We’ve cruised for over three years now and we’ve had to re-learn the meaning of patience. How many times have been heard “island time, Mon” or “just now” when asking about opening time or when someone will be back or when an event will begin? All rhetorical questions it seems…but traveling over 2,300 miles by boat brings new definition to patience, our patience anyway.

Yes, there is the saying we’ve all heard that “sailing is the art of going slowly at great expense.” I’d like to add “often in the wrong direction.” Sherry’s sister sent us an InReach message two days after we began our voyage from Isla De La Plata, Ecuador to Easter Island, Chile which read, “Just curious. Why aren’t you going in a straight line? Wouldn’t that be shorter?” She was tracking our progress and obviously saw that we were desperately chasing the wind. Her attempt to be funny, we’re sure.

Easter Island is directly (and we use that term loosely, of course) southwest of Isla De La Plata so off we went that Monday morning, April 9, in a westerly direction…thanks to light wind and strong current pushing us. It would be very easy and comfortable to just go with the flow, so to speak, but we had to stay mindful of getting south not just west.

Ric had planned that we would travel mostly west, in the general direction of the Galapagos (which we decided to skip due to cost), for the first couple of days. As he studied the GRIB files, he determined it would be then that we would be able to go to the south. Sure enough…on day three we were out of the Humboldt current, the wind turned and so did we.

April 13th was not a great day for me (Sherry). Probably didn’t have anything to do with being a Friday. The weather was crap, the sea was crap and I felt like crap. I hadn’t slept at all the previous two days and nights. I was exhausted. As evening approached and another round of three-hour watches was about to begin, I felt it…a feeling of near melt-down was invading me. I knew I needed to sleep. Ric knew I needed to sleep. It was the closest I’ve come to having a panic attack. I felt sick, anxious and just wanted to be off the boat. Off the boat??? No way for that to happen. So, I sat in the cockpit on the windward side (port, in this case), put my face in the 16 knot breeze and took lots of deep breaths. Ric watched me and said, “You need to sleep. I’ll take all the watches tonight.” Have I mentioned how incredible he is? We did change things up a bit but, thankfully, I did get a little sleep (had a really weird dream, but that’s for another time) and Ric didn’t have to stay up the entire night.

The greenest bananas we could find at the market went ripe within the first three days. The green tomatoes were molding in five days and pretty much every other fruit or vegetable that hadn’t been refrigerated ripened too fast or went bad. Sherry smashed bananas and froze them hoping to use them in banana bread, muffins or pancakes. We ate all but one of the mangoes which had small white worms nesting inside. The pineapple, pears and limes lasted long enough for us to enjoy them albeit they were past ready to be eaten. So, duly noted for next provisioning trip…get more canned fruits.
Wednesday, April 18, evening the squalls started…one right after another. We saw 30-32 knot gusts with 25-28 knot straight wind. Squalls are not fun, especially at night when you can’t see them coming and radar doesn’t pick them up. Sheric was able to deal with the sea state very well. She even took the 30+ knot gusts like a champ.

Zaya Gwendolyn Staples was born at 17:28 the late afternoon of April 18. She was born to Sherry’s daughter Chyane and her partner, Leon. Baby and her parents are all doing well. Two days later we celebrated Sherry’s birthday. Ric made her breakfast in bed (the cockpit) of Zucaritas (frosted flakes) with cold almond milk. We had a good laugh.

After four days of cloudy, gloomy, squally, bouncing, rocking, rolling and the galley being closed (yes, that’s right…being heeled over 15-20 degrees doesn’t work for cooking), the skies cleared, the sea calmed and the wind held steady at 13-15 knots off our beam. It was a perfect sailing day and night. The night sky was incredible. Ric said, “I’ve ever seen so many stars that close to the horizon.” Being from NY and living in Tampa for over 40 years, he hasn’t seen a night sky like that one.

We kept in consistent communication with Imagination via SSB at 1800 each evening. We tried at 0600 as well but over time the propagation diminished and we were unable to hear each other. At 2000, we touched base with Nemo who was about four days in front of us. Then at 0200 each morning, Ric would check in with Peter at Northland Radio in New Zealand. Peter provides a free service to cruisers in the Pacific and tracks the boats to their destinations. He takes coordinates, sea conditions and general state of the boat and her crew on each call. He is also available to assist via radio in the case of an emergency.

“Land Ho,” Sherry shouted at 1113 on April 25 after 16 days and 9.5 hours at sea. What a great feeling to see land…a very small dot on the chart of a very big ocean. Whew…we didn’t miss it!!! Now, resting at ease and smiling (inside and noticeably outside), we patiently focus on closing the 40 nautical mile gap between our then current location and dropping anchor in Hanga Roa Bay, Rapa Nui.