Gresham Family Exodus

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

March 13, 2014

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Logbook – March 13, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 1204 D –> T main + genoa
• 1533 course and sail change – genniker
• 1709 D–>B main + genoa
• Min TWS 8.3 kts N
• Max TWS 13.8 kts N

Daily Log

• Day 3 – moon set – sunrise
• First PPJ mini-net
• Lost VHF contact w/ buddy boats. We can hear them, they can’t hear us
• yellow fin tuna x 2

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Email to family and friends dated March 13, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 3

Tuna! Tuna! Tuna!  Well, the yellow fin tuna that have eluded us all year long finally showed up today.   The entire crew is ecstatic, and Brenden even did a shake your bootie dance.  They are pretty small, but at this point we are happy with anything.  Sushi rolls tonight and seared rare steaks tomorrow night.  Not much else is going on, really.  The boys started school today, but I took a nap instead of helping them, so we’ll see tomorrow what they actually did.  This evening seemed like any other night at anchor, just a bit more rolly.  Tim was filleting fish while I was cooking dinner.  I had to take a moment and look around and remind myself we’re in the middle of the freakin Pacific Ocean!

Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a better start to the passage.

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At 3/14/2014 12:28 AM (utc) our position was 19°39.13’N 109°57.95’W

March 12, 2014

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Logbook – March 12, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 0958 Brenden watch – main + genniker
• 2319 T–> D – main + genoa
• Min TWS 4.7 kts W
• Max TWS 13.5 kts NW

Daily Notes

• No land in sight. Blue, blue, blue water.
• Squids on the deck
• Rookie maneuver with the ice chests
• DS Promotar (Tanker) passed within 1.5 miles behind us

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Email to family and friends dated March 12, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 2

We had great wind all day yesterday and last night but it died late this morning and then really died midafternoon.  We limped along at about 2-3 kts for awhile.  Fortunately it’s picked up just a bit and we are now moving along a little better.  We altered course today a bit in order to keep the solar panels out of the shade of the sails, and that worked really well, so we may find ourselves zigzagging a bit… more west at night and in the morning and more south in the afternoon/evening.  When the sun came up this morning I was reminded that we are totally out of sight of land now, but it seems normal and natural.  The highlights of the day were dolphins, squid on the deck (being used as bait), and the bluest water you’ve ever seen.  Last night was tough to sleep but I don’t think I’ll have any trouble tonight.  So far, no fish.

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At 3/12/2014 11:54 PM (utc) our position was 20°00.13’N 107°57.00’W

March 11, 2021

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Logbook – March 11, 2014 (Punta de Mita to Hiva Oa)

Passage Log Highlights

• 1212 depart
• 1236 engines off main + genoa
• 1640 engines on to fish
• 1714 engines off main + genoa
• 1930 Alex hand steering
• Min TWS 10.7 kts N
• Max TWS 14.9 kts N

Daily Notes

• Day 1
• Tried to kidnap Kyle, detour fishing at Roca Corbetena
• Daily net 7am VJN415, WEF9914
• Eleutheria from Zihuat and Discovery from Cabo

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Email to family and friends dated March 11, 2014

Subject: PPJ Day 1

We left Punta de Mita just about noon, and we tried our best to kidnap Kyle, but his crew wouldn’t give him up, so we had to drop him back off at Lady Carolina on our way out of the anchorage.  Kyle and Brenden got some surfing in before we left, and Tim cleaned the speed paddle wheel.  We’ve had decent sailing so far, all close hauled. The wind hasn’t been really strong, low double digits, so it hasn’t been uncomfortable at all.  We’re behind the rest of the fleet because we made a pit stop at Roca Corbetena to try to catch some fish.  Tim even got in the water and tried to spear something while the boys and I just circled around in Exodus.  But to no avail.  We had Chili tonight instead of sashimi. 

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At 3/12/2014 12:07 AM (utc) our position was 20°41.95’N 105°55.74’W