Sailing the Pacific

Well, here we are day 3 and we are only about 125 nautical miles southwest of El Salvador; pretty slow going :( Nobody ever said sailing was a quick way to get around - or the easiest. We've had some good wind, up to 20kts and mostly decent but also a few periods of about 6kts or less but typically the wind fills back in after an hour or two of that.

Part of the reason we haven't covered that much ground (and were hoping for about 125 miles/day or more) is that it takes a while for us to get back in the groove after being away so long. We did not have sails configured optimally and we also had review how to do things like setting a "whisker pole" which holds the front sail out to stop it from flapping when going downwind. It's some what complicated, running lines everwhere.

The other reason we haven't covered too much ground is that we still have wind shadows from the high mountains of Central America and we are not in the Trade Winds yet. Hopefully, we just need another day or two and we should have more consistency in the wind.

The other part is night watches. Crystal and I planned on sleeping in 3 hour shifts which seemed to work pretty good for us previously but we aren't quite in the swing of that either.

Oh well, a couple more days and find our good rhythm, then we'll settle into a daily routine of living on the boat, at sea. We'll be watching movies, eating good meals and sleeping well. That's plan anyway!

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Vessel Name:	Crystal Seas
Vessel Make/Model:	Taswell 43
Hailing Port:	Lewes, DE
Crew:	Kirk and Crystal
About:	We met in 2014 and have a common love of exploring the world. Both of us have traveled quite a lot but vacations don't really give the opportunity to get to know a place and the people. That's why we thought it would be better to sell everything and live on a boat! And that's what we did... [...] More
Extra:	We live this lifestyle not because we are adrenaline junkies wanting to climb mountains or some other extreme activities. Surely there are people like that in this sport and we have nothing against that. It's just not us and it's not what motivates us to deal with the compromises, uncomfortable [...] passages, and effort or this lifestyle. Crystal and I both have a passion for travel and experiencing other cultures; seeing things from a different perspective. That is the underlying motivator. But, of course, there are other ways to do what we are passionate about. So why sailboat? Our sailboat is our home and we get to move our home, with nearly all of our earthly possessions, to a new country whenever we desire. Are there any other ways to do that? Maybe an RV but that has geographic limitations. A sailboat does not because most of the Earth is covered by water. Also, there are some areas of the world (a lot in fact) that are not so accessible by land. These are the areas we want to see. Places like the Sea of Cortez and the South Pacific islands. Sure you can fly to place in these areas, but you will only see a resort which does not expose you to the true culture or geography. Sailing is not for everyone and we are not even sure it's for us! There are times we are ready to sell the boat and move back to land but just then, we are presented with some of the most glorious, pristine sights on the planet that most never have the opportunity to see. That keeps us going. We gave ourselves 5 years to try this and re-evaluate things to see if we continue. We are two and half years into this and still we have doubts sometimes. Maybe those doubts never disappear; we don't know yet but we'll let you know when they become more than just doubts! More
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