Leaving on a Long Passage
06 April 2012 | Punta de Mita, Nayarit, Mexico
Bev
Leaving on a Long Passage April 7, 2012
Sailors never begin a passage on Friday. We have tried to learn why, but, so far, all we know is that they don't. It's bad luck. Being as superstitious as the next sailor and confident abiding by the superstition can cause no harm, we follow this hallowed tradition in ignorant acceptance. Today is Saturday.
The 2012 Pacific Puddle Jump began this morning for Mersoleil at 11:00 when we pulled up anchor at Punta de Mita, Nayarit, exico. Our friends, Craig and Bruce, aboard sv Gato Go were doing the same and they pulled out ahead of us into open water. Our direct route to Hiva Oa, FranchPolynesia, is 230 degrees true, but first we have a couple of islands and an unfavorable current to clear. Then if the winds cooperate, its' set it and forget it sailing for the next 2800 nautical miles.
Nautical miles are 15% longer than statute miles, wouldn't ya know it. There is a good reason though.
We highly recommend the small book, Longitude, which describes the world-wide quest during the 1700s for an accurate means of knowing one's longitude. The Brits, being the big empire builders of the day, headed up the quest by offering a cash prize of £20,000 to the person who could devise a means of knowing longitude that erred within a very small tolerance. It's the story of John Harrison, a brilliant but humble guy who could build a jewel of a clock but was not in favor among the longitude committee. Harrison has a tough time getting their attention and proving his solution, but eventually, posthumously, I think, his sons collected most of the prize. £2,000 was never paid because Harrison failed to cross a t or dot an i. Politics.
With the earth divided for our convenience into degrees and minutes, we have further decided that each minute should represent one mile to make life easy for seafarers, the merchants and the navies. So the nautical mile is the accurate division of the world's circumference. They thought of the statute mile first, I guess. It would have been handy if they'd considered the longitude question at the same time so we could have only one mile. But this is life. Longitude was a wonderful read about a question that proved much more interesting than I expected.
The first day of a passage is always fun and exciting even if it's not a Friday. You're not tired yet. The larder is stocked with everything you could possibly want (or if it's not it's nobody else's fault - you provisioned it yourself!). The trip is planned to some extent, but all the details, still unknown, will unfold in their own ways at their own times. This sail across the Pacific Ocean is the longest passage Robbie and I have ever undertaken and we are very excited. This is the one! We can justifiably claim that all other passages, Seattle to San Diego, San Diego to La Cruz, even practice runs in the Bahamas and the Atlantic, were nothing more than shake downs for this passage. This passage from Mexico to the Marquesas is our dream coming true. No less. It's not practice. It's not temporary. It's not a dream anymore. It's real. It's now. And we're following new friends, two wonderful guys in a catamaran, out of the anchorage to begin the saga!
Thank goodness it's not Friday.