Pacific crossing Part 1
The last steps ashore, manoeuvres between thunder and lightning, buddy boating with L'Egaloupio, 7 hours of drifting without an engine, visits from sharks and the biggest fish Cervino has ever seen.
We spend 31 days on the Pacific without setting foot on land. Four people, 4150 nautical miles, one ship. Every 24 hours (always at noon) 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 1
Today is the day. We stretch our legs on the beach one last time, and shortly after midday we weigh anchor. Together with SY Seven (a little earlier than us) and SV Tarpan (a little later than us), we leave Las Perlas and set course for the Pacific. The crew are Dings (aka David aka Minister of Gains), Bums (aka Dan aka Minister of Kitchen), Tizzie Dizzie (aka Thierry aka Minister of Captaineering) and Miss Moscheli (aka Mogli aka Ministress of Engineering). We have 15 knots of wind and catch our first fish, which we eat straight away for dinner with rice and vegetables. Several thunderstorms pass around us and at midnight the wind goes to sleep.....
Etmal: 105 nm, average speed: 4.8 kn
Day 2
The night was calm, unfortunately with very little wind. We motored and in the early morning Thierry saw a tail fin diving next to us - a whale? We stop for a quick swim and meet up with L'Egaloupio, a friend's boat that started directly from Panama. We have wraps with fish for lunch. A little wind comes up in the late afternoon and we can sail. In the evening we eat Asian noodles and soon go to bed.
Etmal: 135 nm, average speed: 5.6 kn
Day 3
We were able to sail almost the whole night, a small thunderstorm cell hit us at around 4.00 am and made us wet for a short time. In the early morning we hear the fiiiiiiiiiigght alarm!!! The fishing rod buzzed and we were curious to see what was pulling on the line! It was a tree. We stop for a swim and L'Egaloupio throw us a few kilos of tuna that they've caught and can't eat in pairs. We are of course delighted and give them a tube of wasabi in return, so we make delicious sushi for dinner, with dream conditions.
Etmal: 91 nm, average speed: 3.8 kn
Day 4
It was an exhausting night with lots of thunderstorms. In the morning we lost two fish, one with bait. And then it happens: the engine stutters and cuts out. It soon becomes clear that the diesel line in the tank has sucked in something and is blocked. We spend the whole day making a makeshift solution. L'Egaloupio is waiting for us, which means a lot to us. It's good to know that you're not alone on the ocean. The engine is running again at around 16:00, 7 hours have now passed and we have drifted 3 nm backwards... Morally, this day was very, very exhausting. True to the motto: just don't lose your nerve..... Later we get a visit from Ferdinant the bird and the smallest fish in the Pacific bites us. We set him free again. A bit of wind comes up and the engine stops. I hope it starts again....
Etmal: 96 nm, average speed: 4.0 kn
Something seems to be floating around in our diesel tank that doesn't belong in there. This has blocked the supply line for the engine inside the tank. Unfortunately, we can't get to it as we don't have any openings in the tank. We tried blowing into the pipe to blow out the blockage, but that didn't work even with the help of the kite pump.
Our solution was to draw the diesel for the engine directly from a canister and fill it again and again. To ensure that this works reliably and that the canisters don't slosh around while sailing, we milled a few holes in the berth wall and attached a tensioning strap.
When opening the diesel lines, the connection of the hand pump unfortunately broke off, so we had to cobble something together with parts on board. Of course there was still air in the system and we had to bleed the injection nozzles.
We also have to refill the canister every 3 hours so that the engine doesn't draw in air and switch off again. And the question arises: can we somehow get the 150 litres of diesel from the main tank into canisters? Otherwise we'll run out of fuel.....
The engine ran three times for half an hour and we thought it was fine until it went out again and we had to go looking for the problem again. On the fourth time it was finally really good, but we were both pretty morally exhausted. We then tackled the real problem in Polynesia.....
Day 5
We had to motor a lot during the night and I slept terribly badly. Your mind is on a rollercoaster in situations like this. But so far our temporary solution is working well and starting and stopping also works. In the morning we managed to pump diesel from the main tank into an empty canister, because there are still 150 litres in there and we can't do without them. We have rice salad for lunch today. The sea is as smooth as glass, we make a great swimming stop and are visited by four sharks as we set off, which snatch our fish from the line. Shortly afterwards, we catch the biggest fish we will hopefully ever catch: A sailfish. More than 2m long and weighing over 60kg. About 30kg of fish end up in our small freezer, 6kg we have thrown over to L'Egaloupio. So for dinner we have sashimi without end, this fish tastes really good. Exhausted, we fall into our bunks.
Etmal: 110 nm, Â average speed: 4.6 kn
Day 6
The wind came up during the night and stayed, a look at the weather app confirms: we have arrived in the wind! The calm zone is over, now it's time to sail! And we have to sail hard into the wind, because it's blowing right on our noses. The current is also against us, making it difficult to head south. The ship is leaning and pitching through the waves, the crew is a bit flat and has to get used to the situation. We eat linguine with cream sauce & fish for lunch, in the evening we have fish wraps with mango-banana chutney.
Etmal: 123 nm, average speed: 5.1 kn
Day 7
Second day only under sail, we don't do anything at all. Ok, I did do something, namely bake banana bread. For lunch we have gnocchi with fish, in the evening we need a fish break and eat spaghetti aglio & olio. At midnight we throw a little party because it's Bums' birthday!!!
Etmal: 112 nm, average speed: 4.7 kn
Review week 1
Total nautical miles travelled: 772
Of which with motor: 59 h (35%)
Average speed: 4.7 kn
How we poison ourselves at sea, how Poseidon visits us on the equator and which tasty animals hop onto our deck?
Off we go into the second week!