Lyn's Log, 11th May 2009
Mexico to the Marquesa Islands

Hiva Oa, Marquesas
S9º48', W139º02'
23,895 miles.

The time had come to make the 2,800 mile jump across the eastern Pacific to the south sea islands. After clearing out of Mexico we left Barra de Navidad on April Fools’ Day, and what a joke that turned out to be. There was just a light southeasterly breeze and we were back in the bay of Tenacatita by evening having knocked just ten miles of out proposed trip. The next morning began in complete calm but before long we were all sails set, averaging four knots close to our objective. Amazingly we passed five turtles close by. They were probably hawk-billed turtles with high, reddish brown domed shells maybe three feet in diameter. We had heard that turtles laid their eggs on those long sandy beaches we had just left.

Progress was slow, with only eighteen miles made in twelve hours, but a lot of grey spotted dolphins came to play with Sentinel in the late afternoon when the wind increased a little. The following days were comfortable but frustratingly slow with our worst logged distance in twelve hours being just two miles. We arrived at the island of Clarion on Good Friday morning having taken ten days to cover the 560 miles from Barra de Navidad. Two container ships had passed close by, and fifty miles east of Clarion, we passed a trawler that was just drifting without any evidence of anyone on board. Perhaps her crew were all asleep.

Clarion was well worth the effort of getting there. We were informed by radio in Spanish that we had entered a part of Mexico, and as we anchored in the bay, a small boat put out towards us and our paperwork was completed. We were not invited to land and the shore-break looked impossible, but that did not matter. The best thing about Clarion was the sheer number of humpback whales sporting both in the bay and around the nearby rocks. We were so captivated by them it was hard to get on with the little jobs we had to do, like making hot cross buns for Easter.

I had thought I would take a swim around the yacht whilst anchored, but the breeze was chilly and Andrew was worried about the whales. So it was with buckets of seawater that we had hair and body washes. At least we each got a turn to throw water at the other.

From Clarion, morning of 11th April, we began a rocking roller-coaster ride to the southwest, with a fresh breeze behind us, averaging five knots under genoa alone and then wing on wing. Sometimes a wave would splash up on deck. We had to be always holding on and make use of the bum strap when working in the galley. Though not as comfortable, at least we were covering twice the distance in a day than we were in the first ten days. After a few days we had broken two shackles on the kicking strap, and found the spinnaker pole was cracking across at what must be its stress point.

Without the spinnaker pole to hold out the genoa, we could not fly it with the main and so continued with the genoa and staysail out on the same side, going slightly off the wind making a zigzag course towards the equator and out of the NE trade winds. We began a repair by fashioning an aluminium plate and riveting it over the worst crack. The seas got too rough to do the same on the other side of the pole and it spent so many days lying on the side deck waiting that eventually we gave up. The winds in the doldrums and south of the equator would not be behind us, so it wouldn't be needed. The pole went back in its place on the mast.

The weather was just as rough for my 60th birthday on 17th April, but I still had a good time. The present from my daughters revealed an enormous bottle of Channel No. 5 perfume, my favourite and perhaps enough to bath in. Andrew gave me a couple of fun books for oldies and the fabulous diamond ring we had chosen whilst in Canterbury. Diamonds are my favourite stones and also my birthstone. It is the prettiest ring I have ever seen and brought tears to my eyes when I opened the box, but then when I put it on, Andrew, quite unexpectedly, proposed! He said he thought that a two-diamond crossover was rather perfect for an engagement ring. So now I have lots of nice things to think about and being sixty doesn’t seem at all bad!

It is Monday night of 20th April and we have been sailing comfortably on a beam reach since mid morning. Yesterday we had rain showers all day and night with a little wind for an odd hour but mostly just drifting in the wrong direction. It was pitch black all night except when the lightening flashed around. We were constantly worried about being caught in a thunderstorm, but luckily escaped. Although still ten degrees north, we had hit the edge of the doldrums. We are now under nine degrees north and no further storms are forecast between the equator and us. Oh dear, I spoke too soon as it has just started to rain again. This evening’s stir fry chicken was far too salty from either too much salt in the packet of seasoning or on the pots and pans having been washed up in sea water, and the orange juice has gone a bit fizzy. At least the fresh water is holding out as we are only using a gallon and a bit a day.

Of the fresh fruit and vegetables I put on board, the melon, oranges and carrots were disappointing but the two cabbages lasted two weeks, by which time the apples were just beginning to show signs of wrinkles and lose some crispness, a bit like me. I still have one onion, several potatoes and limes in a good state. The fresh eggs are also still ok. Most of the time we have not had the power to have the fridge on and opened milk does not really last a day, but Coffeemate is good in the coffee and the Jasmine tea is very refreshing. I make a loaf of bread and half a dozen rolls every three to four days, which turn out very well.

At three weeks into the trip, Wednesday 22nd, we passed the half way mark and saw our second and third ships the next day. The weather got a bit cheerier and we did our second lot of laundry, managing one of the sheets this time. Trying to find somewhere to dry it was the difficult part, where it would not blow overboard or get splashed by the sea. Some fish, about a foot long with yellow tails, seem to be coming along with us, appearing from under the hull from time to time. Perhaps they are living off whatever is growing on our hull. At night, the phosphorescence sparkles along with the stars. The Pole Star is no longer visible as we head for the Southern Cross.

On Sunday we were visited by a whale, which investigated us from both sides before disappearing. It was a little smaller than the humpback whales at Clarion, had a groove along the centre of its head up to its blowhole, and a small, hooked dorsal fin. We never saw its tail. We think it was a Bryde’s whale.

A few days later we came out of the doldrums area of calms and squalls and into the southeast trade winds. These were mostly light and we averaged three knots. It was unbearably hot on the calm days when there was no cloud cover. Some of the sunsets were spectacular, and at night, Venus shone so brightly from the east, it laid a path of light across the water.

On Wednesday 29th we had passed the two-thirds waypoint and thought that we would cross the equator, but that was not to be until the next morning, and passed without notice. We found ourselves in an adverse current that at times was stronger than the wind, causing us to be actually going backwards. We managed to only cover thirty miles in one twenty-four hour period, and that included motoring for a couple of hours. Sometimes we thought, instead of sitting around reading and attempting the New York Times crossword puzzles, why didn’t we spend another year in Mexico. We would have enjoyed that.

Eventually we got out of that bad current and the winds became steadier from the east or southeast. Then one morning we tried to hoist the spinnaker but the halyard got twisted below the pulley block at the top of the mast, instead of the pulley swivelling as it should, and the sail got stuck two thirds of the way up. There was nothing we could do to release it apart from my going up the mast and physically turning the block and freeing the halyard. It was very scary up there when the swells rocked the boat and all I could do to hang on and not get thrown around, feeling carefully for the mast steps with my feet on the way down. On the way up I stood on the lower crosstree and got a rope tied around the sail to stop the wind getting into it. The sail had to be packed away wet as there was no way Andrew was going to raise it again after that.

As the fortieth day after leaving Mexico was drawing to its close, we approached the anchorage at Atuona on the island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesa Islands. I felt totally unprepared for going ashore and what had to be done there, and hoped that the morning light would make everything come clear. We were entering a new stage of our journey.