Pacific crossing Part 4

Annoying calm, slalom between squalls, Richi our new co-sailor and a sporty final spurt!

We spend 31 days on the Pacific without setting foot on land. Four people, 4150 nautical miles, one ship. Every 24 hours (always at midday) we recorded the distance travelled  (Etmal) in nautical miles and the average speed in knots, as well as taking a crew photo of the day. Come with us on our adventure!

Day 22

The night was beautiful with lots of dolphins. In the morning we check the weather and chat to Tarpan on the radio. That's cool, because it means we're close enough for radio contact! After a bit of sport, we take Simi down because gusts of up to 19 knots are coming in. For lunch we eat our version of empanadas filled with tuna - delicious! The boys sit at the bow and crochet, Thierry and I make new lures and put a new line on the fishing rod. After an hour, something bites again and unfortunately breaks the line again.... The fish here are just too big, and we are probably too fast. We are still riding the current, sometimes with over 8 knots... In the evening we eat pasta with pumpkin, change our night shift routine and set the clock back;

Etmal: 165 nm, average speed: 6.9 kn

Day 23

Again, lots of dolphins visit us early in the morning. And: my yoghurt has finally become yoghurt!!! 😊 There's a bit more wind today, up to 25 knots in gusts and a somewhat uncomfortable wave from the side. We are lazy. We have gnocchi with bacon and mushrooms for lunch and a lentil and pumpkin dal in the evening. Absolutely NOTHING happened today, wonderful 😊 Then in the evening the ultimate breaking news: Gecko has turned up! Our Hitchhiker Gecko from Panama, we thought we'd never see him again! 😊

Etmal: 173sm, average speed: 7.2

Day 24

The wind shifts and we set a rather bad course at night. In the morning we go into the butterfly and make good progress with 20 knots of wind. We have rice salad with chickpeas for lunch. Later in the afternoon the wind drops and we pull Simi up again. I try my hand at a tortilla de patatas, but it turns out more like mashed potatoes than anything else. Also delicious 😊

Etmal: 148 nm, average speed: 6.2 kn

Day 25

Nie night goes ok but in the morning, as forecast, the wind dies. We are sailing a shitty course as we can't hold our course in 5-7 knots of wind without the sail falling out of the sky. A bit of a crap day... We try to keep our spirits up with delicious food (fresh bread and lentil curry) and music, which works quite well. In the late afternoon we give up and take Simi down, the engine starts. In the evening, the fat cloud that has been following us for a long time finally arrives and brings a bit of wind. Rain too, but we don't care, the main thing is wind! We eat risotto with pumpkin for dinner.

Etmal: 118 nm, average speed: 4.9 knots

Day 26

Luckily the wind has stayed. Not much, but enough for stable sails. The boys listen to audio books, Thierry secretly dances to Jan Delay in the cockpit. That makes me smile 😊 It's very quiet in the evening and we have a little raclette chat, how cool is that! As we don't have enough cheese for four people, it's only an aperitif, but it tastes really good 😊 Then we have chilli without carne (haha, culture shock). We set the clock back an hour and off we go into the night!

Etmal: 116 nm, average speed: 4.8 kn

Day 27

Unfortunately, the wind left us at night. I had a bit of a mental breakdown because I couldn't bear such a long time at sea, little sleep, constant wobbling and then flapping sails. Fortunately, my dear captain has comforted me 💗 The engine starts and unfortunately stays running pretty much all day. At lunchtime we have leftovers from yesterday's chilli. We see clouds everywhere, one squall after another catches up with us. But no matter how nasty they look, somehow none of them bring any wind. Zero, zero, nada. Bathing stop for the boys, Thierry takes a look at our hull. It's now covered in barnacles, which really slow us down. In the evening we eat falafel with pumpkin vegetables and peanut sauce. Mega delicious. After sunset comes the ultimate monster swell with rain and 30 knots of wind. And finally we're sailing again.

Etmal: 146 nm, average speed: 5.5 kn

Day 28

Yayyyyyy we are still sailing. We have stable 15-25kn wind and 1kn current with us, we are fastlll with sometimes over 7kn speed. The sea has become a little choppier and there are supposed to be waves of around 3.5 metres over the next few days. That could be uncomfortable, but the destination is getting closer and we're making good progress, so we take it in our stride! For lunch, we treat ourselves to the last courgette (however it managed to survive for so long) with pasta. We read and sleep a lot, the boys do sport. In the evening we have pasta salad and Thierry bakes a tomato-and-olive wreath.

Etmal: 156nm, average speed: 6.5kn

Day 29

The night is still calm, in the morning we have lots of squalls. We're making good progress and that's great for the psyche. Apart from cooking and chilling out, we don't do much else these days. For lunch we have trachana, a speciality from Greece, with pineapple sauce & spicy tofu, in the evening polenta with preserved ragout and dried beans - yummy!!! 😊

Etmal: 163 nm, average speed 6.8 kn

Day 30

The night was exhausting with lots of wind and squalls. The waves are high and sometimes break into the cockpit. The final spurt is tough 😉 We have 30 knots of wind and ride between the water mountains. Our new passenger "Richi" the Töplel sits on the solar panel all day. Today is a classic pesto pasta day, because cooking is no fun in these conditions. In the afternoon we change course to butterfly and have the waves more from behind. Dings & Bums make rice pudding with apple sauce for dinner. We see a small light on the horizon - it's Tarpan! And so we enter the last night of this Pacific crossing - madness.

Etmal: 151 nm, average speed: 5.8kn

Day 31

The night was quick, we overtook Tarpan. Thierry wakes us up at sunrise and we crawl out into the cockpit. There it is, we see an island. We haven't seen land since Galapagos, we've been on the move non-stop for 30 days. And now the island of Tahuata is there, close enough to touch, mystically shrouded by clouds and fog and bathed in orange light by the rising sun. It feels like I'm in a film, my emotions are boiling over. Together with Tarpan, we sail around the southern tip of the island and it becomes flat. No more waves, no more rocking and clattering. We enter the bay (in epic group outfits, of course), see our friends who are already here and drop anchor. We are here. We've crossed the Pacific. Or at least half of it😉

Etmal: 140 nm, average speed: 6.1 kn

Review week 4

Nautical miles travelled: 1,326 (total: 4,150)

Of which with engine: 17h (total: 93h, 15%)

Average speed: 6.1 kn

Conclusion:

If I had to describe the Pacific crossing in one word, it would be "strong". The crew worked really well together and the boat did a great job. We were able to solve all the big and small problems we had. The impressions of nature, the sunsets and sunrises, the fish, the wind, the waves. The shared moments, the conversations, the delicious food, the teamwork. And the best gift of all for me: there was never a situation in which I was really scared. Strong, from A to Z. 😊

What kind of underwater giants we meet in the Marquesas, how we escape from a tsunami and in what places we pitch our tent?

You'll find out soon...