The main cruising route across the South Pacific runs in a gigantic arc linking Panama with the Torres Strait. It has been affectionately nicknamed the "Milk Run".... The Germans call it... the "Barefoot Route", Jimmy Cornell, World Cruising Routes.
We lost sight of Inspiration Lady a couple of days ago, although we are still in radio contact. We suspect that Gary and Jackie are in fact totally focused on the Ice Cream Run. Among cruising buddies, they have a tradtion that involves the first boat in buying ice cream for the rest. I.L. is giving reports that indicate they are just about 10 miles behind us but there's some way to go yet and we think they will pull out all the stops to get in first. They just love to buy ice cream and Jack on Anthem loves to eat it. Make mine coconut!
Owen and Elliot have graduated to solo watches. They're doing a great job and we have a nice watch schedule that allows enough rest for each of us.
We hit a milestone at about 11:00am; sailed 2,000 miles and have less than one thousand miles to go. YIPPEE!
Posted by SSB radio.
Position 05 degrees 55 minutes south, 123 degress 14 minutes west
So Blue
We'd forgotten how blue the Pacific can be. Today we were treated to gorgeous sunshine, calmer seas, beautiful blue skies and a pod of dolphins.
When the seas are fairly calm we can look, seemingly forever, into the blue and have to resist the urge to jump in for a refreshing swim. Well, ok, it's not really that tempting an idea to jump overboard. The sea is about 4,000 meters deep around here and keeping up with the boat, as well as climbing aboard, would be a real challenge. Swimming will have to wait.
We love the Pacific so much we are using some of it in our cooking. We've found a little goes a long way. One third sea water to two thirds fresh water works well when cooking pasta, no need to add salt to the pot! Given that we don't have a watermaker, conservation of our precious fresh water is a must.
It's our 26th Wedding Anniversary today. Talk about a novel way to celebrate. It is great to be celebrating with our boys. Maybe we'll find a good restaurant in the Marquesas and splurge a little when we get there.
One of my favorite quotes is attributed to our friend Blake. Bristol Rose was approaching the harbour one fine afternoon in St. Martin when Slow Mocean pulled out all the stops to get there first. Blake's friend was confused, "Why the rush? There's no race". Blake's retort: "Are there two boats out here? Then it's a race." We're not trying to run a race against anyone out here but we do get a kick out of "tweaking" to get the best out of our boat.
We keep an hourly log where we record information that helps us navigate our way and check the performance of the boat. We record our progress on paper charts as well as using the electronic navigational aids. Robert does the math, comparing this 24 hours performance with the last, estimating our ETA at the next anchorage, making course adjustments based on GRIB files, etc.
Each boat out here is different so it's hardly fair to compare performance (boat or crew) in absence of handicaps. Now if there was another Shannon 43 making the passage, those competitive instincts might be sharpened and things could get really interesting.
On this passage Bristol Rose has exceeded all her previous performances. A boat's length at the water line dictates maximum hull speed. Although BR is 43 feet in length overall, her water line is only 36' 9" That means her hull speed is about 8 knots. She's packed to the gills with equipment and provisions but in our favour on this Galapagos to Marquesas run so far we still have at least a 1 knot current assisting our speed over ground. We never expected to do 200 nautical miles in a 24 hour period but we've done it.
Going fast in any vehicle can be exhilarating. Going fast in a vehicle for 24 hours is a test of stamina. Going fast in a sail boat which also happens to be your home adds a few additional challenges and considerations, not least of all, crew comfort and safety. The past week's comfort level is on par with the thrill of being on a roller coaster but not being able to get off.
We heard that boats who started a few days after us had to motor-sail due to too little wind! We have not had that problem. Boats between us and the Marquesas have reported conditions similar to ours. During the first 8 days of the passage we've experienced winds from 15 to 25 knots and up to 35 during squalls. We've had only rare breaks in the sloppy seas, making the ride less than comfortable. Cooking and taking care of daily tasks is quite a challenge. There's little chance of getting any promised projects completed. Better to find a "comfy" spot to sleep or read.
Just in the past 36 hours the sea conditions have improved a little and this morning the winds have become lighter. That's going to put a dint in our average speed for the passage but we can enjoy a more relaxed pace with these more friendly wind and sea conditions. Sunrise was a picture and for a change we could lounge comfortably in the cockpit with coffee in hand, look out across the blue Pacific and declare, "This is quite nice!"
It's an exhilarating ride. It's also quite tiring but given the choice of a 20 day passage or a 30 passage, there's no contest. We want to go as fast as possible. Our race is against the calendar. If we can have the 15 to 20 knot winds along with an organized sea with longer intervals between waves we'll be really happy. We can't wait to get to those friendly islands of the Marquesas.
Posted via SSB radio
5 02.623 S
117 17.331 W
Inspiration Lady and Bristol Rose have been within sight of eachother for the last couple of days. This is quite incredible considering that most of the time when blue water sailing you'll very rarely see another boat. Most boats who buddy up find it's not that easy to stay within visual range of eachother.
Gary and Jackie built their boat in their barn up in Canada over a 26 year period. They really do have an amazing ability to stick to a goal to see it through. Both boats have posted their personal bests; 200 miles in a 24 hour period. This achievement is somewhat of a holy grail for cruising boats.
We have another reason to celebrate today. We've passed the halfway mark after 8 days of sailing. That's about 1500 miles to go.
Posted via SSB
04 47.258S
115 25.008W
Inspiration Lady and Bristol Rose have been within sight of eachother for the last couple of days. This is quite incredible considering that most of the time when blue water sailing you'll very rarely see another boat. Most boats who buddy up find it's not that easy to stay within visual range of eachother.
Gary and Jackie built their boat in their barn up in Canada over a 26 year period. They really do have an amazing ability to stick to a goal to see it through. Both boats have posted their personal bests; 200 miles in a 24 hour period. This achievement is somewhat of a holy grail for cruising boats.
We have another reason to celebrate today. We've passed the halfway mark after 8 days of sailing. That's about 1500 miles to go.
Posted via SSB
04 47.258S
115 25.008W
...It's ANZAC Day in Australia. G'day to all our Aussie mates...
We're still a few weeks behind the rest of the World ARC fleet. They will rendezvous in Tahiti on April 28 and expect to make landfall in Australia at Mackay towards the end of July. We hope to be there to cruise the Great Barrier Reef with them but we still have a very long way to go.
Outside the cyclone season quite a number of boats are sailing the South Pacific to the Coral Sea to reach Australia before November. Others will be dropping south to New Zealand and will wait out the cyclone season there.
Not every cruising boat has SSB radio. If you do you'll most likely be making a cruisers' net your daily check in point while underway. In the anchorages along the way we've especially enjoyed the informative and fun cruisers' nets on VHF radio. The grapevine, at it's best.
We left the Galapagos last Sunday with Anthem (Jack), Inspiration Lady (Gary and Jackie) and Jackster (Dave and Jacqui). We've nicknamed our regular SSB chat sessions with the group "The Jac Net". We're also checking in mornings and evenings with a larger group of boats on the "Barefoot Net".
Others also underway and checking in are: Acapella, Bamboozle, Bubbles, Dignity, Dream Kaper, Freedom, Gratitude, JSea, Kamia, Mintaka, Passages, Scream, Sea Mist, Sidewinder, Savannah, Victoria, William Phuket and Wonderland (apologies if I've renamed some boats with incorrect spelling). Jewel and InnforaPenny will hopefully soon be underway. We'll be looking out for a couple of Aussie boats who are not on SSB, Woolloomooloo and Fine Gold. We expect our friends on Whiskers and Emily Grace are now enjoying the Marqueses, but they're a few weeks ahead of us.
When checking in we give our current position, latitude and longitude, wind direction and speed, the sea conditions and our course. It's a big ocean (the Pacific covers 64 million sq. miles!) and the net puts us in contact with boats over a few hundred miles radius.
We use our SSB radio to log our position report which you can see when you click on "Where is Bristol Rose" at the top of our blog page. Our Yellow Brick tracking device seems to be working well and you can also go to the tracking page on the World ARC site.
We can't upload images while at sea so before we left the Galapagos we scheduled a couple of blog posts to share while underway on this long passage to the Marquesas. So you'll see some photos interspersed with our entries via SSB.
Onboard Bristol Rose on the way to the Galapagos we celebrated the achievement of sailing across the equator. Watch out for those photos (sorry Captain) when we get our next internet connection once we get to the Marquesas.
Posted via SSB radio
04 46.369S
115 21.348W
We've sailed 1,000nm in just a little over five and a half days. Apart from a lot of the gorgeous deep blue sea, sparkling phosphoresence and plenty of rain squalls, we're not seeing much out here.
On our first day out we saw Spinner dolphins and Elliot caught a nice 7 lb yellowfin tuna. Late this afternoon he landed a small dolphin fish (mahi mahi). Each morning we find flying fish and baby squid on the decks. The ones we don't find straight away, our noses will locate once the poor unfortunates have rested in the sun a while.
Owen and Elliot saw one well lit ship just a mile away the first night of the passage and last night during their watch they saw a container ship on the AIS. It passed about ten miles astern of us.
It's exciting to catch sight of a familiar vessel after almost a week alone on the high seas. We've been in VHF range of Inspiration Lady most of the time. VHF radio has a range of about 20 miles but visual is only about 5 miles. At 3:30am this morning I clearly see her navigation lights south of us on the horizon. She's sailing directly and appropriately beneath the Southern Cross. What a lovely sight!
Posted via SSB radio, position 04 degrees 02 south, 109 degrees 17 minutes west.
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