Category: Photo Log

March 23, 2014

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Logbook – March 23, 2014

Passage Log Highlights

• 0706 main (3 reef) + genoa
• 1757 D–>B main + genniker
• 2045 main + genoa
• Min TWS 9.3 kts SE
• Max TWS 17.9 kts E

Daily Notes

• More squall slalom
• Took down the Mexican flag
• Boys get mutinous – pushups

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Email to family and friends dated March 23, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 13

We played some more squall slalom last night and today.  And the latest weather report I have says the ITCZ is down around the equator, so I really have no idea what’s going on.  We are truly winging this and learning as we go.  We’ve gotten pretty good at spotting and avoiding the squalls now, so we’ve kept full sails up today.  The good thing is that the prevailing winds are still 15-20 kts from the NE rather than dead calm in between squalls that we experienced the other night, so we are still able to make good progress.

The boys have gotten a bit mutinous as of late.  They’ve been neglecting the log entry at the end of their watches, even when I remind them.  And last night they went to bed without doing the dishes, so this was one unhappy momma that got up for an 11pm watch to find a completely messy galley.  So, I woke them at 7:30 this morning, made them do pushups and then the dishes.  Mutiny simply cannot be tolerated aboard this vessel. 🙂

We had a little ceremony today because we finally took down our Mexican courtesy flag.  I totally meant to do that as we were leaving Banderas Bay, but it completely slipped my mind.  It’s not just a little bit tattered after flying from the spreader for just over a year.

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m looking forward to getting there.  Getting anywhere, really.  I’ve gotten over my ocean passage bliss and I’m ready for a glass of rum and a good contiguous night’s sleep.

I’ll go ahead and mention that we’ve designated this an alcohol free passage.  Except for the couple of beers we’ve had.  And the toast to Neptune we’ll do at the equator. 

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At 3/23/2014 10:19 PM (utc) our position was 04°28.87’N 123°49.32’W

March 22, 2014

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Logbook – March 22, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 0522 T–>D main (3 reef) + genoa (2 reef)
• 0839 D–>A main (3 reef) + genoa (full), wing & wing
• 1144 D–>T main + genniker
• Min TWS 7 kts NE
• Max TWS 20.2 kts NE

Daily Notes

• Day 12
• Another squall – ITCZ shifted south (or North?)
• Still lots of flying fish

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Email to family and friends dated March 22, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 12

There’s been sunshine and NE trade winds again all day today.  Go figure.  So, either the ITCZ moved south out from under us, which is what I initially assumed.  Or it moved north across us, which is what now seems more likely given the weather report this morning and the fact that True Blue V, who is a couple degrees N of us, encountered squalls and light wind after we passed through it.  The lightening from the last squall we were in last night was amazing.  Amazing in that way that you realize how utterly powerless you are against the immense forces of nature.  One strike was instantaneous lightening and thunder and Tim said he saw it hit the water a mere 300 yards away from the boat.  We’ve had a good day today with full canvas up and even managed to generate a couple hundred Ahr of solar power.  The boys are learning to spot squalls visually and using the radar.  Steve (Lady Carolina), with only a little bit of pride in his voice, reported that last night Kyle (age 13) reefed the sails and navigated through a squall on his own last night.  Pretty cool the experiences these kids are having and what they are learning.  There’s a pod of dolphins swimming with the boat right now so I think I’ll go see if they’ll do any tricks for us…

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At 3/22/2014 1:36 PM (utc) our position was 06°18.17’N 122°51.95’W

March 21, 2014

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Logbook – March 21, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 0201 – D–> T genniker
• 0809 genoa only
• 1021 genoa & genniker wing & wing
• 1340 double reefed genoa
• 1508 main (3 reef) + genoa
• 1136 main (3 reef) + genoa (2 reef)
• Min TWS 5.2 kts SE
• Max TWS 21.6 kts NE

Daily Notes

• Squalls
• Rain – cell passed over us max 28 kts eh!
• Electronics in Faraday bags
• Squall – Max 40 kts!

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Email to family and friends dated March 21, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 11

It seems we inadvertently entered the ITCZ.  Or at least the fringes.  Or something that seems a lot like what they say the ITCZ is like but surely can’t be the ITCZ since the NWS says it’s 3 deg of latitude south of us.

Anyway, last night we were moving along at 8 kts with the spinnaker flying.  We left it up much later than usual, and Tim and I had agreed we would switch sails to the genniker at the first watch change, when I got up at 11.  He woke me around 10:30 to change sails since he had seen lightening in the distance, and we REALLY didn’t want to get caught in a squall with the spinnaker up.

The rest of my 11:00 watch went just fine, well except for that crazy Lady Carolina who buzzed our stern about 1.5 miles away at 8 kts and kept lighting up our AIS proximity alarm.

When I got up for my 2nd watch at 5am, Tim told me there were “mini-squalls” all around us and you could see them on radar, and he went to bed. I talked to Steve (Lady Carolina) who said they passed within a couple miles of one and saw about 28 kts.  So, I got Tim back up and we furled the genniker and put out just the genoa.

A little while later one of the pink blobs on radar passed right over us and we saw heavy, heavy rain, and a max of about 28 kts.  No big deal.

Later in the morning after Tim was up and we had put the genniker back out, we got hit again, this time a bit bigger, with a max of about 40 kts.  With the genniker up.  The halyard actually slipped in the spinlock, but luckily we had it cleated as well, or that could have been a big issue.  Once the wind died back down to the low 20s, we furled that big sail back up and put our the genoa, with 2 reefs. 

After that the wind stayed constant at about 14 kts, and we moved along nicely at 5 kts with the main (at reef 3) and the genoa.  We have the main at reef 3 instead of reef 2 because we chafed the second reefing line down to the core the last time we used it, and we didn’t want to see 40 kts again with just one reef. 

Of course, after that the wind just kept dwindling and dwindling until we were slogging along at about 2 kts.  And right now as I type this we have heavy rain and about 16 kts of wind and building, so it seems we may be getting hit again.  20 kts now. 

We are just going to press on south.  If we are stuck in these up/down conditions for couple days it will be quite tiring, but we’re committed at this point.  In hindsight maybe we should have hung a right and headed due west at the first sign of lightening and waited for a better time to cross.  But I’m not sure now how we would even know when a good time to cross would be.  And it is what it is now. 

We kept things light today by skipping school and making decorations for our equator crossing party.

Can’t wait.

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At 3/21/2014 9:12 PM (utc) our position was 08°07.17’N 121°55.47’W

March 20, 2014

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Logbook – March 20, 2104 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 0458 T–>D wing & wing
• 1208 D–>T main/genoa port tack
• 1534 T–> D spinnaker
• 2256 T–>D genniker
• Min TWS 13.7 kts N
• Max TWS 19.7 kts NE

Daily Notes

• Day 10
• Flying fish
• Change in approach to ITCZ – weather forecasts in the realm
• Extra hot & muggy. No pants on watch last night, barely needed long sleeve shirt

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Email to family and friends dated March 20, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 10

We are definitely in the trade winds.  Looking back through the log, I think it’s possible we hit the trades as early as Sunday morning, because that’s when the wind shifted NE and has been that way every since.  However, yesterday and today have been the most consistent higher wind days, and we’ve been moving along at a good clip.  We’ve changed our target ITCZ crossing point to further east because it looks like there may be a gap we can get through if we hustle.  At this point we are going to try to cross between 122 and 124 W, which is why our course has taken a decidedly southern turn.  Of course, we are checking weather twice a day and will adjust our plan accordingly.  Today seemed a lot hotter and muggier than it has been, I guess that’s just what 10 deg latitude is like.  I had that feeling today that I haven’t had since summer in the sea where I just wanted to crawl into the fridge.  Last night on watch I didn’t need pants and I barely needed a long sleeve shirt. 

The southern hemisphere is feeling close.

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At 3/20/2014 1:39 PM (utc) our position was 10°07.37’N 120°50.29’W

March 19, 2014

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Logbook – March 19, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 0158 D–>T main + genoa
• 2320 T–> D wing & wing
• Min TWS 13.6 NE
• Max TWS 18.8 NE

Daily Notes

• Day 9
• Propane free day – changed to tank #2

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Email to family and friends dated March 19, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 9

We ran out of our first propane canister today, just as the water boiled for coffee this morning (thankfully not before). So, we (I) decided to have a propane free day, woo hoo!  Cereal and fruit for breakfast, tuna poke w/ crackers for lunch, and sandwiches, cold veggies and chips/salsa for dinner.  Easy day for the cook.  And to top it off it looks like we don’t have to make a sail change before dark, so I can go to bed a little early too.  Amazingly, we just came back into VHF range with Lady Carolina, so it’s nice to know you can just pick up a radio and talk to someone.  The boys have had the last two days off from school and they’ve been staying busy baking, reading, playing Legos, and playing Minecraft.  Tim stays busy reading and catching up on boat projects, including a couple of sewing projects (Marsha, you would be proud.)  As for me, between watches, meals, and school, I find I don’t have the energy for much else.  Every time I crack a book I doze off.  Without school these past two days I’ve caught up on some of my writing and started working on a movie of our first-year cruising, but it’s slow going.  In these seas, just sitting at the computer is an intense core workout.  In case anyone is interested I’ve included our watch schedule below, so you can see how we share the load of keeping us safe out here.

Exodus watch schedule

0800-0900 (1 hr) Alex

0900-1000 (1 hr) Brenden

1000-1200 (2 hr) Deanne

1200-1500 (3 hr) Tim

1500-1700 (2 hr) Deanne

1700-1800 (1 hr) Brenden

1800-1900 (1 hr) Alex

1900-2300 (4 hr) Tim

2300-0200 (3 hr) Deanne

0200-0500 (3 hr) Tim

0500-0800 (3 hr) Deanne

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At 3/19/2014 1:47 PM (utc) our position was 13°21.79’N 119°11.19’W

March 18, 2014

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Logbook – March 18, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 0153 D–> T genniker only
• 1100 sail change – spinnaker
• 1930 main + genoa
• Min TWS 9.5 kts E
• Max TWS 18.9 kts NE

Daily Notes

• Day 8
• Another tuna last night. B says, “I don’t want sashimi,” so we did cajun pan seared (again…yum!)

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Email to family and friends dated March 18, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 8

The guys caught another tuna last night at dusk just when Tim and I were getting to ready to change sails for the night.  It was a historic moment, though, because once they got the fish on board, Brenden looked at me and said, “I don’t really want sashimi again.”  Who would have ever thought a day would come when Brenden wouldn’t want sashimi?!  I’m not going to write much tonight; Tim and I need to figure out what our sail plan is going to be tonight and then make the changes.  Just know that all is well on-board Exodus.

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At 3/19/2014 12:21 AM (utc) our position was 14°30.28’N 118°38.00’W

March 17, 2014

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Logbook – March 17, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 0445 wind slowly increasing
• 1307 D –> T genniker only
• 1347 sail change – spinnaker flying!
• 2257 T–> D genniker only
• Min TWS 13.7 kts NE
• Max TWS 17.2 kts NNE

Daily Notes

• Day 7
• Tim fixed the squeak
• Alex finished 6th grade!!!
• Caught another tuna

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Email to family and friends dated March 17, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 7 – Week 1

One week down.  Two to three more to go.  The big news today is Alex finished 6th grade!  It only took us 14 months to get through the Calvert 6th grade curriculum, and we don’t even do everything.  I’m giving the boys a couple days off from school and tomorrow we are going to have a celebration and the boys are going to bake snickerdoodles. 

Another big accomplishment was fixing the squeaking noise in our cabin at the head of our bead that has been tormenting Tim and me.  Last night when I came up for my first watch and Tim went down below I heard pounding and banging and pounding and banging, and I realized that Tim was beating the crap out of Exodus.  I went down and asked him if he was winning and he vented frustration that the squeak seemed to be coming from everywhere.  I left him to his battle, and a few minutes later he came up and very rationally said he was going to check the rudder bearing.  And sure enough…

The wind has shifted more to the NE, so we flew the spinnaker for the first time today, and it was glorious.  I always love it when the sock comes down and the chute inflates.  Like I said, glorious.

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At 3/17/2014 11:45 PM (utc) our position was 15°49.45’N 117°05.63’W

March 16, 2014

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Logbook – March 16, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 1320 sail change – wing & wing
• 1448 T–> D genniker only
• Min TWS 10.1 kts N
• Max TWS 18.7 kts NE

Daily Notes

• Day 6
• Full moon – bright outside
• time change – 1 hour
• tuna x 2
• passed 10,000 miles

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Email to family and friends dated March 16, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 6

Today, Exodus passed 10,000 miles on her log.  It’s not exactly accurate, since it’s dependent on the paddle wheel that gets gunked up when we sit at anchor for longer than a day and if we forget to spin it before we head out it doesn’t always spin.  So, it’s a low estimate of Exodus’s total miles, but worth celebrating anyway, and tonight we celebrate once again with sushi.  The boys got two more yellow fin tuna, this time even smaller, but the two of them together can make a nice dinner for us (with some veggies on the side).  It was pretty windy all last night and into the day, as high as 24 kts.  We rocked and rolled pretty good, but our San Felipe passage puts everything else in context.  It’s calmed down now and we’re enjoying a comfortable run with just the genniker flying.  We did a time change today, moving back an hour.  The Marquesas are UTC -9.5 so it’s a difference of 3.5 hours from where we departed Mexico.  We’ll likely do one more time change underway and then eat the last 1.5 hours on arrival.  The time change will mean I won’t have to go to bed when it’s quite so light out and the sun will rise earlier in my morning watch.  Tim said it was arbitrary to him, so I went for it.

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At 3/17/2014 1:14 AM (utc) our position was 16°51.23’N 115°26.95’W

March 15, 2014

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Logbook – March 15, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 1257 sail change main (2 reef) + genn
• 1527 sail change drop main
• 1059 T–>D main (2 reef) + genn
• Min TWS 10.5 kts N
• Max TWS 15.3 kts N

Daily Notes

• Gray morning

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Email to family and friends dated March 15, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 5

Nothing much to report today, really, other than I have to admit I am enjoying this way more than I thought I would.  I suppose I really am a recluse at heart.  Now, if we could only shake that pesky Lady Carolina.  We keep losing them and then, there they are again. 🙂  It’s pretty crazy that at day 5 we are less than 10 miles apart.  True Blue and Chara and are now well out of VHF range, but we tag up every morning on our own little SSB net in order to stay in touch. It was a cloudy day today, so our solar production is way down.  I had no idea how much our navigation and sail plan decisions would not be based on maximizing our miles, but rather maximizing sun on the panels.  But no complaints here at all, we are having a very comfortable ride, and like I said, it’s pretty nice out here. There’s something cleansing about shrinking your entire world down to a small box and having nothing but the blue (did I mention how blue it is!) ocean all around you.  The boys are quite bored though, and they are filling their time mostly with school and reading.  I’m not sure what they will do when they finish the Darren Shan series.  Now that I’m over the hump of getting used to the routine of nighttime watches, I’m hoping to read and play games with them a little more.  I’ve been able to do school with them the last two days, which I enjoyed, them, not so much.  There’s a little more accountability when mom’s paying attention.  Meals have been pretty normal, and I’ve been able to cook pretty much what I would cook at anchor… tortilla soup, fish & roasted veggies/potatoes, fajitas.  Although we do eat earlier than usual, so I can go to bed by 7-7:30 so I can get up for watch at 11.

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At 3/16/2014 12:01 AM (utc) our position was 18°00.66’N 113°01.84’W

March 14, 2014

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Logbook – March 14, 2014

Passage Log Highlights

• 0836 looking for the sea mound
• 1120 heading and sail change – main + genniker
• 1159 sail change – dropped main
• Min TWS 5.5 kts N
• Max TWS 12.1 kts N

Daily Notes

• Dolphins! B named one “Tricky” b/c he would barrel roll on command & slap his tail on the water
• Caught a booby (x2) (x3)
• English muffin bread (yum!)

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Email sent to family and friends dated March 14, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 4

Land ho!  We passed Isla San Benedicto and Isla Socorro today.  We zigzagged around a bit north of San Benedicto looking for a sea mound that is on the chart so we could do some fishing, but we never did find it.  We had a nice visit from some dolphins, though.  Brenden named one of them Tricky because he would barrel roll on command and slap his tail on the water.  The wind was a bit dismal today, but we still plugged along at about 3 kts.  It’s picked up within the last hour or so and now we are doing much better.  We haven’t caught any more fish, but we have caught at least 3 boobies.  Life is pretty normal out here, well, except that I just took my first shower this afternoon.  Our path will be more SW from now on as we head for our tentative waypoint to cross the ITCZ of 7 N, 126 W.  The ITCZ has been really low and really narrow recently, so I hope that holds up.

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At 3/14/2014 11:31 PM (utc) our position was 19°14.54’N 111°14.76’W