By Delphine
Day 12 into our Pacific passage. It is a beautiful, humbling and sometimes frightening experience. Just our crazy family on this boat fully immersed in the elements of wind, sun, clouds and waves of the Pacific Ocean, day in and day out, without a soul in sight except our buddy boat Dragonfly.
For me, this passage is way more daunting than our Atlantic crossing. When we crossed the Atlantic, we had two extra professional crew. During that passage, I was mostly looking after children, reading books and preparing meals. Sailing and watch duties fell on others. However this time it is just our family and big Alex. While I have utter faith in Grant’s sailing and captaining abilities, I have strong reservation about my own competency. I know I need to step up to become a useful and helpful crew during this long passage.
Since the departure of our crew last year, I have learnt more about sailing by doing, practicing and making a ton of mistakes. I can now name all our sails and know when to use each – main sail, genoa, storm jib, gennekar and parasail. I also learnt all the different names of what’s essentially a rope – sheets, guy, halyard, reefing line, downhaul, topping lift, painter, etc. Most importantly I learnt how to read the chart plotter and instruments to monitor the changing winds, make adjustments accordingly and hand steer the boat if auto pilot fails which happens from time to time.
We have had amazing wind since the start of the journey. We had initially anticipated 3-4 weeks of sailing but now appears to be able to complete the 3200nm journey in just 16 days. Even though the wind has been quite strong and we were sailing at fast speed of 9-13kt, the sea has been mostly calm and the boat was sailing downwind steadily and comfortably.
For me the night watch is definitely the most stressful and challenging task because you are on your own in the dark up on the flybridge and you’re responsible for everybody’s safety. Grant often pops in to check during everyone’s watch but he must also get some sleep in order to perform and make sound decisions as the captain, so for the better part you’re on your own. One must always be vigilant and on high alert because wind shifts constantly. Grant made us all aware of the grave consequences if we make a mistake.
This is our watch shift for the passage.
9-11pm Arabella
11-2am Delphine
2-5am Big Alex
5-8am Grant
Day time – Everybody
The day before yesterday was the most challenging day thus far. Early in the day, we shifted from a westerly to a southwesterly heading for the final stretch towards the Marquesas. The sea was angry with big swells and waves. The wind picked up and was blowing hard. Sky was gloomy and grey. With the strong wind and bumpy sea, the auto pilot wasn’t working very well and we were going left and right with the risk of rounding up and gaining too much speed. Intervention is often necessary, so Grant pushed us to hand steer. Both big Alex and I weren’t comfortable with hand steering, so Arabella went first. Watching a 12 years old driving this big boat filled me with pride and awe. She definitely got her dad and grandfather’s sailing genes. She is natural, instinctive and confident and she always seems to know what needs to be done. With a bit of practice, I was getting a hang of hand steering and it wasn’t as scary as I thought.
Poor Grant had a long stressful day fixing broken reefing line, setting sail to the changing weather condition and just driving the boat forward. He was exhausted and desperately needed some rest.
The strong wind and big swell didn’t abate in the evening and so we were all prepared for a hellish night. We changed our shift so that Arabella didn’t have to on night shift. Grant took over Arabella’s watch and I came on watch next. During Grant’s watch, he reset the sail and made the boat a lot steadier without veering off too much. However the wind picked up again to 20-25kt (true wind speed) and the boat was flying. Grant stayed with me for a while until I felt comfortable being on my own. I got used to the strong wind, high boat speed, the swaying motion and the booms and bangs when waves hit the hulls of the boat. I had the sensation of being a speed racing driver in pitch black darkness. Strangely I felt exhilarated rather than terrified. There were sustained strong gusts and I had to correct the autopilot multiple times as the boat was rounding up and apparent wind angle dropping rapidly while apparently wind speed shooting up. One time I felt a huge gust and the boat gaining speed rapidly, I immediately turned off the autopilot, stood up and started steering the boat away from the wind. The true wind speed went up to 30kts which was the highest so far in this passage! O boy, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the gust subsided. Phew!!! At one point, I saw myself from the sky, driving this big catamaran on the flybridge in the middle of Pacific Ocean while everyone was asleep. It was surreal and wild. Who would’ve thought it possible?
I feel like I made a breakthrough in becoming a good crew during this passage. It’s a necessity because big Alex will leave at some point after we get to the French Polynesia and Grant will need all the help he could get from me.
Sailing aside, I’ve really enjoyed the crossing. There is a certain sense of simplicity, calm and serenity in our daily lives in passage. Everybody is happy and content in their own ways. Little Alex buried herself in Percy Jackson books and has read 8 books in 12 days. Arabella has been drawing and sketching non stop. They are also learning to play the electronic piano I bought in Panama City. Azania is bubbly and cheerful as always, and has set up an ice cream shop with her colorful toy blocks in our saloon. She also enjoys reading her Elephant and Piggies books. Grant is focused on being the captain, checking weather, deciding sail plan and setting and trimming sails. He was also determined in catching fish. I devote myself in cooking and making bread. We have had some of the most memorable meals during passage. Grant caught a mahi mahi and skipjack tuna, which we made into sashimi, cerviche, tuna rolls, poke bowl, fish cakes, fish soup, honey glazed seared tuna steak, etc. The flying squids that we collected from the deck were transformed into delicious thai squid salad and stir fry. Making bread has become a real passion. I started baking no knead bread in a cast iron pot inside the oven for a couple of months already. The loaf is crusty on the outside and light and fluffy inside, like the artisan bread we would buy in fancy bakeries back home. During this passage however, I can’t use the oven as much as we are short on electricity on cloudy days and our solar panels don’t get charged fully. So I experimented with making bread with my cast iron pot on the gas stove. I made naan, flat bread and pizza bread on the stove and they turned out beautifully. A bit of charred burnt crust but chewy and airy inside. They are a big hit and everybody love these breads.
It’s a beautiful morning and I’m sitting on the flybridge writing while Grant is on watch. From our vantage point, we could see swarms of flying fish performing aerial dance above the water. These little fishes are a joy to watch and they surely can fly a long distance. Sadly some of unfortunate ones ended their lives on our deck. Question of the day. Why flying fish have wings and can fly? What’s the evolutionary need for wings in fish?