Journal Entry – May 8, 2005 Pacific Puddle Jump – Day Four

Author: Pam

It is 0600 and we are sailing at 2.5 knots, the wind and the waves have been much lighter tonight than last night. Last night we were screaming along and pounded by some pretty good waves over the bow and starboard side. We discovered the leaks we had hoped were fixed are not and we have a few wet places in the boat. Not great news, but it could be a lot worse if the leaks were near the navigation equipment, so a blessing counted. So how do you manage an almost 3000 mile voyage? At this point in our trip we both agreed we needed to see tangible progress and watching the miles tick away from a total of 2,827 was going to make it difficult to feel the progress. So instead of one goal, we have ten. Sometimes this might be a worse case scenario, but in this case small victories will lead to the big one. I could get into the discussion of objectives versus goals, an age old discussion from my professional past, but I will spare you. Using a program called Visual Passage Planner Scott has set up ten waypoints breaking the trip down into increments averaging 280 miles. The program planning includes setting the most efficient course and gives you projected normal weather patterns, average wind and wave information. We hit the first waypoint yesterday morning two hours earlier than we expected and we are over 77 miles into the second one. Scott can’t help himself and he looks at the total several times a day, but at this point it is still an unfathomable number to me. We took down the Mexican courtesy flag yesterday. In addition to the American flag off our stern, we are only flying the 2005 Puddle Jump flag provided by Latitude 38 (a cruising magazine in the Bay Area), thanks Latitude!!! We will fly the French flag upon our arrival in the Marquesas. We will also fly the Q flag in some ports which puts the boat into quarantine until it and we have been cleared by the appropriate officials. More on those procedures as we experience them. The wind picked up early in the day and we have been cruising along. We put one reef in the mainsail around noon, the wind was up to 18 knots. It has been another bumpy ride with waves tossing us about. It feels like riding a bronco (not that I have done this), there have been several times I have been levitated in and or out of my seat. We found ourselves quite busy this afternoon. As mentioned earlier there is the matter of managing the food. We have packed food into the V-berth which seems to be working out so far, but it does require a “trip to the grocery store” if we need something. It seems to take about that much time to find the item/s. We never did find the renegade tortillas we were planning to have with chicken tacos for dinner. I saw them in Scott’s hand earlier, but apparently they have crawled into a hole. Chicken tacos turned into taco salad, still good and a bit easier to eat. We were able to consolidate at the grocery store, so the V-berth already feels a bit more manageable. You may recall we reclaimed the V-berth in La Paz, so we could actually sleep there when not underway. Reclaiming will require eating our way in this time. We don’t expect a chance before New Zealand or Australia. Today was also the first bug shower of the trip, it sure feels good when it is your only option. Lastly as today was Mother’s Day we gave our satellite phone the blue water test. We both were able to get through, and the signal was quite good. Nice to know it works out here, not that I had any doubts really.