Island Hopping

Friday 4/28/06
Tahuata Island, Hana Tefua Bay
Coordinates 09 48.536S, 138 57.839W

Island Number 3 already. We had a quick trip from Fatu Hiva up to Hiva Oa (09 46.144S, 139 01.871W). We rounded the corner into Taahuku Bay to find at least 15 boats anchored in there. Anchored is a very loose term we soon learned. It is more like being parallel parked on a slip and slide as we all constantly had to set and reset both bow and stern anchors nearly everyday. It is not that large of a bay either and at its greatest, we counted 25 sailboats, 2 power boats. You learn to get comfortable with close neighbors quickly, or get claustrophobic and get out.

We were excited to reunite with a lot of friends that we hadn't seen for as much as 4 months. Friday night the local outrigger canoe club was having a fundraiser dinner and we all went ashore to partake of curry goat, and pork stew with breadfruit. I don't think they we quite ready for the turnout. Offer new food to cruisers that haven't really seen land for 3 weeks and watch out for the stampede.

4/22 Saturday morning we hit the pavement early as we had hoped to clear customs that day. The good news is that although town is over 4 miles away, the standard form of transportation is hitchhiking. Nearly every local owns a flatbed truck of some sorts and you rarely have to walk for long. The boys were tickled to get to ride in the back of a truck at least 2 times a day. We didn't clear customs that day but did have a nice walkabout town and got some new provisions. We tried out a very expensive hamburger and longed for our cheap and tasty Mexico days.

4/23 Sunday we joined a few other crew members and headed to church. A beautiful Catholic Church set in the middle of town. It was fun to see that not many things are different even half way around the world. Babies and toddlers getting all the attention, teens struggling to pay attention and not goof off. The beauty in the singing and flower headdress was a sight so see, smell and hear. The service though in another language was dead on to any service at home and you felt like you knew just where you were, including the long drawn out gospel and messages at the end that left even the locals fidgeting and shushing each other as the noise level started to rise. The rest of the day was a day for relaxing and deep cleaning. Instead of the usual spring cleaning you all may be thinking about starting, we have our own form of "crossing cleaning". Time to dig deep and attend to all the items you joyfully neglect while bouncing under way. We did have a nice pot luck on our buddies boat Capaz that night and swapped some more stories.

4/24 Monday we were able to clear customs with record speed. We engaged the service of an agent who helped us to fax paper work back and forth quickly and get a discount on the fuel there. We were lucky to get an agent there who was willing to spend the extra five minutes and grant us our 90 day extension. Without it, you only have 30 days to see all the French Polynesian Islands. A bit fast for our speed. We grabbed a few more provisions and headed out Tuesday for a neighboring island Tahuata.

4/25 We opted to settle our first night in the most southern anchorage called Hana Tefua. A nice big bay with a great sandy bottom. We entered in a pretty strong rain storm that lasted more on than off for the next 24 hours. It was refreshingly beautiful and left us talking a lot about home. The boys spent the entire day playing, dancing and singing in the rain. They filled every bucket and bowl we own. I was able to fill all the sinks and did all our laundry, dishes, showers and still was able to fill our water tanks. It was glorious. 4/26 Wednesday we visited the tiny little town and hiked up to the top of a hill that offers a great view of the bay and holds a wonderfully large cross and shrine. We enjoyed the giggles of some more local children and got to taste a fruit that was new to us. Still haven't found out what it is. On the outside it looks like a lime with an very thin skin. On the inside it is like a very large peeled grape with a mild sweet taste and the strangest looking seed I have ever seen. Something to investigate further. Capaz, Lawur and New Dawn have joined us here today, Thursday 4/27, and everyone is enjoying the sunshine and some nice swimming. Still trying to dodge the jelly fish stings but we are getting tougher, or at least more brave.

It is amazing to think that we are checking off one island at a time with such speed already. It challenges us to really try to live in the moment and appreciate each day. Although each island looks so similar they each have their own unique personality and traits. It is most fun to turn each corner and look to see if Max and his Wild Things could swing out from the palm trees at any moment.

until next time,
Lisa and the boys

The Marquesas Islands

Wow, in a strange way the crossing seemed to fly by. It certainly had it's challenges but overall we had an amazing run and luckily a very quick crossing. We surprised even ourselves with an official time of 18 days 16 hours if we went by local time, but whose counting. We rounded the point to come into the island of Fatu Hiva on Monday and were surprised with how strong the winds kept up. 25 knots never let up as we entered Hanavave Bay (Bay of Virgins). It was fun to enter the anchor and recognize one out of 7 boats in the anchorage, Sarabi was there to greet us. A couple of attempts and we had the anchor down in 100 ft of water. Had to dust off all those technical skills again.

The island and anchorage itself were absolutely breathtaking, especially at sunset as we got settled. It took a while to all sink in. As Capaz aptly put it though, a deserted desert island would have looked good at that point. Luckily, we were blessed with lush green, tropical jungles, rock spires with imaginary faces in each turn. We enjoyed a most wonderful full night of sleep despite the winds and rain that continue to pick up and whip though on a whim. The temperature is comfortable, not to hot or humid, and though the rain can come down in heaps and loads, you dry quickly and a bit more refreshed.

Capaz and Lawur sailed in the next day Tuesday and we visited the town. From here, there were so many fun stories and events that it got difficult to keep up. We went ashore with Capaz while Lawur worked on anchoring. Immediately we were met by locals who want to trade or sell, good such as tiki's and tapas and food. A quick walk through the village and you are instantly on the other end of town in someone's kitchen eating papaya or filling your backpacks with pamplemousse (gigantic yummy grapefruit). The language is a fun mix of Marquesan, not to be confused with Tahitian, French and English. We felt like we knew very little of any and yet communication rarely a problem. Many of them have gone to school in Hiva Oa and speak very good English and are happy to teach you whatever you need to know.

A gal named Florida, (there are two in town she informed us), gave us our first taste of bartering for goods and food. We viewed her tapas, the bark of banyan trees that are pounded and drawn on in special polynesian motifs. We admired her brood of pigs and she offered us lemons and pamplemousse. We promised to return with goodies as she greatly admired Ryan's (Capaz) soccer ball and our clothing. Despite the fun goods that they like to trade for that may be a bit harder to come by, it appears that they are a thriving community that want for nothing. It is an interesting mix from bare feet to weed whackers, entire families under one roof but pressure treated wood stacked nearby for new construction, women wrapped in beautiful sarongs with flowers in their hair creating decorations for the church out of palm fronds and satellite dishes in the front yards.

Next we met Serge (goodwill ambassador or Fatu Hiva), his daughter Lorena and his large extended family from his parents all the way down to grandchildren and neighbors. Everyone in the family makes something from tikis to ukuleles and while we were viewing them all we found ourselves quickly commissioned for a sewing project in exchange for a special tiki. Serge had a nice new 30HP Yamaha outboard that he would like to have a cover made for but he had no material or machine. Bruce knew someone who could get the job done. hmmmm. We found out that Serge's brother Jean-Pierre needed one as well and got Niki in on the action. It was lucky for us they offered the trade as we certainly didn't have the $200-300 it was going to cost to buy one of those lovely tikis. We wrapped up the day watching the locals enjoy a rambunctious game of soccer with Tod and Ryan from Capaz while the sunset over the bay. The crew from Sarabi, Capaz and ourselves boarded Lawur for a quick toast to our successful crossing and exciting adventures in the future. Careful what you wish for.

The next morning, Wednesday, we awoke to see Lawur drifting within 20 feet of us, that's peculiar, they were anchored way up in front of us. Again, as so many blessings line up just right, even this challenge came out ok. The line that held them to their anchor disconnected leaving the anchor on the bay floor and them adrift. Luckily it occurred just as their son Sebastian awoke and happened to go up and check the line. They quickly tossed a line to Sarabi and rafted up for the day. Bruce and Robert were able to retrieve the line, repair and reattach Lawur to their anchor. We made a quick trip to shore to show Lawur around and were invited to dinner by Lorena and her family for the next day.

Thursday we got our acts together and went to shore to make a nice hike to the waterfall. We were met nearly right off the dock by the local policia municipal, oh oh. He stopped all 3 boats worth of people and informed us that we had one hour to leave. Since we had made the choice to come to Fatu Hiva before going to Hiva Oa for official check in with the Gendarme, we knew that this was a possibility. A bit of quick talking and some help from Lorena and her family, he gave us 24 hours before departing. It is a tiny community, and I hardly doubt Serge was going to let his not yet finished outboard motor cover slip away that easily, but it certainly was putting a crimp in our time schedules. We hiked for a good hour through the lovely countryside, lots of mud, over rocky hill and dale and were rewarded with a refreshing waterfall and freshwater pool. Cool but certainly worth the swim. We ate some quick snacks, hiked our way back down to finish our sewing projects before dinner at the Koheueinui household. Though my machine broke as the last stitches were being placed, Serge was very pleased, and I was able to put the finishing details on using Niki's machine later. We were treated to some local foods such as chicken cooked in coconut milk with mangos, breadfruit fried and baked to name just a few. Chilled mandarins for dessert, topped off with ice cold red Kool-Aide I think. Serges and his family took turns playing the ukuleles and singing for us. It was a special time. We did a bit more trading for goods and were on our way.

Friday morning, today, I took a quick walk back into town to deliver the finished motor cover and say good-byes. It was fun to see that a sleepy town looks and sounds the same nearly everywhere. Children playing, breakfast cooking, neighbors meeting at property lines to discuss something important. The smell of fresh gardenia everywhere certainly added a romantic flair to everything. I handed out my last few bits of "bon-bons" (candy) to the children that follow you everywhere, took their picture to show them as they giggled one last time and we pulled anchor to head for Hiva Oa. We shall start our official check in and see what adventure lies next.

Nana, (good bye in Marquesan)
until next time,
Lisa and the boys

Day 18 Happy Easter!!!

Day 18 4/16/06 4:30 am
Coordinates............ 02 39.656S, 131 22.818W
Heading................ 210
Boat speed..............7 knots
24 hr total nm .........170 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 2679 nm
Wind direct. & speed....E 20-25 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....E 3-5 ft.
Cloud cover.............80%
Barometer...............996

Frist and foremost, Happy Easter to everyone.
Second, we have only 100 more miles to go!
After our crazy night we each tried to let the other sleep as long as possible. Still feeling a bit battered, sleep is the best cure right now. The boys of course popped up like daisies this morning in anticipation of Easter. We had discussed this and decided ahead of time that the Easter bunny probably wouldn't make it offshore. Secondly, much like Santa, he is not going to appear if there is anyone awake. As Tristan pointed out, there is always someone awake so that makes it nearly impossible. To which Matthew chimes in, who needs the Easter Bunny when we have the Easter Mommy. Bless his heart.

Easter mommy said that she had been taking notes the last few years from the Easter Bunny and came through in full force for them. Awaiting their bright eyes this morning were easter bags instead of baskets filled with a few bits of candy, games and books. We had died eggs the night before but unfortunately they tried to take flight in the middle of the night and many had already left their shells. It is rather difficult to find hiding places on a moving boat I must say. It was a wonderful day all in all. I have lost track of how many rain clouds we have passed though but of course they always come up as Bruce is heading down for his nap. We wrapped it up with some nice pork chops instead of our usual Easter ham and a few chocolate eggs.

Last bit of news is that we have changed our course a bit. We were heading for the island of Hiva Oa and the Atuona anchorage where one clears customs. We learned this morning that they are going to be dredging there for the next few days. We had also heard it rumored that they don't mind if you visit another island for a few days before checking in. That island for most people would be Fatu Hiva, the southern most and perhaps one of the most beautiful islands. It is one of the few without an airstrip therefore most preserved. The way the winds blow, it is most beneficial for navigation of you can start there and work your way back to the other islands, so that's what we'll do. Our pals on Lawur and Capaz are only a day behind us so we will all convene there. Depending on how the winds go tomorrow, we should be there by tomorrow evening. We can hardly believe this passage is almost complete. It sort of all runs together but I can hardly believe it has been nearly 3 weeks. We were hoping to arrive before sunset but that looks a little difficult so now we are hoping for closer to 10:00 pm after the moon rises. Any light we can have to help us in would be great. Hopefully next time I will be writing you from an anchored boat. Could you imagine!

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 17 - On our toes

Day 17 4/15/06 4:30 am
Coordinates............ 02 39.656S, 131 22.818W
Heading................ 210
Boat speed..............7 knots
24 hr total nm .........180 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 2245 nm
Wind direct. & speed....E/SE 15-20 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....E 1-3 ft.
Cloud cover.............100%
Barometer...............993

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day. The winds had been steady, doing some wonderful sailing and we had made a record day over the past 24 hours of 180 miles sailed. Bruce and I even got showers in before we completed our radio nets and he was ready for his nap. Right after he went down, I noted that a few rain clouds starting to form around the area, very common these days for this latitude. We knew boats ahead of us as well had experienced quite a lot of showers. Matthew just happened to ask if he could turn on the radar, typically used only at night for us. We are often able to see the rain on the radar, but not always. We could see a few up ahead which we would never catch. But not on the radar was a large one behind us. I could see it coming but not to concerned with it, as up to now they had only brought a bit of water and not much else. No sooner had I given it that thought then the wind indicator caught my eye. We had been cruising along at 15 knots or so and it read 45 knots. Rubbed my eyes, could that be. It bounced between the 30's and 40's for a moment as I ran this through my brain. It didn't feel like 45 knots yet but we had full sails up and if this was true we were soon going to be overpowered. 30 to 40 knots of wind is very doable when you are prepared, we had better ready quick. In the time it took me to think this, wake Bruce and get up top, it was upon us. We quickly reefed in the main and rolled up the head sail a bit and we were dumped upon. It took a moment to gain control. This squall passed nearly as fast as it hit and after 15 minutes or so we were all fine but it certainly got our attention. From then on each storm has packed a bit more winds though nothing quite to that degree.

Adding insult to our injured prides that day, proof that the learning curve can be a little slow on Ohana Kai sometimes. This is the funny thing with guards, the moment you let them down is obviously the time to strike. The sun had been back out for hours and we were running dead down wind. This means typically, very smooth sailing with little water coming over the bow. We opened up the hatches for a while to air it out. Poor Bruce, the powers that be have conspired against him and decided that he does not need or deserve sleep at this point. As he began to try for a second nap, we hit a swell square on our port side that dumped buckets and buckets of water into every open hatch. Even though the hatches over our bed are covered by the dinghy and were only open a 1/2" or less, that was enough space to dump a bucket of water on his head. The remainder came in on our main salon. Luckily, there were no computers out at the time. The only casualty was a game boy, most every cushion and our pride. We are drying out nicely and doing many loads of laundry to try to remove the salt water from items, very tough job.

I'd like to say the day eased up but we continued to run through one rapid squall after another with the swells at our side for a rolly ride. The night brought about 3 hours of lightning, none which ever got to close to the boat thankfully. But it still is a very unnerving thing to have occur around a boat, filled with electrical equipment, sitting on the water. I can officially say my nerves were shot. The saving grace is that we know we are with a couple of days of the island. What fun would the story be if we didn't wrap the passage up with a bang.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 16 - Better late than never

Day 16 4/14/06 3:00 am
Coordinates............ 04 52.700S, 133 11.421W
Heading................ 200
Boat speed..............7 knots
24 hr total nm .........170 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 2317 nm
Wind direct. & speed....NE 15-20 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....E 1-3 ft.
Cloud cover.............95%
Barometer...............994

Those E/SE winds finally arrived today for a solid amount of time allowing everyone to start making the easy point of sail they had been hoping for. Of course as I am writing this to you, little rain clouds have popped up all around us and the wind has decided to go squirrely from NE to E. Can't be choosy though. We have been having an amazing run at it and with less than 500 miles to go we'll take whatever we get.

In anticipation of arriving on land, the boys and I got to work finishing some more flags of the countries we will be visiting. It is proper etiquette to fly the national flag of the country you are visiting on your right spreader, higher than your own out of respect. As a good learning tool, we opted to make our own flags rather than buy them. (Notice Bruce shaking his head in the background like we are crazy). Some of them are a bit intricate shall we say. Hopefully these perspective countries will be honored by our effort not necessarily on our talent.

Of the 25 or so boats that we know that are making the crossing, many are beginning to make landfall and the reports are coming back in on the daily nets. Land sweet land. It sounds wonderful and we can't wait to see it for ourselves. Hiva Oa is the island of choice for most people as the place to enter customs and do more paper work cha cha. It looks as though you can hire an agent to represent you and assist you through the customs process for a fee, which can greatly reduce the amount of time and energy spent to complete this process, perhaps even by a day or so. There are trade off's we hear to doing it each way and have yet to decide for ourselves which will be the best course of action.

The idea of touching land soon is sounding very appealing to everyone. Though the art of living on a moving boat does require much physical effort, all these little legs are so excited at the idea of really running. We are not sure if the anticipation of it at this point makes the wait easier or more difficult.
Always a double edge sword.

Please remember not to hit the reply button when writing back to us. Simply reply to themartins@ohanakai.net, or please cut out the old document so that it cuts down on our download time. We have limited amounts of time that we can get proper connections and download our emails each day. Thank you.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 15

Day 15 4/13/06 2:00 am
Coordinates............ 02 39.656S, 131 22.818W
Heading................ 215
Boat speed..............5 knots
24 hr total nm .........150 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 2170 nm
Wind direct. & speed....NE 5-10 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....E 1-3 ft.
Cloud cover.............55%
Barometer...............994

Have to admit the the day after crossing the equator was very peaceful but rather anticlimactic. We are unfortunately still a bit plagued by wind that is a bit light and still slightly from the wrong direction and swells that are nearly perpendicular to us. That is continuing to make for some difficult sleep and restless days. Just after I signed off at 5am yesterday the winds picked up to 15 knots or so and we were able to sail for the majority of the day but continued to make only southern progression. We do need to start heading a bit more westerly, so when the winds die down and the motor starts up we resume our 210 to 215 course heading.

The great news is that our cruising pals out here, Lawur, Capaz and Long Tall Sally all made their crossing of the equator as well last night. We have so many things to celebrate when we reunite in the islands. We continue to change time zones and gained another hour today. That allowed school to be done a bit early and we found ourselves with some extra time. We took the opportunity to finally begin reading up on the places we will be visiting first in the Marquesas Islands. We are readying ourselves to maneuver customs in another new country. Time to learn some french I guess. It is going to be hard to drop the spanish. The reality of being only about 5 days away has hit us fast and hard. It seemed so far away when we began this crossing 15 days ago. That "to do" list we had created for the passage seems rather large and untouched at this point.

Quick reminder. These daily journal entries have all been sent directly to the blog/journal sight to be read on our web site at www.ohanakai.net. It has been brought to my attention that everyone may not have known that or may not have access to the web to see the journal entries. If that is the case, please let me know and I will resend them to you and add you to the growing list of people who need to be emailed directly. If you have access, don't forget to check out the goggle earth and yotreps cruising trackers. Both are great ways to see where we are. Occasionally, the data we send doesn't get through right away so if we look as though we haven't checked in each day, don't worry.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 14 - Shellbacks!

Day 14 4/12/06 3:52 am
Coordinates............ 00 37.247S, 130 42.103W
Heading................ 210
Boat speed..............5 knots
24 hr total nm .........115 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 2006 nm
Wind direct. & speed....NE 5-10 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....E 1-3 ft.
Cloud cover.............55%
Barometer...............994

Four new shellbacks have joined the force. It's official, if you notice up in the coordinates it now proudly displays S instead of N in latitude. We have entered the Southern Hemisphere and we are excited. At 5pm we logged onto our final check in of the day with our cruising pals and exchanged daily stories. With much well wishing from them we signed off and quickly ran up top to watch the final clicks of degrees/minutes/seconds to see the proud display of 00 000.000 on the monitor shortly before 6pm. We had pulled down the mainsail, placed the boat in neutral a while before, so we were gently coasting as we crossed the equator. Moments before we crossed, Bruce jumped in and ceremoniously, and nakedly I might add, swam across the equator. He hopped aboard and we each took our turns, also nakedly, dipping in the warm waters at the equatorial turning point. Once dry, we donned our crowns, gathered our offerings and gave a toast to King Neptune. We asked of him that he grant us continued safe passage on our journeys, that he shower us with more fun adventures, that he continues to grace us with new friends along the way and that he bless the friends and family that we share this journey with. In return, we offered to continue our journey with open minds, compassionate hearts and willing spirits. With the purest and most precious beverage we had aboard, water, we each toasted His Royal King Neptune, and in offering the youngest members of the crew gave overboard our written scroll of requests/offerings and a dash of our most expensive beverage on board, tequila. (What can we say, we just left Mexico) Hopefully we have pleased King Neptune and our offerings will be accepted in the depths of his sea.

We opted out on the shrimp menu as we just couldn't justify eating a creature of his kingdom on this day. Our favorite pasta filled the bill and chocolate cake for dessert. We chose yet another fun and appropriate movie for the night, Shark Tales. Yes, it may have crossed our minds as we looked deep into ocean blue beneath our toes at that moment.

Aside from our wonderful diversion of celebration, the day was very routine. The winds continue to be extremely light and shifting all around. We continue to motor and hope they will fill in soon. A quick side note, the newest edition of the magazine Latitude 38 is out and contains a story covering all the boats crossing with us. It can be found at any West Marine store or often other boating stores. Included are photos and information on each boat including us.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 13 - Drying Out

Day 13 4/11/06 3:25 am
Coordinates............ 01 06.616N, 129 50.846W
Heading................ approx. 180 when motoring, 210 when sailing
Boat speed..............5 knots
24 hr total nm .........123 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 1890 nm
Wind direct. & speed....E/SE 8 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....E 3 - 6 ft.
Cloud cover.............55%
Barometer...............994

Drying out! We awoke to the most beautiful sunshine, blue skies and fluffy happy cumulus clouds we have seen in a while. We have laid everything out to hang and drip dry in the sun as we everything is soaked to the core after those squalls. It looks at this point as though we have made a quick passage through the ITCZ. There is the possibility that it can actually balloon up in size and swallow you back in if it wants but we are hoping for the best. The winds and swell slowly crept their way around over the last 24 hours and as of 5pm today had officially made it around to the E/SE. We again are hoping that this is the SE trades for keeps and not just a little pocket of wind we have happened upon. If they were to keep up in this direction, it places us on nearly a direct line to sail to the Marquesas.

While it was so calm, we took the time to work on a few maintenance and minor repairs that we had accrued during the storms. There are little plastic lines called Dutchmen that weave intermittently up through the main sail. They help to stabilize it as you raise and lower the sail, helping to fold it up neatly when you are putting it away. One had broken in the storm and though it is a relatively easy fix, all projects on a bobbing boat take time. That solved we had time left to chat on the radio with our neighbor boats. We can report that all 3 boats are doing great and making great time with us. We have all begun to discuss just what each one has planned to celebrate their crossing of the equator.

Matthew has been fast at work making crowns for us to wear as we cross and hail the mighty King Neptune. Tomorrow we shall work on a trident. We have yet to decide on the libation to serve him and we still haven't decided on the special meal. Matthew requested shrimp but Tristan thought it may be in poor form to eat a creature from King Neptune's Sea. We are not sure if he would be honored or offended. Hmmmm something to ponder.

The sea is finally beginning to look more like Bruce and I envisioned it at this point. As the winds die out tonight, the sea is so flat, calm and peaceful. Bruce may get his wish of jumping in and swimming across the equator at this point. Tonight as I am writing the winds have died down to 5-8 kn. and we are gliding along at a simple 2 - 3 knots. We have noticed as well that we must be working against some pretty serious currents at this time since our measured speed in the water versus our speed over ground are always at least a knot different if not more. That is pretty significant. With a nearly full moon out and only the most brilliant stars showing in its presence, it is breathtaking. I am torn between starting the engine to keep us on our schedule and assure that we don't get stuck in the dulldrums or keeping the peace and enjoying this time.
It can be a fine balance sometimes between destination and journey.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

A REAL fish story!!!!

Okay, Okay, everyone keeps asking me (Bruce), when are you going to write an update? My response is always the same "When I have something important to say". Besides Lisa does a wonderful job painting beautiful images of far away places, and quite frankly I'm more the.... "Stupid Comment Guy". I've always felt you should stick to what you are good at and leave the writing to writers. Well, since I still haven't figured out what it is I am good at (aside from breaking things, fixing them only to inevitably break them again), Today is the day or Night rather I get in on the Act. I Finally have a story worth telling. Okay, so here goes.

My story is maybe more a Theory than anything else since some of the facts where not witnessed by me and the only one who could contradict or corroborate these facts is 8 inches long, has wings, gills and is now swimming somewhere near 07 degrees north and 124 degrees west. Well, enough already, let me tell you my Fish Story. It was about 11:30 last night while I was on my watch. I was down below doing very official and highly technical sailing navigational .... stuff. I would try to explain it but I'm sure it would go right over most of your heads as you all do not have the proper training or superior analytical thinking skills I posses. For simplicity sake, let's just say I was sitting down below watching old episodes of Seinfeld and eating Oreos. The boat was flying along, dead downwind, running Wing and Wing, with giant 12 foot walls of waves propelling us to speeds of over 10 knots. (Okay a knot is just over 1 MPH) Now to your non-sailing mind this may not seem very fast but in your world this would equate to lets say, driving in your grandfathers Winnebago, in the fast lane, at night, on a winding, icy road with your nephew (who just got his learners permit) driving. Oh yah, and he's going really, really fast. Suddenly the boat careens sideways, heels over 45 degrees and points dead into the wind. My bag of Oreos goes rocketing..... I mean my Sextant (Jim, this is not something dirty, its a sailing, navigational Thingy) goes shooting across the salon. I quickly throw on my harness and clip into the safety lines as I lunge out of the companionway and into the cockpit. Like the savvy well trained sailor I am, I quickly assess the situation and realize I don't know what the hell is going on. And then it hits me...the boat is doing a doughnut as if no one is steering the boat.....THAT'S IT!!!!! NO ONE IS STEERING THE BOAT!!! Auto the trusty ship's auto pilot is in "Standby" mode. Now, I'm fairly certain it was turned to on when I left it since it has been steering the boat for approximately 36 hours straight now and we seem to still be on course. I do a couple of fancy calculations involving stars, celestial bodies, the position of Orion's belt and the fact that I am a Leo and ascertain that we are indeed still on course. I reset Auto with the proper compass heading and logarithmic calculations taking into account currents, fetch, cross track errors and some other fancy words I can't remember right now and head back to my command center. Now here is where it starts to get interesting. As I reach the bottom of the stairs to the companionway and step into the galley to get some milk to go with my ........to drink while I carefully plot our course, I feel something wet and slimy under my toes. Ahhhh You guessed it,,, this is where the Fish comes in. Yep, there he is INSIDE the boat in the Galley. A big old flying or in this case flopping fish. Oh my gosh!!! This is awesome!!! This fish must have been having the flight of his LIFE. I mean these guys don't usually get more than about 2 feet off the surface of the water. To make it all the way into the boat.... This guy must of been just plain old Showing off!!! Well of course no one was going to believe me if I just Told them a flying fish flew into my boat in the middle of the night, I needed corroboration. So I did what any of you would have done...Yes, Yes, I could have taken a picture but I couldn't just enjoy this all by myself, so I woke Lisa up. Sure she had only slept maybe 8 hours in the last 3 days but I knew she wouldn't want to miss THIS. Well, let's just say she wasn't quite as excited to see the flying/flopping, oh yea and did I mention smelly fish was in her Galley. Well at this point I thought it would be best if I just put the little guy back in the water but as I bent down to pick him up I noticed something remarkable about him. Even more than his cute little fishy open mouth smile there was something I had never seen before. It was incredible.... Wake Lisa back up again, you gotta see this, you're not going to believe it .....His PO PO glows!! Yes his butt, His unmentionable .. IT GLOWS. Again, my amazement was greeted with less enthusiasm than I had hoped, so at this point I decided I better cut my losses and just put the little guy back. I tried to muster a little bit more interest from Lisa before her head hit the pillow again, on whether or not she thought the Fish would fly or plop as I tossed him back over the side but she was already asleep. For those of you who are interested, I know at least the guys are, he plopped.

Okay, so at this point I'm sure you are all thinking this seems to be your ordinary, run of the mill, everyday fish flies into a boat down a companionway hatch and into the kitchen where he gets stepped on story. Where does the theory come in? Where is the amazing part? Well, it didn't come to me right away either. It wasn't until I was lying in bed later that night rocking and rolling on the rough seas that it came to me. How this fish could have made this remarkable flight just didn't add up.....No way could this fish with its tiny wings, no ailerons and barely a fin for a rudder have made the hair-pin, barn stormer, Blue Angel maneuver to make it into our kitchen... It just wasn't possible. And then it hit me. My dad always told me while watching murder mystery movies together trying to figure out who the Killer was "There are no coincidences"................. THE AUTOPILOT!! Was it a coincidence that the Autopilot mysteriously turned off at the Same moment this flying fish made his miracle flight. I DON'T THINK SO!!!

I propose that said fish flew out of the water glanced off the Stand-By button (turning the auto pilot off of course) skipped over the companionway hatch and flopped onto the galley floor. This explains everything. It is the only logical explanation. This morning I checked for residual fishy smell on the Stand-by button but to further complicate the issue Lisa had hung some Laundry over the control face. So every time the boat rocked, the towel hanging there wiped the face of the Autopilot clean and thus taking any proof with it. So that's it. That's my story. You can believe what you want to believe but I know the truth. I know it, and Fishy knows it.

Day 11 - Change is Good

Day 11 4/9/06 4:31 am
Coordinates............ 05 01.978N, 127 48.272W
Heading................ approx. 209
Boat speed..............6 knots
24 hr total nm .........150 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 1600 nm
Wind direct. & speed....N/NE 12 - 15 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3 - 6 ft.
Cloud cover.............85%
Barometer...............994

What a different a day makes! Judging by all the rain and small squalls we have be through today, we have decided we must have entered the that ITCZ. Rain, Rain, Rain, glorious rain. Bet all you Washington folks didn't want to hear that word again. These are the first drops of significant precipitation we have seen in over 6 - 7 months. We were tickled pink. It was such a nice change to see that even the boys were excited and put out bowls to collect it. The boat looks a little cleaner and we were all happy for the distraction. Dare I say it made us a bit homesick. The squalls were never very big and did not carry much wind so it was always enjoyable to watch them form and move on the radar. The swells as well seemed to be a little less busy today giving us all a break. Though I was informed that after I went to sleep tonight for Bruce's first shift, we clocked 35 knots sustained and up to 40+ gusts. Apparently I can sleep through anything.

We have nearly come to our mark to begin our turn, thus the new compass heading tonight. We have been reviewing our weather faxes called grib files. They are a picture of the wind, where it is and where it is projected to be over the next 48 hours. From those, we try to anticipate where and when is the best place to cross the equator. We have chosen now to begin that process. At present we have a fairly straight shot to the Marquesas but we shall see what happens in the middle. The big issue for most people becomes, how much fuel do you have left?, how many hours of motoring/charging remain? In discussion with all the boats out here, the big surprise has been just how much more we run our batteries down than expected. Everyone is having a hard time maintaining very full batteries. Personally, we have never had them run so low. Between the refrigerator, freezer, computers and the auto pilot, the they are all working extremely hard and take a lot of juice. Thus we are trying to keep our consumption down to a minimum.

To add to poor Bruce's sleepy head issues, we are doing this funny time change shuffle, which has us confused at any given moment. As we travel west, we are changing back a few time zones in a matter of days. We add to that day light saving time, and a few other boats that are never in the same zone at the same time. Lastly, all the radio nets that we listen to are in UTC time, which was hard enough to keep track of when we did know what time it was. Again, add in our sleepy heads and we nearly have smoke coming out our ears each time we try to figure out where we are. At this point we are lucky to remember each others names. Hopefully in a few days we will all be on the other side, more rested and wiser for the efforts.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 10 HALF WAY THERE!

Day 10 4/8/06 3:21 am
Coordinates............ 06 38.109N, 125 36.100W
Heading................ approx. 230
Boat speed..............6 knots
24 hr total nm .........166 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 1400 nm
Wind direct. & speed....N/NE 12 - 15 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3 - 6 ft.
Cloud cover.............85%
Barometer...............997

We have officially reached the half way point between Mexico and the Marquesas. Each boat had their own way to celebrate, we made chocolate chip cookies. Aside from that there is no big change. Bruce and I were joking that somehow, in our minds when we pictured the "middle" of the ocean, it would somehow look a bit different than the "rest" of the ocean. I am not sure why we thought that, the grandeur and splendor, the hoopla and celebration that we were expecting, anticipating when we cross the equator in a couple of days is taking on more of a reality. I am beginning to realize that the big dotted line with a sign like the North Pole marker are not going to be there. It is not going to look any different, blue, wet and rolly like the rest of the ocean. We will just have to accent it with our style, flair and festivities.

An observation for the gals on cruising the Pacific. Late on our 3 am watch the powers that be, the female first mates on Lawur, Capaz and Ohana Kai came to the reality that we have cooked more meals in the last 10 days than maybe in the prior 3 months combined. Keeping in mind that when we are on shore, especially in those comfortable marina's, we tend to eat out A LOT. I am not sure if that prepared us or blinded us to the reality of cooking out here. I like to believe it gave us the repreve from our usual routine so we would feel refreshed and ready to go. Kudos to us, I believe we all provisioned amazingly well and have eaten like kings out here. Go Girls!

On the tough side, I would have to say the the effects of lack of quality sleep combined with this incessant rolling are catching up with us. Big swells continue to plague us all and seem to be the topic of discussion each day between the four of us vessels out here. It continues to come out of the due North making it all the more challenging for us to make much more western progress as we nearer the equator. The swells hit us on our stern starboard quarter which tends to make us roll side to side as well as front to back. More accurately, we feel like we are constantly fish tailing, never allowing us to really feel stable. Time a big swell with a big gust of wind and we are always on guard for the boat trying to round up into the wind. I have a little saying of mine from back packing days, "Mountains don't go up hill forever", meaning, "This too shall pass". We will soon be getting close to our time to turn and cross the equator and into what we hope to be a short passage through the dulldrums, hmmmm. Out of the frying pan and into the fire?

Truly, we can't complain. We have had an amazing first half run of this crossing and are doing just what we set out to do. Take each day and it's challenges as they come. We are working on setting up a bit new watch schedule and going to start dropping some of our radio nets so that we can get some more quality sleep, especially for Bruce. I promise I will make sure he is just waking up from a nap, rather than just going down for one before I let him have another crack at writing a journal entry, though it was an amusing tale wasn't it.

Nap? Nap? (Bruce here...again) I take offense with the term, Nap. A nap is something you take on a lazy Sunday afternoon possibly between football games or while watching an old movie. Children and old people take naps. A nap is not trying to eek out 5 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period (if Im lucky) while fish and all other matters of sea life try to board your boat because they prefer a less aquatic lifestyle. Im not complaining Im just saying you can tell who has gotten 10 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours and who has gotten,, lets just say less.... a whole lot less. Im sure my writing would be much more eloquant if I had gotten that much sleep. Okay maybe not. Who am I kidding no it wouldnt.....I need a nap...

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

A REAL fish story!!!!

Okay, Okay, everyone keeps asking me (Bruce), when are you going to write an update? My response is always the same "When I have something important to say". Besides Lisa does a wonderful job painting beautiful images of far away places, and quite frankly I'm more the.... "Stupid Comment Guy". I've always felt you should stick to what you are good at and leave the writing to writers. Well, since I still haven't figured out what it is I am good at (aside from breaking things, fixing them only to inevitably break them again), Today is the day or Night rather I get in on the Act. I Finally have a story worth telling. Okay, so here goes.

My story is maybe more a Theory than anything else since some of the facts where not witnessed by me and the only one who could contradict or corroborate these facts is 8 inches long, has wings, gills and is now swimming somewhere near 07 degrees north and 124 degrees west. Well, enough already, let me tell you my Fish Story. It was about 11:30 last night while I was on my watch. I was down below doing very official and highly technical sailing navigational .... stuff. I would try to explain it but I'm sure it would go right over most of your heads as you all do not have the proper training or superior analytical thinking skills I posses. For simplicity sake, let's just say I was sitting down below watching old episodes of Seinfeld and eating Oreos. The boat was flying along, dead downwind, running Wing and Wing, with giant 12 foot walls of waves propelling us to speeds of over 10 knots. (Okay a knot is just over 1 MPH) Now to your non-sailing mind this may not seem very fast but in your world this would equate to lets say, driving in your grandfathers Winnebago, in the fast lane, at night, on a winding, icy road with your nephew (who just got his learners permit) driving. Oh yah, and he's going really, really fast. Suddenly the boat careens sideways, heels over 45 degrees and points dead into the wind. My bag of Oreos goes rocketing..... I mean my Sextant (Jim, this is not something dirty, its a sailing, navigational Thingy) goes shooting across the salon. I quickly throw on my harness and clip into the safety lines as I lunge out of the companionway and into the cockpit. Like the savvy well trained sailor I am, I quickly assess the situation and realize I don't know what the hell is going on. And then it hits me...the boat is doing a doughnut as if no one is steering the boat.....THAT'S IT!!!!! NO ONE IS STEERING THE BOAT!!! Auto the trusty ship's auto pilot is in "Standby" mode. Now, I'm fairly certain it was turned to on when I left it since it has been steering the boat for approximately 36 hours straight now and we seem to still be on course. I do a couple of fancy calculations involving stars, celestial bodies, the position of Orion's belt and the fact that I am a Leo and ascertain that we are indeed still on course. I reset Auto with the proper compass heading and logarithmic calculations taking into account currents, fetch, cross track errors and some other fancy words I can't remember right now and head back to my command center. Now here is where it starts to get interesting. As I reach the bottom of the stairs to the companionway and step into the galley to get some milk to go with my ........to drink while I carefully plot our course, I feel something wet and slimy under my toes. Ahhhh You guessed it,,, this is where the Fish comes in. Yep, there he is INSIDE the boat in the Galley. A big old flying or in this case flopping fish. Oh my gosh!!! This is awesome!!! This fish must have been having the flight of his LIFE. I mean these guys don't usually get more than about 2 feet off the surface of the water. To make it all the way into the boat.... This guy must of been just plain old Showing off!!! Well of course no one was going to believe me if I just Told them a flying fish flew into my boat in the middle of the night, I needed corroboration. So I did what any of you would have done...Yes, Yes, I could have taken a picture but I couldn't just enjoy this all by myself, so I woke Lisa up. Sure she had only slept maybe 8 hours in the last 3 days but I knew she wouldn't want to miss THIS. Well, let's just say she wasn't quite as excited to see the flying/flopping, oh yea and did I mention smelly fish was in her Galley. Well at this point I thought it would be best if I just put the little guy back in the water but as I bent down to pick him up I noticed something remarkable about him. Even more than his cute little fishy open mouth smile there was something I had never seen before. It was incredible.... Wake Lisa back up again, you gotta see this, you're not going to believe it .....His PO PO glows!! Yes his butt, His unmentionable .. IT GLOWS. Again, my amazement was greeted with less enthusiasm than I had hoped, so at this point I decided I better cut my losses and just put the little guy back. I tried to muster a little bit more interest from Lisa before her head hit the pillow again, on whether or not she thought the Fish would fly or plop as I tossed him back over the side but she was already asleep. For those of you who are interested, I know at least the guys are, he plopped.

Okay, so at this point I'm sure you are all thinking this seems to be your ordinary, run of the mill, everyday fish flies into a boat down a companionway hatch and into the kitchen where he gets stepped on story. Where does the theory come in? Where is the amazing part? Well, it didn't come to me right away either. It wasn't until I was lying in bed later that night rocking and rolling on the rough seas that it came to me. How this fish could have made this remarkable flight just didn't add up.....No way could this fish with its tiny wings, no ailerons and barely a fin for a rudder have made the hair-pin, barn stormer, Blue Angel maneuver to make it into our kitchen... It just wasn't possible. And then it hit me. My dad always told me while watching murder mystery movies together trying to figure out who the Killer was "There are no coincidences"................. THE AUTOPILOT!! Was it a coincidence that the Autopilot mysteriously turned off at the Same moment this flying fish made his miracle flight. I DON'T THINK SO!!!

I propose that said fish flew out of the water glanced off the Stand-By button (turning the auto pilot off of course) skipped over the companionway hatch and flopped onto the galley floor. This explains everything. It is the only logical explanation. This morning I checked for residual fishy smell on the Stand-by button but to further complicate the issue Lisa had hung some Laundry over the control face. So every time the boat rocked, the towel hanging there wiped the face of the Autopilot clean and thus taking any proof with it. So that's it. That's my story. You can believe what you want to believe but I know the truth. I know it, and Fishy knows it.

Day 10 HALF WAY THERE!

Day 10 4/8/06 3:21 am
Coordinates............ 06 38.109N, 125 36.100W
Heading................ approx. 230
Boat speed..............6 knots
24 hr total nm .........166 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 1400 nm
Wind direct. & speed....N/NE 12 - 15 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3 - 6 ft.
Cloud cover.............85%
Barometer...............997

We have officially reached the half way point between Mexico and the Marquesas. Each boat had their own way to celebrate, we made chocolate chip cookies. Aside from that there is no big change. Bruce and I were joking that somehow, in our minds when we pictured the "middle" of the ocean, it would somehow look a bit different than the "rest" of the ocean. I am not sure why we thought that, the grandeur and splendor, the hoopla and celebration that we were expecting, anticipating when we cross the equator in a couple of days is taking on more of a reality. I am beginning to realize that the big dotted line with a sign like the North Pole marker are not going to be there. It is not going to look any different, blue, wet and rolly like the rest of the ocean. We will just have to accent it with our style, flair and festivities.

An observation for the gals on cruising the Pacific. Late on our 3 am watch the powers that be, the female first mates on Lawur, Capaz and Ohana Kai came to the reality that we have cooked more meals in the last 10 days than maybe in the prior 3 months combined. Keeping in mind that when we are on shore, especially in those comfortable marina's, we tend to eat out A LOT. I am not sure if that prepared us or blinded us to the reality of cooking out here. I like to believe it gave us the repreve from our usual routine so we would feel refreshed and ready to go. Kudos to us, I believe we all provisioned amazingly well and have eaten like kings out here. Go Girls!

On the tough side, I would have to say the the effects of lack of quality sleep combined with this incessant rolling are catching up with us. Big swells continue to plague us all and seem to be the topic of discussion each day between the four of us vessels out here. It continues to come out of the due North making it all the more challenging for us to make much more western progress as we nearer the equator. The swells hit us on our stern starboard quarter which tends to make us roll side to side as well as front to back. More accurately, we feel like we are constantly fish tailing, never allowing us to really feel stable. Time a big swell with a big gust of wind and we are always on guard for the boat trying to round up into the wind. I have a little saying of mine from back packing days, "Mountains don't go up hill forever", meaning, "This too shall pass". We will soon be getting close to our time to turn and cross the equator and into what we hope to be a short passage through the dulldrums, hmmmm. Out of the frying pan and into the fire?

Truly, we can't complain. We have had an amazing first half run of this crossing and are doing just what we set out to do. Take each day and it's challenges as they come. We are working on setting up a bit new watch schedule and going to start dropping some of our radio nets so that we can get some more quality sleep, especially for Bruce. I promise I will make sure he is just waking up from a nap, rather than just going down for one before I let him have another crack at writing a journal entry, though it was an amusing tale wasn't it.

Nap? Nap? (Bruce here...again) I take offense with the term, Nap. A nap is something you take on a lazy Sunday afternoon possibly between football games or while watching an old movie. Children and old people take naps. A nap is not trying to eek out 5 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period (if Im lucky) while fish and all other matters of sea life try to board your boat because they prefer a less aquatic lifestyle. Im not complaining Im just saying you can tell who has gotten 10 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours and who has gotten,, lets just say less.... a whole lot less. Im sure my writing would be much more eloquant if I had gotten that much sleep. Okay maybe not. Who am I kidding no it wouldnt.....I need a nap...

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 11 - Change is Good

Day 11 4/9/06 4:31 am
Coordinates............ 05 01.978N, 127 48.272W
Heading................ approx. 209
Boat speed..............6 knots
24 hr total nm .........150 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 1600 nm
Wind direct. & speed....N/NE 12 - 15 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3 - 6 ft.
Cloud cover.............85%
Barometer...............994

What a different a day makes! Judging by all the rain and small squalls we have be through today, we have decided we must have entered the that ITCZ. Rain, Rain, Rain, glorious rain. Bet all you Washington folks didn't want to hear that word again. These are the first drops of significant precipitation we have seen in over 6 - 7 months. We were tickled pink. It was such a nice change to see that even the boys were excited and put out bowls to collect it. The boat looks a little cleaner and we were all happy for the distraction. Dare I say it made us a bit homesick. The squalls were never very big and did not carry much wind so it was always enjoyable to watch them form and move on the radar. The swells as well seemed to be a little less busy today giving us all a break. Though I was informed that after I went to sleep tonight for Bruce's first shift, we clocked 35 knots sustained and up to 40+ gusts. Apparently I can sleep through anything.

We have nearly come to our mark to begin our turn, thus the new compass heading tonight. We have been reviewing our weather faxes called grib files. They are a picture of the wind, where it is and where it is projected to be over the next 48 hours. From those, we try to anticipate where and when is the best place to cross the equator. We have chosen now to begin that process. At present we have a fairly straight shot to the Marquesas but we shall see what happens in the middle. The big issue for most people becomes, how much fuel do you have left?, how many hours of motoring/charging remain? In discussion with all the boats out here, the big surprise has been just how much more we run our batteries down than expected. Everyone is having a hard time maintaining very full batteries. Personally, we have never had them run so low. Between the refrigerator, freezer, computers and the auto pilot, the they are all working extremely hard and take a lot of juice. Thus we are trying to keep our consumption down to a minimum.

To add to poor Bruce's sleepy head issues, we are doing this funny time change shuffle, which has us confused at any given moment. As we travel west, we are changing back a few time zones in a matter of days. We add to that day light saving time, and a few other boats that are never in the same zone at the same time. Lastly, all the radio nets that we listen to are in UTC time, which was hard enough to keep track of when we did know what time it was. Again, add in our sleepy heads and we nearly have smoke coming out our ears each time we try to figure out where we are. At this point we are lucky to remember each others names. Hopefully in a few days we will all be on the other side, more rested and wiser for the efforts.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 12

Day 12 4/10/06 3:31 am
Coordinates............ 02 53.680N, 129 00.767W
Heading................ approx. 180 when motoring, 210 when sailing
Boat speed..............6 knots
24 hr total nm .........165 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 1770 nm
Wind direct. & speed....W/SW 8 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....NE 3 - 6 ft.
Cloud cover.............85%
Barometer...............992

Wow, we are knocking down those latitudes now. It was pretty exciting when we crossed into that 5N parallel. Each one closer towards the equator brings excitement. We all circle around the radio, which happens to list our latitude/longitude, and watch it click down to the next whole latitude,
(i.e. 03 00.000N), much like you would watch your car click over to 100,000 miles. The things you do for enjoyment on a boat. We have begun to plan our party for crossing the equator. It is customary to throw a special celebration by paying homage to King Neptune, offering him up some of your most expensive libation over board, saying the few appropriate words of thanks for letting us cross and we will ceremoniously turn from polywogs into shell backs. The title bestowed on those who have crossed the equator on water. We will let you know how the party goes in a couple of days.

All three boats traveling near us have begun their descent as well, turning left as we say. It was rather anticlimactic for us. You envision sailing west, west, west, for days and then there was to be this big change of the sails, change of course and just like Peter Pan, turn and follow the star straight on till morning. The way the winds were hitting us, all we had to do was angle a little farther south. It is as though we are continuing to slide down a never ending hill. We did have glorious wind for the last 24 hours. No less than 20 knots charging us along. The rain showers continued on more than off as well for the last 24 hours. Luckily never packing more punch than we were ready for. Just as of 8pm tonight I believe that would be 1400 utc/zulu time or 10 pm Pacific time (I'm getting the hang of this I think), the winds died down sufficiently that we had to begin our motoring phase of getting through the dulldrums. Maybe we will finally get to recharge all the poor electronics on the boat.

The first few boats that starting the crossing early are beginning to make landfall in Hiva Oa, the first port of entry. Each day at noon we listen to the west bound or Puddle Jump Net and I can usually count up to 25 boats or so that are crossing. A few are traveling to Hawaii but most are heading our direction. It is rather exciting to hear their whoops of joy and exclamations as they describe seeing land. Let's us know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I just checked our course and there are less than 200 miles to the equator and less than 1,000 miles to the Islands, but whose counting.
It's all downhill from here. :)

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 9

Day 9 4/7/06 2:40 am
Coordinates............ 08 08.402N, 123 09.635W
Heading................ approx. 235
Boat speed..............6-7 knots
24 hr total nm .........162 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 1200 nm
Wind direct. & speed....N/NE 15 - 20 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3 - 6 ft.
Cloud cover.............5%
Barometer...............999

Ships Ahoy! Exciting morning when we made our rounds of radio calls this morning to get each others coordinates and realized we were within 3-5 miles of s/v Capaz and s/v Long Tall Sally. I went up top and low and behold, I could see each of them in the distance with us sandwiched between. Lawur was a few more miles to the west but still within radio range. Amazing to travel so many miles and begin to converge now. We are all keeping nearly the same track now as we all prepare together to get into position and wait for the right moment to cross the equator. There is an invisible band of sorts, called the ITCZ, inter tropical convergence zone, that lies roughly between 05N and 05S latitudes, straddling the equator. It is comprised of the area where the northern and southern trade winds die out and creates an area of little to no wind and unsettled weather. It tends to widen and narrow, move north and south as it pleases, so our goal is to find the most narrow point of it and shoot across as fast as we can. Together each day, we listen to our radio weather guy, "Don", read our weather faxes and discuss amongst ourselves when and where this should happen. Looks like we are in a pretty good spot at the moment so we will keep our fingers crossed.
Keeping things moving right along. We have kept up the same sail configuration for a while now. As long as the winds stay within this nice 12-22 knot range we are fairly comfortable. Much less than that and we really start to feel the effect of the swell as we flail around, much more than that and we might rethink how much canvas we would like out, especially at night when there is only one person up. We are set nearly perfectly on what they call the "Rum Line", or a perfect straight shot for the islands at our 235 heading. As the winds die down and change nearer to the equator that will change so we shall just see what the future holds.
Today was laundry day. Our first load for the crossing. You don't change clothes that often out here, thank goodness, therefore there isn't much to wash. Mom will be tickled to know we used our travel clothes line back in the cockpit. Worked out great. Doesn't require any clothespins, and I don't have to gear up in my harness to go forward to hang laundry on the lifelines. The added bonus is that they aren't then sprayed by salt water thus negating the entire washing anyhow.
The art project today was clay creatures. Snakes, germ creatures and beads Oh My. Unfortunately, mom let them go a little long in the oven and they are a wee burnt. We will have to try that one again.
The gang on Capaz has been the big fishermen of the trip and caught a 3 ft.+ Wahoo today. Monster fish with big teeth we hear. They have inspired us to drop the line in again tomorrow. I think up to now we have been afraid we might actually catch something. You may remember what happened last time we brought one on board. Our luck with timing, all heck with the wind or sails would break out right when the fish got on. We'll keep you posted.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 8

Day 8 4/6/06 3:52 am
Coordinates............ 09 32.286N, 121 04.656W
Heading................ approx. 235
Boat speed..............7 knots
24 hr total nm .........158 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 1200 nm
Wind direct. & speed....N/NE 15 - 20 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 6 - 8 ft.
Cloud cover.............5%
Barometer...............996

Happy to say it was a very quiet and uneventful day. Completed a nice day of school, had home made pizza for dinner and sailed on. ahhhhhh. We are working on setting our course a bit further south. We have had some good luck today sailing with what they call a wing on wing sail configuration. It means putting the sail out on either direction much like wings to maximize the ability to catch the wind when it is directly behind you. Despite the swell coming from the side and continuing to make this a rolly affair we are making good time and getting a lot of miles in. 1,000 miles down, 2,000 more to go. whew!
Today in school Matthew was practicing looking up words in the dictionary. To make it more fun we had him hunt in the fish book to see if he could find this flying fish we have been telling you about. Here is what he found. We had a few to choose from and the best we can tell, these are Sharpchin flyingfish (pez velador) fodiator acutus, up to 9.5" long, not as common as the California Flyingfish. It says the pectoral fins, which act as wings are not as big as the California variety there do not fly as well. I'd like to see the California one then because these guys are amazing. They go for amazing distances and truly have the ability to rise and dive, bank and curve though the air as well as any small sparrow or bat we've ever seen. Well done Matthew.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

1 WEEK

Day 7 4/5/06 4:18 am
Coordinates............ 10 36.219N, 118 25.351W
Heading................ approx. 255
Boat speed..............7 knots
24 hr total nm .........145 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....948 nm
Wind direct. & speed....N/NE 10 - 15 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 6 - 8 ft.
Cloud cover.............5%
Barometer...............996 hPa

WOW, one week has passed, Blink. It doesn't seem to matter where you are land or water, those days can still slip right past you. We are still chasing the wind around waiting for what we hope to be true North Easterlies that might send us across the equator. Until then we followed it course and stayed nearly true west today. The seas are even a bit lumpier today. Nobody around here seems to mind although, I do think it disrupts our sleep more than we realize.

Today's story is about the beauty and the beasts of cruising life. We had the spinnaker flying and were making great time. This brought out a large pod of dolphins riding on our bow and all around us. As we watched joyfully, the wind took a quick shift wrapping the sail around one of the forestays and by the time we had it unwrapped there was unfortunately a tear in it. We quickly got it down on the deck, dug out our sail repair kit and went to work. We repaired it and had it right back up when we realized we had missed one, maybe two. Back down it came and a couple more quick repairs. Back up it went. Rather proud of our job we flew it a while longer and decided not to tempt fate anymore that day. The winds were just to fluky and continued to shift constantly and as they picked up we realized we could make just as good if not better time with our jib. We have come to realize that there is a very narrow window of ideal wind for this poor sail. Down it came one more time. I think we could do this in our sleep now. I have to say there is nothing practice and experience to provide you knowledge. Obviously, I know. But I have learned more in this one week about this boat, electrical, sail trimming, radio frequencies, compass headings and angles of every sort, shape and size. It is fun to feel a bit more proficient if I do say so myself.

Today was one of those surreal moments when you look up and survey the scene around you. You see ocean all around you, lobbing over swell and wave, harnessed up, surrounded in colorful sails and realize you certainly never envisioned yourself here, but couldn't imagine being anywhere else, doing anything else, with anyone else. This is one reason why we took this trip. To challenge ourselves, take on whatever comes our way and needs our attention.
Challenge yourself.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 6

Day 6 4/4/06 4:39 am
Coordinates............ 10 45.505N, 116 04.598W
Heading................ approx. 213
Boat speed..............6 knots
24 hr total nm .........145 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....948 nm
Wind direct. & speed....N 8 - 9 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3-5 ft.
Cloud cover.............5%
Barometer...............1000 hPa

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...moving right along here. We are starting to turn our course a little more southerly now which puts the wind directly at our back at the moment. If it was a bit stronger wind we could sail a little more comfortably, as it would stabilize us and take the roll out of the swell. We are not complaining, any movement forward is good movement for us. Actually you get quite accustomed to the motion and when in fact we do have a super smooth sail even the boys pop their heads us a little more and question if we are moving or not. At one point Matthew said he couldn't sleep without it and feared if it went away.
We did have our first potential serious mechanical scare today. I mentioned that spectacular device yesterday, the autopilot. Well, the one we consider to be the primary and most important one decided to give up the ghost today. The last time that happened we had to ship it to the east coast for repair. Not an option here. It upped the stress level greatly as we considered the true possibility that we may have to hand steer the boat for the next 2000 miles or so until landfall. Harness me up and strap me to the steering column, I'm ready! You don't realize just how heavily you rely on it until you consider it in that light. The back up was still functional but really only does well in minimal wind. Luckily Bruce was able to isolate what we think may be the issue, get it back up and running for the night and tomorrow we will investigate a bit farther. It seems as though the way the control panels are set up, many instruments run off the same set, including the wind instruments, depth and speed meters. When one goes, they all tend to be disturbed. At the moment we are functional and as far as I am concerned, all's well that ends well.
On the happy side, we did see our first pod of dolphins today. Hadn't seen them in a really long time. We have also grown rather fond of our bird buddy and his pals. Tristan likes to keep watch and make sure he is never to far away. Those poor birds really do need a to work on their flying, or at least landing. Maybe they should take a lesson from their watery pals the flying fish. Remind me to tell you more about them later as they are truly amazing!

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 5

Day 5 4/3/06 3:30 am
Coordinates............ 12 09.241N, 114 03.692W
Heading................ approx. 240
Boat speed..............6 knots
24 hr total nm .........145 nautical miles (NM)
Wind direct. & speed....N 8 - 9 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3-5 ft.
Cloud cover.............5%
Barometer...............1000 hPa

Another fine day of sailing. The winds seemed to be a bit lighter, so once again we brought out the spinnaker for part of the day. That also helps a lot to keep the boat more stable and less rolly with the swells. That makes for a very good school day for us. The boys took up their books today like pros as we started looking for new projects to do during the passage. An even better distraction is our newly adopted bird pal, we shall call him "poopy", much to the joy of 7 and 10 year old boys and much to the dismay of mom and dad who will have to clean up after him. He is a brown boobie baby and very comfortable with us. He will not hesitate to land on top of the biminy within inches of us. We can even reach up and touch his flat webbed feet. If we want him off we actually have to physically remove him. Unfortunately for him, he is not a very coordinated little fellow. We have witnessed quite a few missed attempts at landing on the boat, which have resulted in him flipping right of the back. Just before dark, we discovered he even has some friends he invited over for the night, imagine that.
Second item for the day, our auto pilot. We actually have two, one for backup. Our primary one tends to cause an electrical disturbance with the radios when we are communicating with other boats so we usually switch over to the back up for that short amount of time. The downside there is that it is not as effective or strong as our primary and tends to have a mind of it's own. Without warning, it may let loose of it's coordinate and begin to drive the boat in a circle. The amusing part of this story is that we have actually managed to go in 3 full circles before we noticed once. Without any land in sight as a reference it is difficult to tell which direction you are going. Thank goodness for GPS. I guess since we are already rocking and rolling, and our sensory perceptions are already a bit off whack, it takes us a moment to notice. We keep a close watch on it now when we use it. At that rate we may end up back in WA before we know it.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 4

Day 4 4/2/06 2:30 am
Coordinates............ 13 17.129N, 111 38.147W
Heading................ approx. 240
Boat speed..............7 knots
24 hr total nm .........147 nautical miles (NM)
Wind direct. & speed....N 15 - 20 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3-6 ft.
Cloud cover.............5%
Barometer...............1000 hPa

A little less sailing this morning and a little more motoring as it took the winds a while to decide when and where to show up. By afternoon though we were able to put the spinnaker back up which lasted until nearly midnight. The winds are choosing to stay directly out of the North still. We are hoping they will turn soon to a little more NE and then we will have our ride.

The boys enjoyed their last day of freedom as we will tackle our first full day of school tomorrow. Today in science we read about fossils which of course led to the only appropriate movie of choice after a day of mastodon bones, ICE AGE. They also got their first showers off the back of the boat. Slightly tentative but they are clean none the less. Now that we are within better radio range with the other kid boats, the boys take full advantage of this new line of communication. I am not sure though if the inventor of the Ham radio would be proud or roll over in his grave as the discussion inevitably turns to the latest gains in Pokemon. I do keep in mind that these are the young hammies and sailors of the future so whatever gets them interested in utilizing the technologies is good for me. I must say that they are very savvy at this and handle themselves better than many adults I know.

We have now witnessed those crazy little flying fish that occasionally land themselves on the deck. They are pretty amazing to watch as they flap the heck out of their little fins. We have had a few squid make their way up here too. We heard that our buddies aboard Capaz dissected one for school. That could be a fun days lesson. If only we could find them before they are all dried out.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Day 3 4/1/06

Coordinates............ 14 20.197N, 109 16.281W
Heading................ 250
Boat speed..............7 knots
24 hr total nm .........167 nautical miles (NM)
Wind direct. & speed....N 20 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3-6 ft.
Cloud cover.............5%
Barometer...............1000 hPa

Cruising right along. We have been able to sail nearly entirely for the last day, starting up the motor only briefly to have a bit more juice to run the water maker. We have kept basically the same sail configuration with both sails full. The winds did die down enough this afternoon that we brought out the spinnaker and flew our beautiful colors for a few hours. All in all it has been very relaxing and comfortable. We have started to find evidence of poor sea life like flying fish scales stuck to the dodger and such but not seen any actual fish yet.

Everyone is back to full speed and we are eating like kings trying to make sure we use up all our produce before it goes bad on us. The refrigerator is only so big so a lot of produce gets left sitting out. It stays pretty warm here in the cabin which makes it all challenging. It is currently 84 degrees in here at 3am and quite sticky too. You can also judge the sea worthiness of a crew mates tummy when they can handle sitting and staring at a game boy for hours. The true indicator that they have their sea legs and are ready to start back to a full day of school. It is amazing how quickly they can look green though when that "s" word gets mentioned.

Today we played some board games and reading time. We did attempt to take showers off the back of the boat on the swim out step. Quite a feat when you think about the fact that the boat is whipping right along and will wait for no one. One soaping hand holding on at all times was fun. It felt great but that humid hot sticky feeling comes back pretty fast.

We have been able to make regular VHF and SSB radio contact with the other boats out here such as Lawur and Capaz. I believe some of them are within sight of each other. So far water, water everywhere for us. Dinner tonight was pork chops and tomato bisque soup. Movie de jour was Lion King 1 1/2.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Coordinates............ 16 01.368N, 105 39.812W
Heading................ 20
Boat speed..............12 knots
24 hr total nm .........200 nautical miles (NM)
Wind direct. & speed....N/NW 30-45 knts
Swell direct. & ht .....N 5-8 ft.
Cloud cover.............25%
Barometer...............1013 hPa

We are heading back folks.

Ok, ok, ok.. I know in my last update I said it was kind of cool having the boat list to one side all the time.  In reality, it is getting old quick!  I think by the end of this trip, our legs would be 6" shorter on one side.  Bruce here, yeah, I will second that notion.  I must admit that all these years being on the swim team, water polo team and sailing I actually have hydrophobia.  Also, it is REALLY dark out here at night.  The further we get away from shore, the darker it gets.  It is downright scary.  It has gotten so bad, I have been carrying around a small flashlight with me wherever I go.  Even during the daytime.  I also miss ice cream already.  That being said, we forgot to pack some things like well, food and dental floss.  I thought Lisa packed the food and she thought I packed it and the kids only brought a couple of candy bars and that isn't going to last.  We also finally have come to our senses.  What were we thinking?  This is a pretty small boat and that is A LOT of water to cross.  I mean we could just hop on a jet and be in Auckland in about 18 hours or so.  Anyhoo, we have had lots of fun on the trip so far and would do it all over again.  Before I forget happy birthday to Mike tomorrow!  April Fools everyone! This post by guest blogger Brady.  Bruce, Lisa, and the boys I am sure are having a blast. 

 

 

 

Day 2 - 3/31/06

Coordinates............ 16 01.368N, 105 39.812W
Heading................ 250
Boat speed..............7 knots
24 hr total nm .........145 nautical miles (NM)
Wind direct. & speed....N/NW 10-15 knts
Swell direct. & ht .....N 3-6 ft.
Cloud cover.............45%
Barometer...............995 hPa

So what does one do whilst floating around on the Pacific Ocean all day. Apparently a lot because it was hard to find the time to sit and write this note.
Actually the major job these first two days is simply adjusting, which I have to say this crew is doing very well. It took only about 12-24 hours for the smallest crew members to get over their sour tummies. They bounced right back and were ready for full meals, school and of course video games. The two larger crew members are quickly getting the hang of their 4 hour shifts. Taking power naps in the day time is kind of nice once you get the hang of them. School on the passage will go through some adjustments I'm sure. Fridays we reserve for fun so in addition to writing in journals and reading, today's agenda is making the reverse of a Christmas chain. Instead of removing a ring for the countdown we will be adding one with a memory of each day of the crossing.

Since we are only heading in one general direction, the boat is eternally healed over to the port side. Learning to function that way is a chore. I liken it to holding a pilates position for ever. You are never really at rest even when you are sitting or lying down. You constantly fight the pull. To get to the head you must climb up hill, to reach the galley you roll down hill. Add in the swells for some fun lumps and bumps and Disneyland rides have nothing on us. It can be fun if you just roll with it. (ha ha) Keeping this in mind everything just takes a lot longer to accomplish. Cooking meals is not any more difficult than I expected, just more tiring. Hopefully our endurance will continue to improve as well and I will need less recovery time between each task.

Next one must adjust to all the new smells, sights and sounds of being aboard and under way for so long. Some of these are pleasant and some are not so nice. The warm fresh air is so nice but even that is barely enough to cover the smells of produce that goes bad faster than you can eat it. The water out here is the deepest most beautiful royal blue. It makes even the most ominous swells look not so bad. A lot of people had asked us what would it be like to not be able to see land and personally I love it. It is an amazingly peaceful feeling not fearful at all. We have a constant brown boobie bird flying around with us though no hitchhikers yet. And this morning I did see a turtle go floating by. It takes a little time again to get used to all the creaks and bumps the boat makes as it charges through the water. Which one is worth your attention which one is not. Listening to the water run by can be very soothing. Hearing the boat slap down hard past the steep side of a swell will startle me out of the deepest sleep. We do spend quite a chunk of our day listening to the radio as well. With check-ins to various nets on the Ham Radio we know the location of approximately 20 other boats crossing the ocean right now. Though we can't see anyone it is nice to know that they are there. What still is the most amazing to me the sheer power of the wind. By no choice of it's own is being harnessed by us to propel all 15 tons of us through the water and in a specific direction none the less. It is awesome to feel the force that wants to turn the boat up into the wind and the keel and rudder fighting back to maintain a course. Impressive.

Time to go prepare the crew's grub. Today's menu's included French Toast for breakfast, ham sandwiches for lunch and chicken tacos for dinner. It will be a challenge to top last nights hamburgers though.
until next time,
love lisa and the boys

How many days does it take to cross the Pacific Ocean?

Friday March 31, 2006 LOCATION: Pacific Ocean
GOOGLE EARTH COORDINATES: 16 32.069N,104 10.352W

OK here's the spot for a little fun. We have a running pool amongst ourselves in the boat as to how long we thing it will take us to do the crossing. We have heard some boats made it as short as 19 some as long as 30 days. Here's our guesses:
Bruce 21 days,
Lisa 23 days,
Matthew 25 days,
Tristan 24 days,
reply on this blog and tell us what you think.
until next time,
lisa and the boys

Begin the puddle jump

Friday March 31, 2006 LOCATION: Pacific Ocean
GOOGLE EARTH COORDINATES: 16 32.069N,104 10.352W

Two and a half weeks whizzed by in Zihuatanejo as we enjoyed all our company and finalized our preparations and provisioning for the big leap. We had a wonderful time getting to know the lay of the land with Tim Mason and my parents, sister Krista and nephew Indiana. We had the opportunity to make some more great friendships with fellow cruisers and a special local named Delphino. Delphino had befriended the crew on Capaz and we were all so blessed to benefit from knowing this amazing 16 year old young man. Three extra side trips were fit in including a couple of days anchored up in Isla Grande for some swimming and surfing. We rented a car and took everyone up to a nice beach called Salidita for more fun in the sun and surf as well. One completely unexpected nor scheduled trip was to Guadalajara, where Bruce and our buddy Robert drove in a 24 hour period to retrieve new batteries for our boat. Long story short if you want it done in Mexico you need to do it yourself, so we did.

We believe Zihuatanejo has to be one of our favorite places of all in Mexico. Made up of 3 beaches, Municipal/Madera, La Ropa, and Los Gatos it has the complete package. A beautiful protected bay to anchor in though they do have some work to do on their sewer systems which makes the water questionable at times for swimming. It has a friendly authentic feel outside of the occasional cruise ship that anchored here twice a week. Great food and entertainment. One of our favorite activities is the fiesta that occurs every Sunday night in the square where you will find booths set up with every item of food you can imagine. There is always an activity going on as well such as a local dance troops demonstration. Any night of the week you will find activity there from basketball, volleyball, or local kids playing soccer. A large fishing community you can wait on the dock to see large sailfish retrieved from boats and carted away on bicycles any day of the week. From the row of pangas that line up each day to repair their nets for the next days catch and the pen set up to assist the baby turtles hatch to the rows and rows of cobble lined streets many without cars all filled with varieties of shops, food and characters we will miss it all.

Having said that it was time to move on and take the next step in our journey. Filled up with love and encouragement from family and friends we departed from Zihuatanejo and are on our way across the Pacific Ocean. We all feel ready. You can't feel better about it than the moment your 7 year old comes to you and says, "Mom, I feel confident about this, and thank you for getting my protection cloak ready for me". Upon further inquiry I realized he meant his lee cloth, the piece of material that holds him and keeps him from rolling out of bed as we heel over at night. Aside from a couple hours of motoring we have been sailing along with great winds 12-15 knots and busy seas, making great time. The waves and swell are not too confused (meaning they are going roughly the same direction) but they are big enough waves to keep you busy and tired when trying to stand up and function. I actually managed to cook hamburgers on the stove for everyone for our first meal out. The wind is coming a little more out of the west than we would like but that should come around in a few days as we work our way over to find the trade winds which should deliver us the rest of the way.

A couple of housekeeping items. We have updated the mailing list so if you find that you have received this message and would not like to receive any more please let us know and we will remove you. Likewise, if you know of anyone who would like to be added let us know as well. Though we have changed our email delivery system a bit it is still best to send all email to theMartins@ohanakai.net. Though the system occasionally acts up, that is the best way to be assured that we will receive it. I will be writing a daily journal entry to the blog site only and continue to send a weekly summary to everyone directly. You can check the website for the daily journal entry on the blog site or if you would like to receive it directly, daily, let me know and I will add you to that one as well. Check out the new google earth cruising tracker update at the web site. Let us know how it is working.

With our protection cloak wrapped around us from all you we are excited to start this next phase of our journey and can't wait to share it with you.
until next time,
lisa and the boys