Sailing the Pacific

James making our spinnaker

It has taken us alot of preparation to get to this point of being ready to cross the pacific. We spent two months back in Australia over Christmas earning some money and preparing ourselves mentally for the trip we are about to take.

A big thank you to Jamie's parents Leona and Bob for giving us a place to stay over the last two months. Also for not only allowing but encouraging us to transform your car-port and lounge-room into a sailmaking factory. It would have been much more difficult to get as well prepared as we are now without your help.

The flight over here was a little more trouble than we expected.
We ended up having to stay an extra night in L.A. on our way through to Costa Rica because we didn't have proof that we were leaving the country- we had no return ticket as we are not flying out, we are sailing out. After much fuss and with the help of some staff (especially a man called Robbie who kept his cool the whole way through), the airline said that as long as we had a form with the dates the bond on our boat ends in Costa Rica, we could get on the plane. The people watching the boat emailed us the form and we got a flight with one stop-over in Denver the next day.

Robbie and James working away diligently for Frontier airlines

It was snowing in Denver. 6 hours after this photo was taken we were in the tropics

Now our thoughts are turned towards stocking up on food for the trip and getting last minute things like satellite credit. Fingers crossed, we will be leaving in a week for the Galapagos. We are both so excited and are itching to get started but I guess its all a part of the journey, isn't it!

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Vessel Name:	Dagmar
Vessel Make/Model:	CAL 39
Hailing Port:	Melbourne, Australia
Crew:	James Thomson and Isabelle Chigros-Fraser
About:	Hello and welcome to our new sailing blog! Our dream is to sail across the Pacific Ocean this year starting in Costa Rica and finishing in Australia. [...] More
Extra:	As we have been told by fellow sailors, when you live at the mercy of the elements plans are like "Jello and Sand"- wobbly and unsteady like Jello (jelly for us aussies) and when you write something in the sand often it will be washed away with the tide. It is for this reason that we didn't finish [...] the trip last year as planned, it got too late in the season and Cyclone season was beginning- not a good time to be sailing across the largest ocean in the world. So we decided to wait it out and spent an amazing time sailing from Panama to Costa Rica. You can see our blog of that trip at sailingthepacific.wordpress.com Our boat in a Cal 39. Designed by Bill Lapworth in the early 70's, the Cal 39 won her division at the prestigious SORC in 1971. Ours was built in 1977 by Jensen Marine. Moderate, encapsulated fin keel, spade rudder, hand laid fibreglass. She has a warm teak interior and traditional layout. We are very pleased with the way she sails. She balances very well and will sail herself to windward most of the time with the wheel locked and no autopilot. Even broad reaching with poled out headsail she can be made to steer herself. While she can carry plenty of sail in a breeze, we usually reduce sail for more comfort, but with hardly any cost to speed. A great boat for a couple to cruise. More

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'Twenty years from now you will be more dissapointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.' -Mark Twain