Starting the Pacific Crossing

Sunday 9th March

Well we're off again on this voyage of adventures and repairs.

A very unusual thing happened at the start of this leg, BlueFlyer was at the start line on time! We actually sat in the cockpit before the start and fiddled around. Its a habit we must cultivate and do more often!

All the forecasters are saying no wind to speak of for the next 48 to 72 hours, but at the moment we are bowling along at 6.5 to 7 knots in a 12 knot breeze. This is caused by the sea breeze and the acceleration caused by the islands squeezing and accelerating the breeze. I suspect that when the islands are behind us we will be motor-sailing again. We have a position to head for to pick up the trade winds again. About 15 knots SE is the forecast for the rest of the trip once that happens.

This leg is the longest, being a couple of hundred miles longer than the Atlantic crossing with a small target at the end. We are all hoping for a smoother crossing, to get Shin speaking better English and for the rest of us to pick up some Japanese as a bonus. A further bonus is that Marcel has asked to rejoin the boat in Hiva Oa, I think its a compliment! He qualified as a PADI diver in Puerto Ayora whilst he was there. He has transferred to Whitbread for this leg. Shin and Paul are getting on well and Paul in turning into an English teacher at the moment. Shin has been hand steering for a while but Otto is back on again. We will put in a tack before nightfall to clear Isla Isabela, the largest island. It is right in front of us, about 17 miles ahead.

Several of the fleet are still in Puerto Ayora getting repairs done and waiting for parts to arrive. One boat pulled up his anchor this morning and I think his anchor windless pulled straight out of the deck. Another one, one of the other 49's, is still waitng for a new boom to come in. He has been travelling with us under engine for the last 2 legs. The start was between a light on the harbour and a water taxi. If I had been in the taxi I would not have been happy with several large, heavy and solid boats coming at me. As Paul said, you'd think it was the start of a dinghy race!!

As the batteries are a little low on volts, I have started the generator and put on the de-salinator to top off the water supply. As usual we have 2 full tanks forward, 500 ltrs, and the one aft, 250 ltrs, is connected to the watermaker. We will run off one of the forward tanks, and then use the aft one, keeping the other forward one in reserve. This takes 1/4 of a tonne out of the front of the boat.