By Arabella
It is Day 16 of our passage across the Pacific Ocean. With the help of the crazy strong current and great wind conditions, we’re arriving tomorrow morning which is half the time I thought it would take! No people, no land, no boats except for our friends Dragonfly. Sitting on the flybridge under the sun, looking towards the horizon enjoying the wonders and sounds of nature makes me appreciate how lucky I am to be sailing the biggest ocean in the world when I am only twelve! The sun reflecting against my glistening eyes, the sail bagging the soothing breeze blowing onto us; the sound of the ocean crashing down creating white horses, the luffing of our sails and the squeaking our boom makes as it swings left and right; it felt like I was on cloud nine. This is my surreal adventure crossing the Pacific Ocean.
I anticipated this passage to be a whole lot more stressful and frightening than our last ocean, the Atlantic. I was often given the job to steer the boat into the wind as we put up sails and dropped them. I would also have to start doing night watches instead of sleeping, and had to concentrate on the wind and the sea more than I’ve ever had to. Daddy and the others had a lot of trust in me. I had people’s lives in my hand, if I messed up something could break leading to chaos or worse.
On the third day of the passage we had to bring Dragonfly’s Amandine and her sewing machine onto our boat so we could fix the holes in our parasail. We had to bring our dinghy down in the middle of the Pacific Ocean while a huge swell pushed our boat from the back. Daddy slowly lowered the dinghy and told me to get in before it was completely down to get it ready. before I got in, a huge swell hit the dinghy from the side and knocked it breaking the bridle. The dinghy tilted to the side and water was flowing in. If I had gotten into the dinghy at the time I would have been seriously injured! Tension was everywhere. Busy bees scurried around following orders so we wouldn’t lose our dinghy. We slowly lowered the dinghy all the way and I carefully got in with a life jacket and a helmet. I unclipped the other bridle that didn’t break and drove the dinghy slowly away from the boat. I drove the dinghy to Dragonfly while their parasail was up. I went at the same speed as them so I was moving with them and Amandine hopped into the dinghy. We were passed the sewing machine and I drove back to Arabella. We got out and tied the dinghy onto a long rope and it drifted behind us. Once the parasail was fixed, I drove Amandine back to her boat and we brought the dinghy back up with a new bridle.
Something else I was doing on the passage was drawing and painting. The beauty in the Pacific Ocean for me was captured in multiple sketches I did to cure my boredom. I drew sunsets, sails and dragonfly with paint, pencils and brushes. You can draw a million things when you look out to the horizon. It may look like it’s just water and sky, but there’s much more.
The wind died down at one point and we were waiting for Dragonfly to catch up to us. What better to do than go swimming!? We changed into our swimming costumes and jumped in holding onto a rope. The water was cool, clear and cold. The swell pushed us in and out, all I could think of was “ I am swimming in the Pacific Ocean” and “ I hope a shark doesn’t eat me”. We climbed out on the ladder that kept getting pushed up by the waves. My feelings were amazement and amazement. “I did that” I said to myself over and over again.
I have my night watch from 9-11pm every night. looking out for squalls, or a dramatic change in the wind speed or direction. Eloped in my blanket, eyes fixed to the charts occasionally looking around to see Dragonfly, ready for anything to happen. Feeling the wind on my cheek, telling me if our boat changed direction or if the wind did. It’s not only stress on night watches, there is more than just being bored. Being sucked into the array of stars, creating different constellations with them. staring at the Milky Way then seeing a shooting star soar through the sky and fade into the beautiful night sky. Looking down into the water seeing bright white tubes gliding next to you, a school of dolphins in the fast fluorescence spraying water into the air, and of course the sweets and chocolate brought up every night to keep you from falling asleep.
The last night was the most stressful of them all. The wind was over 30 knots and it wasn’t safe for our 1 reef main sail. We waited until the wind got a little bit lighter and headed into the wind to add another reef in. It went down smoother than butter on a knife but when we tightened it it went the opposite. The reefing line hooked around our boom, so when we let the topping lift down our boom lowered onto our bimini. The reefing line then pulled our boom bag down and snapped the lazy bag line causing the bag and sail to droop over the side of our boom. We quickly dropped our whole sail and I climbed up the boom and checked what was the problem and to zip up the sail bag.
Overall this experience was wonderful. I felt excited but relieved I didn’t have to do more watches and could have a long peaceful sleep not worried about being woken up to bring a sail down or something. Through all the stress and teamwork, we came out alive full of stories to share. I’m so grateful for this once in a lifetime journey I never expected to have done when I was younger. I hope to have more amazing experiences just like this.