much the two of us have learned in these past three years but the learning curve has been huge. Many boat owners spend years learning and upgrading their boats before setting off like we did. For much of the time, it was spent learning as we went, always fixing things that broke when we entered the next harbor or cove. We spent the first three months of this year in Nuevo Vallarta working almost nonstop on Zephyr and will be doing it again when we reach the Marquesas and Tahiti. If it's broken, it must be fixed before we set off again. That's what cruising is all about--fixing boats in exotic locations.
We're now at 01 23.363S 131 42.229W on a course of 193T after covering 90 miles yesterday. We tried the course our weather router had suggested but only we making maybe 2.5 knots. Tracy made an "executive decision" and changed it to a more southerly and we took off at a much better speed of 5.5 to 6 knots. We ran into some big storms during the afternoon with lots of wind(gusts to 37 knots) and rain. Today has been windy all day so we are still making good time. We'll need to start the engine in a few hours or so to top off the batteries for the night. Oh, the swells out side are now close to 12 feet as they come rolling under Zephyrs hull. In a valley and then on the top, It's up and down all day.
We're trying to get more naps as the day progresses. We'd both burned the candle at both ends over the last few days and nerves and emotions were getting a bit thin. So we are each getting as many naps as we can today so tonight will be a better night for us both.
Tracy's two cents:
The storms that Bill mentioned were unnerving for me. I, for whatever reason, had been on watch all day from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., then the storms hit, one after another after another. Unrelenting wind, rain and waves. The boat heeled over to over 45 degrees and let me tell you that is scary. I'll be the first to admit, that while big winds don't particularly scare me, heeling over that much does! Water starts to pour over the side and my imagination is a pretty active one. Add in the I'm exhausted factor, my stomach was in one giant knot. When I did a night watch last night, my eyes wouldn't focus on the wind gauge, which is my primary steering guide at night. I started to make mistakes, that was scary to me. James wasn't working particularly well and I was hand steering all of my shift. I was pretty low and nearly in tears...I knew I was in trouble. Thank goodness, Bill showed up for his night watch shift, I hit the sack and got some 40 winks After fours hours of sleep I felt much better to handle the next shift. I went on deck for two hours while Bill went down to get a much deserved rest, as he was just as exhausted as me, I'm sure. Today is a much better day. I've had a couple of hours sleep so far and am feeling more myself. I certainly hope the night storms don't happen again tonight....
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04/29/2011, Out on the ocean
We finally crossed the Equator about 0730 this AM with little fanfare. We're both dead tired after another night out here. We took down the spinnaker late yesterday afternoon only to find a nut for the rigging lying on the deck by the mast. Not sure where it came from but think it has something to do with the spinnaker assembly on the top of the mast. I tried going up again this AM but it was just too rolly to get anywhere near the top. So until I can get up there, we are down to just our mainsail and forestaysail to move us along. With winds of 9 knots(maybe) we are moving along at maybe 3 knots. We have another 740 miles to Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas so we will be a while. Plenty of food and water aboard and we could start the engines and probably make it there with little to no problem but we are a sailboat and that is not what we are supposed to do. It it ever stops rolling out here, I'll try again to get up there. With no genoa ( lost it the third day) and now the spinnaker, we are going no where fast. We're currently at 00 13.32s 131 16.611w on a course of 225 heading straight for the Nuku Hiva. At the rate we are going, it shouldn't be more than another 8 to 9 days. we keep hoping for better winds so we can do better, but we will see what Mother Nature and Neptune give us.
We did a traditional stepping over the Equator ceremony later in the morning after the early theatrics of me trying to go up the mast. "Oy yea, Oy yea, let it be known that today, Apil 29th at 0730, Diana Hudson and Bill Hudson crossed over the sacred border of the North Pacific and the South Pacific known as the Equator. Having sailed for the last 20 days, they are now entitled to the honor of being inducted into the "League of the Shellbacks". We then opened up a nice bottle of champagne and toasted ourselves and poured in a nice bit for King Neptune for his enjoyment. We're no longer to be known as polliwogs!!! We're officially Shell Backs!!! And tired ones at that.
More bits of information for those of you planning on making a crossing--be it Pacific or across any form of water. Get the most comfortable folding seats or chairs that you can. We have not only Bottomsiders(really expensive foam cushions)in our cockpit thanks to the previous owner, but also nice folding foam chairs from West Marine. Let me tell you, it's not enough for any ones fannie out here. After just a few hours, the bones in your bottom(no matter how well padded) begin to ache. Now you try and adjust and move around to try and make it better but once the pain in your ass starts, it's tough to get rid of it. We even pile two of the chairs on top of each other during the night time shifts while on watch and even add two throw pillows for back support. After a short time, it's like you are sitting on concrete. So what ever you buy, take them home and sit on them on the floor during your evening of TV watching. Be prepared for what is to come--a PAIN IN THE ASS!!!! Take our word for it, money is no object with seats in your cockpit. Just be prepared to have to store them when the rains come or you have to make a sail change. But please please, do your butt a favor and shop around for the best you can find and then try them out. Your butt will be forever in your debt.
Tracy's two cents:
It was a fun little ceremony with Bill yelling his speech. I just laughed and laughed. The Frexinet was wonderful, cold, cold from our freezer and the blissful little nap from the afterglow of inbibing was great. Here we slog on at a lightening speed of 2 to 2.5kts. Will we ever make it?
I took out a pound of hamburger from Costco, I have no idea what I'm going to make with it, maybe, spaghetti without the noodles, that makes too much steam in the cabin that is already 89 degrees and 70% humidity.
I tried to scrape off the new barnacles that have adheared onto the side of the hull up about 18" from the bottom paint from our healing over all the time, but they are tough little suckers and are obviously going to have to wait until we jump into the water at Nuku Hiva, I tried using a putty knife taped to our boat hook. It took off some, but definitely not all.
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04/28/2011, Out on the ocean
We're in the home stretch for the equator. It's been a long tough 19 days but were only about 40 miles from it. Last night, we hoisted the main and forestaysail in 15-17 knots of wind out of the Southeast and took off slowly at about 3 knots through the night. That's 3 knots if we were lucky. Don't know if there was a current holding us back or what but there was just no way to get much more out of Zephyr. We were closed hauled(wind coming over the port bow side at about 50 degrees to the wind. Not the fastest point of sail any way you look at it. By 1000 this AM we started up the engine to not only recharge the batteries but to engage the transmission and try and get somewhere. We only made 65 miles in the last 24 hours and that is the worst day we have had since we left by far. At the rate we were going, we wouldn't make the equator till sometime tomorrow morning. With the engine running, we can make 5 to 7 knots and we should arrive at the equator about 2000 hours(about 8:00PM pdt). At that time of day, we're not sure how much partying we will be doing other than recite a verse to Neptune welcoming us over the magical line of the equator making us "Shellbacks". Now we just have to find a tattoo place to mark us as having done it(yeah, right).
We're currently at 00 45.434N 130 30.481W on a course of about 180T. We've made 2291 miles since we left and once we get to the equator, we'll change course to more of 220 degrees and put up the spinnaker tomorrow AM and take off. If the winds we have now continue, which we believe they will, we will make good time traveling down wind with that sail. Heck, it's as big as our first house!!
We finally opened up he stern cabin for the kids and they seem happy about that though they don't spend much time back there. Most times either in their thrones(cat tree we smuggled aboard three years ago) or sleeping on the floor over one of the water tanks as it's cooler there. Blue goes out on occasion to see what is going on but doesn't stay long and we make sure she is either watched or the screen door is put in so she has to stay inside. Even with the netting we have on the lifelines, we don't want to take a chance of loosing either of them overboard. They wouldn't last long in the rolling swells we've had around Zephyr this trip.
Many of the boats that left the same time we did are now arriving at the Marquesas. They took a faster route and had full use of their sails. We lost the use of our big Genoa sail the third day and there hasn't been a safe day to go up the mast to fix it. So we make due the best we can with what we have and push on. The goal is now in sight!!!
Tracy's two cents: Last night was the best we have had for star gazing. I think I've found the Southern Cross, at least it is the only constellation that even remotely looks like a cross. It is at 180 degrees and is fairly bright. The Big Dipper is still visible in the Northern Hemisphere, so it is fun to view them both during night watches.
I haven't felt up to snuff today, don't know why, just off, maybe sleep depravation is finally getting to me. Heaven knows there aren't any germs out here. I think I'm going to take out two preprepared meals from the grocery in the US and stick them in the microwave tonight and take the night off. Sounds good to me.
Not much to add, just looking forward to crossing the Line. I almost expect there to be a big red line in the ocean! I think we'll make crowns out of foil and do our crossing ceremony, offer Neptune his due, take a glass for ourselves then hit the sack for an hour or two.
No waves while we were traveling so slowly, so no suicides last night.
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04/27/2011, Out on the ocean
We motored through the night again as the winds died about sunset and a few showers came by for fun and to keep our decks clean. We'd flown the spinnaker since early AM and even it had trouble staying filled in the light air so it dipped into the Pacifics water regularly. About sunset, we took it down and started up the motor and did what we had to do to make our way South. She purred and rumbled through the night. During the night, we passed the last way point our weather person had told us to head for. His last call was to head for the Marquesas from that way point which is what we did this morning. His forecast for us didn't make it yesterday as promised. This morning, we finally got the update and it now told us to head straight south on the 130W longitude line. We were past it so we had to turn upwind and are still trying to make it back to it.
Over night, the winds and swells have changed so that both are now coming out of the South or Southeast. We've made it through the ITCZ but not to the equator yet. It's still about 100 miles. At our current speed, another day and a half. We may have winds but not in the right direction so we may have to tack back and forth to get there. Once there, the weather guru says to THEN head for the Marquesas. We made 124 miles in the last 24 and are now at 2226 total since we left La Cruz so many days ago. Our location is Latitude 01 45.891N Longitude 130 30.830W. We figure a good 8 to 9 days till we make it to the islands. Now all we have to do is figure out what island of the Marquesas we will hit.
Last night, Tracy took Johnsonville Brats and took off the skins and fried them up in a pan and served them on a tortilla with some dijon mustard. YUMMY!!! Last night, I had the double shift from 1900 to 2300 and 0300 to 0700. Tonight, we will switch the shifts so we each get a better night sleep every other night. It helps. It's get tough to try and sleep after the 0300 to 0700 shift as the Sun is coming up and once you've had breakfast, getting back to sleep can be hard and taking naps during the day adds to the challenge of the trip. While we haven't seen any signs of a ship out here since day 3, we still have to watch just in case. Heck, we haven't seen even a jet or one of their contrails telling us some one has passed us by. We are in a world all to ourselves out here.
Tracy's two cents:
Well, I now know how "water glass" got it's name, that is exactly what the ocean looks like. Shiny, rippley and very glassy. There is a 10kt. breeze it says, but we are only doing 1.5kts. This is going to drive me nuts. I'm all for putting the engine to work and getting us into the SE tradewinds. We still don't have the genoa fixed, so upwind sailing is painfully slow, so we can't go too much farther west as we would miss the Marquesas on route to who knows where.
Blue has been exceedingly huggy over the past 12 hours. Last night, she came up to the screen in the companionway and demanded almost panicky, so I let out with me on my watch, she just wanted to be held in my lap and be stroked. Next Snowshoe got the vibe and started crying at the screen, but when I raised it, he wouldn't come out, then he just went back down stairs. It was strange last night, the air felt different, it smelled different, Lots of clouds and mist and just the stuff to let your imagination get the best of you. Our friends on Periclees had said they saw what appeared to be an abandoned 50' fishing vessel from the 1930's just drifting out here and since I couldn't see anything I was just sure we were going to find it the hard way. I eventually went downstairs and got out our FLIR thermal imaging system to scope out in front of us every couple of miles. Reassuring to not see a derelict boat in front of us. This morning when I got up for my watch it looked like we were in a dome, all the way around the rim were storms with pouring rain, We were in the middle with no rain. Just really weird. I'll be glad to get out of here.
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