Day 22 at sea - over 2000 miles behind us, and 0nly 666 miles to Hiva Oa!

Since our last update we have escaped the clutches of the ITCZ (although we continue to experience occasional light squalls), we have come through the doldrums (we hope), and, yes, we crossed the Equator - we are now officially in the "South Pacific" with the added distinction of being "Shellbacks." Try as I might, I have yet to find anything that discusses the origin or meaning of that term, so we'll skip that for now (but I will keep looking).

When we last mentioned squalls (in the previous post) that tropical weather phenomenon was new to us, but we are definitely veterans now! The very active ITCZ we were "blessed" with having to pass through dished up several days of sometimes non-stop squalls, with heavy rains, gusty winds (we saw winds as high as the low-30's - that's near gale, or Force 7), and lightening. Another notable feature of the squalls is that they tend to knock down the trade winds you are sailing in, sometimes long before they hit. We would be sailing along on a nice broad reach in 17-20 knots of breeze out of the NE when the sky would blacken to the south, and the winds would steadily fall off to about 5-7 knots as the rain started to fall. Soon the rain would be falling so hard that it often knocked the wind down to a knot or two, and completely flattened any wind waves that had been there in the moments before; a very strange sight! Then the gusty winds of the squall would hit - like a mini low pressure "bomb"- the direction of which would depend on where we were relative to the center of the convection producing the squall. The gusty winds might go on for an hour or more, depending on how large the convection cell was - we saw some on radar that were almost 20 miles across!

On Friday, April 27, after two days of the heaviest squall activity, when we were at 05 01'N, 125 22'W, we were getting pretty tired (and tired of it)- so, we decided that it would be best to roll up the jib and fire up the engine - for the first time since leaving the Mexican coast - and make haste for the bottom of the ITZC, which NOAA was then saying was somewhere near 03?N (120 nautical miles away). We had already gibed onto a southerly heading earlier in the day, but had made only about 17 miles "southing" in almost 6 hours (because of the hindrance of the squalls). We motored for 33 hours, until we could look behind us at the squall lines - the respite while motoring was most welcome, and almost felt like we were on vacation, or enjoying a leisurely weekend! When we turned the engine off and set the sails again, it was 1 o'clock in the morning on Sunday, April 29, we were at 02 35'N, 127 07'W, and there was a moderate breeze (Force 4) of 13 knots out of the SE - perfect, and our first taste of the southern hemisphere SE trades!

Ah, but it was too good to last. By late Monday afternoon, April 30, when we were at 00 37'N, 127 46'W, the winds had died to less than 3 knots - which is not even enough to move the boat forward under her sails. But we were moving - eastward - to Panama (which was not on our itinerary for this trip!) in 1.5 to 2 knots of east setting current! The doldrums with a twist! So, much to our chagrin, it was time to start up the "iron main" again. When we finally shut the engine down this time (and, we hope, the last time before we make landfall - we have used all the fuel for motoring that we feel comfortable with, not knowing exactly what the availability of diesel is on Hiva Oa), the winds were still very light - about 4 knots - but at least we were out of the east setting current. That was about 10 o'clock am yesterday morning, May 2, and as the afternoon wore on there was just barely enough wind to move the boat at a blistering 1.5 knots of boat speed. (Let's see at 1.5 knots, it will take us how long to cover the remaining 710 miles to Hiva Oa?) Last night we were basically adrift with winds of 0 gusting to .5! Today, however, things are looking up - the wind is back, if only at 10-11 knots, we are making about 4 knots of way, and at 01 15'S, 130 15'W we are a mere 675 miles from our first landfall in Paradise!

That's right - south latitude! We have crossed the Equator! We reached that milestone at 2010Z (1:10 pm PDT) on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at 00 00'S, 128 46'W - under sunny skies, and with only 820 miles to go to Hiva Oa. We celebrated by donning our "official" Pacific Puddle Jump t-shirts, toasting King Neptune with an ice cold (did we mention it is HOT on the Equator?) Pacifico beer - which seemed appropriate, given the body of water we are on - and boy did it ever taste great! (That was the only alcohol we have had so far on this passage!) We also shared some of the Pacifico and some hors d'oeuvres (smoked oysters) with Neptune, as well. With that simple little "celebration" we graduated from "pollywogs" to "shellbacks." As mentioned earlier, we are still going to try to learn the origin and meaning of that terminology!

Well, with the mercy of the wind gods, we should be in the Marquesas sometime early next week. We are very anxious to get there (and to get off the boat for a while!), especially since friends of ours who have already made landfall on Hiva Oa are e-mailing us with tales of their adventures on the island. Soon, we will be sharing our own tales of island adventures with you - so, stay tuned!

Thanks for checking in, and check back again soon!