Prepping to cross the pacific ocean

Haven’t posted on the blog for while.. alas was not slacking with a passion fruit margaritas on the beach.. Been too busy prepping the boat for the pacific crossing from Mexico to the Marquesas islands in french polynesia. The passage, the longest ocean crossing is affectionately called the “puddle jump” ie the pacific is the "puddle", just like the Atlantic is the “pond”.. This puddle however is slighty bigger than your average puddle. It’s 3000 nautical miles to cross it!!

Since february we have been busting butt preparing the boat, from getting a rigger to check our rig and steering to giving the engine a full service, to installing fans, to buying tonnes of snickers bars to put in the grab bag.. The to do list was 156 items long, now down to less than 20, but probably won’t get everything done. At some stage you just have to go..

We have been attending many of the pacific puddle jump rally events and even got written up in the march issue of Latitude 38!

 

The full article can be downloaded here: http://www.latitude38.com/eBooks/2011/L38201103.pdf

Glenda our third crewmember joined the boat in early feb and we sailed down to Barra and Manzanillo (post coming soon). We used the opportunity to put up the storm jib, drogue, emergency steering, 3^rd reef, heaving to etc. to be ready for anything Neptune throws at us. 

The master plan for the crossing..

Got to have a plan, but with sailing the plan is always expected to change..ie plan and then plan for the plan to change 🙂

Here is the route with a GRIB overlay showing the current trade wind direction and strengths all the way to the Marquesas.

The trades typically start about two days out from the mexico mainland so we need a low pressure system in california to give us decent wind to get to trades. We don't want to use any our 60 gallons of diesel until we get to the convergence zone (doldrums) near the equator. Our solar panels and wind generator should give us enough juice to power the boat without using the engine alternator.

Once we reach the trades, we will be sailing on a broad reach probably gybing every few days, down to a target waypoint at 130°W and 5°N. We will be plotting the convergence zone coordinates every day from the high seas forecast so that we can find a good place to cross with minimal convection. Before 130°W we will turn down dead south to cross the convergence zone which should be no more than 150 miles wide, about 24 hours of motoring. And then when we find the south east trades we will be on the final leg, a beam reach to Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas!

Visual passage planner which uses Stop's data and historical wind and current pilot chart data to calculate the passage time says we will do it 21 days at average of 5 knots if we follow the great circle route between the waypoints.  

Passage Information:

General Information	Data
Calculated Great Circle Distance:	2789.0 NM
Calculated Rhumbline Distance:	2789.7 NM
Elapsed Time to Complete Passage:	21.4 Days
Fuel Consumption:	0.0 Units
Average Boat Speed:	5.4 Knots
Boat Speed Made Good:	5.4 Knots

   

Apparent Wind Angle Information:

Numbers indicate percent of leg sailed at that column's relative wind angle.  Relative wind angle given is the direction from which the wind comes.

Leg #	Beating (Apparent wind 0° to 45°)	Tight Reaching (Apparent wind 45° to 112.5°)	Broad Reaching (Apparent wind 112.6° to 157.5°)	Running (Apparent wind 157.6 to 180)
1	0% at 0 Knots	18% at 10.4 Knots	27% at 11.4 Knots	55% at 15.5 Knots
2	0% at 11.2 Knots	100% at 9.9 Knots	0% at 0 Knots	0% at 0 Knots
3	0% at 0 Knots	39% at 14.6 Knots	61% at 12.5 Knots	0% at 0 Knots

          

Leg 1 Wind and Storm Predictions (Mexico to convergence zone)

Wind angle provided is the direction from which the wind comes.

Wind and Storm Information	Data
Average Wind Speed:	13.5 Knots
Average Wind Direction from TRUE North:	026 Degrees
Average Percent Chance of Calms:	1.2
Average Percent Chance of Gales:	0.2

    

Leg 3 Wind and Storm Predictions (Convergence zone to the Marquesas)

Wind angle provided is the direction from which the wind comes.

Wind and Storm Information	Data
Average Wind Speed:	13.3 Knots
Average Wind Direction from TRUE North:	108 Degrees
Average Percent Chance of Calms:	1.0
Average Percent Chance of Gales:	0.0

Minimal chance of gales which is always a good thing! Since the wind directions on leg 1 won't allow us to broadreach straight down, we will be gybing every few days which means leg 1 will take a little longer. Here is a another prediction assuming a couple of gybes to keep us on a broad reach on leg 1.

General Information	Data
Calculated Great Circle Distance:	2998.1 NM
Elapsed Time to Complete Passage:	23.6 Days
Fuel Consumption:	0.0 Units
Average Boat Speed:	5.3 Knots
Boat Speed Made Good:	5.3 Knots

23.6 days to a wonderful landfall in Nuku Hiva! So hopefully we will do it between 21 and 24 days. This year is also a La Nina year with stronger trade winds predicted, so we may even do it in less.. 

Goodbyes

We left La Cruz on Sat, our home for the last few weeks and got a chance to say goodbye to our friends

Partying with Russ and Kaersten on Liberty at the St Patrick's day party in Bucerias. They gave us a equator crossing survival package which we can only open when we are at the equator.. Hope they didn't shove neptune in there, he won't be too happy when he comes out..

Goodbye to Michael and Jordy (the dog) on Touchrain who are making the jump to Hawaii with Michael's wife Jan. They are then heading all the way up to Alaska!

Short farewell to Peter and Heather on Noho'ana who are making the jump as well, leaving a little later than us in April. Looking forward to seeing them in French polynesia.

The Sudden Stops Necessary dream team for the pacific crossing. Cyrille, Chet and Glenda sporting the latest and greatest fashion attire to hit the catwalks in Milan… Puddle Jump T-shirts!

Ok, time to get back to the prepping.. only a couple of days to go before we leave.. butterflies..