S/V Capaz

Roll Credits

2010-10-23T16:32:00.001-07:00

Seattle, WA, USA

If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes something else altogether to make an adventure like ours possible. . . . . . .

Primary Capaz Crew: Brad Baker; PJ Baker; Bryce Baker; Austin Baker

Hawaii to Seattle Leg: Brian Trautman; Kurt Hoehne; Eric Rone
Port Townsend to Seattle Leg: Abby Hoehne; Erin Russ; Ian Hoehne
Seattle to San Francisco Leg: Curtis Edwards; Ryan Malmgren
Baja Ha Ha Leg: Mary Murphy
Mexico to Marquesas Leg: Tim Larson
Tahiti to Rangiroa Leg: Lon Volberding
Tahiti to Honolulu Leg: Lydia Volberding
Honolulu to Victoria Leg: Dave McWhirter; Harold Beard; Randy Holbrook
Victoria to North Saanich Leg: Mary Tennbrink and Ray Harker
Princess Louisa Leg: Rose Custer
Immediate Response Water Based Support (aka Buddy Boat): The Crew of Totem
EPIRB Monitor: John and Vennessa Austin
Alameda Dock Based Support: Jim and Diana Jessie; The Crew of Evergreen
San Diego Land Based Support: Dave Rowe
Cabo San Lucas Land Based Support: Stuart and Pam Burnell
La Paz Land Based Support: Tiff McNamara
La Cruz de Huanaxastle Land Based Support: Ron and CJ Anderson; Amy Martin; Bob and Kris Ridenour
Bucerias Land Based Support: Jack and Ellie Austin
Victoria Land Based Support: Ruth, Lecia, and Mylan Ilnytsky
West Vancouver Land Based Support: The Crew of Mulan
Port Coquitlan Land Based Support: The Crew of Blackdragon
Lopez Island Land Based Support: Becca Galfer and Derek Bottles
Seattle-Mexico Couriers: Mike Spear; Lynn McNulty; Ty Burks
Seattle-Marquesas Courier: Kelly Scholl
San Diego Moorage Procurement: Barbara and Harry Lee
Sail and Racing Support: Chuck Skewes
Cat Care: Carrie and Rex Rice; The Harang Family
Mail and Business Support: The Crew of Charlotte
Marine Biology Consultant: The Crew of Io
Math Tutoring: The Crew of Bella Marina
Entertainment Coordinators: The Crew of Delos
Mexico Child Interaction Support: The Crews of 4 Pack, Ceilydh, Ohana, Evergreen and Blackdragon
South Pacific Child Interaction Support: The Crews of Stray Kitty, Silver Lining, Victoria, Oso Blanco, Nika, Riga, and Mulan
All Around Water Based Support: The Crews of Oso Blanco and Jarana

We are sure there are more of you out there who should be on this list and we would really like it to be complete, so let us know ASAP!!!

1 Year 1 Month 18 Days 22 Hours Later

2010-10-19T21:06:00.001-07:00

Slip F-39, Shilshole Marina, Seattle, WA, USA (Home)

October 19, 2010

Ready or not, here we come! RE-ENTRY.

We have officially be ended our adventure this afternoon as we tie up to our home dock at Shilshole. And so the next chapter starts in our lives: the transition back to a life similar to the one we left at the same dock a little over a year ago. It won’t be the exactly like picking up where we left off because the experiences we have all had will certainly have changed us to a certain extent. We all have new perspectives and habits that we hope to bring to our land-based life.

We are houseless having sold our little Greenwood house on Palatine Avenue in part to ensure that this whole thing could happen. CAPAZ will be our home for the near future and Shilshole is where we will be moored for the most part.

We are going to try to take this transition period last until about the first of the year, but there have already been indications that the goal of easing into things may not always be on the time schedule of our choice. Case in point, tomorrow will be Back-to Work day! It is all a good thing and we will enjoy what we can along the way.

One of the most exciting parts of this transition is re-connecting with all those we left on land (not to mention, maintaining connections with those we left “out there”). We are reachable at the old contact info and are looking forward to catching up with people.

I am sure time will be bring some interesting perspectives that I will post as they come to me in a sort of epilogue, but this is the last official entry for our big adventure. Thanks for tuning in, we have loved having you along for our wide ride!

Brad, PJ, Bryce and Austin Baker

The Crew of CAPAZ

Back in the USA

2010-10-15T12:08:00.001-07:00

October 15, 2010

Friday Harbor, Patos Islands, and Henry Island, WASHINGTON, USA

Friday Harbor was our Port of Entry back into the United States. It really great to be once again plying our home waters. It is actually bittersweet as our sabbatical adventure draws to a close. We know that LIFE itself is an adventure and it will continue, but we are little sad to have this chapter of it ending.

Before we return, though, we are still exploring “in our backyard” as they say. Two nights in Friday harbor got us checked in and caught with our daily and re-entry tasks. We received the news that West Coast Yachts has been acquired by Swiftsure Yachts and we are now the official dealer for Hallberg Rassy. This turn of events is fabulous, but will hasten our re-entry process.

With that in mind, we skipped Matia and Sucia, vowing to return soon so that the boys can check out these favorite local cruising destinations. We opted for a much smaller spot suggested by a friend. We had not, one, but two small islands to ourselves. We explored the trails and the lighthouse and had marshmallows over a campfire. Even on the “0” tide, we didn’t quite touch bottom.

Our trip down to Roche Harbor unfolded under typical Northwest gray skies, not too cold and not raining. As we ate dinner at the dock at Henry Island, we were treated to an incredible sunset out toward Haro Strait with the most definite line of clearing heading our direction. There is something about the variation of weather or the angle of the sun on a clear day in fall here that is so different from the monotony of the blaring sun of the tropic. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the day after day of clear sunny weather that we encountered over the last year with only a handful of days that would even be considered “inclement” to Northwest Natives. But I am definitely hard wired to rejoice in day like today here.

Tour de Vancouver (Part 2)

2010-10-10T17:56:00.001-07:00

October 10, 2010

We must call the full Tour de Vancouver a screaming success. The downtown Vancouver leg has had its uncertainty in the moorage department, but overall it has worked out beautifully.

Last Monday, we headed south from West Van through the drizzle. We finally reached a real person at the False Creek Yacht Club and secured moorage. The moorage manager was off to a meeting when we arrived, so Brad and Austin stayed with the boat at the check-in boat to await his return and complete the process. Meanwhile, Bryce and I walked to the other end of False Creek to check on the status of Science World particularly enjoying the abundant art along the way.

Tuesday, we scootered and rode bikes to the Vancouver Maritime Museum. We learned alot about the history of Vancouver from the maritime perspective. There was a picnic lunch next to an incredibly tall totem pole. During our meal, we were joined by a bald eagle who hung out at the very top of the pole. Bryce and I figured out the short way back to the boat over the Burrard Bridge, but our gelato stop gave Brad and Austin “first ones back to the boat” status as they rode all the way around False Creek.

Wednesday was an absolutely gorgeous day in Vancouver. We needed to move the boat from False Creek Yacht Club to anchor in Charleson Bay farther up False Creek. So, after grabbing breakfast at the Granville Island Public Market, we pulled the boat out and returned to the free three hour moorage right in front of the Market and did a little more exploring before heading up to the anchorage. We found a nice spot, anchored CAPAZ and then Brad and I had Bryce take us ashore with the bikes. We took the bike trails to Coal Harbor and then returned to False Creek ending our ride with a pint of beer at a pub under the Burrard Bridge.

Thursday’s impending weather change made it hard to get motivated to do anything more than get schoolwork done and just hang out on the boat. At 4:15 pm, we got a call that there was a spot for us at the Vancouver Rowing Club’s docks in Coal Harbor. We sprang into action, pulled the anchor, proceeded around Stanely Park and were tied up, checked in and on our way to the Gastown Spaghetti Factory for dinner by 6:30! It was a bit of a walk, but we got to see alot of the Vancouver waterfront.

Before the rains started on Friday, I hopped on the bike after breakfast and tried out the Seawall Bike Trail around Stanley Park. With the weather turning, there were few people using the trail and the scenery was fabulous. In the afternoon, we walked back downtown and found the Burrard Skytrain station and caught the light rail out to Coquitlan. We were met by our cruising buddies from Blackdragon and chauffeured back to their base of land operations in Port Coquitlan. We enjoyed mocajitos and stevaritas which were followed by cards and guitar hero. The boys were in Lego heaven with Foster and also went to cheer him on at his first basketball game.

After cinnamon sticky buns, lattes and a lazy morning, Steve returned us to the boat where we did a quick check to make sure that all was well and hopped on a bus to West Van to share Thanksgiving dinner with the Mulanians. The bus driver was completely annoyed with us because we didn’t have all coins for the fare and he said we couldn’t use paper money. Now, I understand not being able to give change, but why should the transit people care if you give them paper money or not. Anyway, we were saved by a guy with guitar who just gave us the two “twonoonies” ($2 coins, a loonie is a $1 coin with a loon on it). He wouldn’t even take the $5 bill that I had at first, but we insisted. He felt bad because he didn’t have another dollar to make it a fair trade. We insisted that saving our bacon was worth at least a dollar! Anyway, we made it out to Vancouver where the turkey was already in the oven and there was just enough to make a quick loop around Point Adkin’s Lightouse Park. We got a little damp, but we were ready for the feast the was just about ready when we got back to the house.

Today is Brad and my anniversary. After a breakfast of waffles, we hopped on the bikes and rode around the Seawall Trail in Stanely (much more crowded, with the good weather and being Sunday). After radioing the boys back on Capaz and finding that all was well, we continued south to Jerico and the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club where we had a great lunch. We sat in the bar and watched a small boat regatta our in front of the yacht club. We couldn’t let this gorgeous day go by without the boys getting out and enjoying some of Stanely Park. So when we returned to Coal Harbor, Brad and the boys walked up to check out the Aquarium.

I would like to say we have “done” Vancouver, but I know we have only scratched the surface and will have to return explore it more. Luckily, we have the excuse of the friends that we made while cruising to do just that!

Tour de Vancouver (Part 1)

2010-10-04T11:25:00.001-07:00

October 3, 2010

The West Vancouver leg of our Tour de Vancouver has been a success, but not without its challenges. Moorage has been incredibly hard to come by in this neck of the woods and there is no place to anchor due to the “inflow/outflow'” weather pattern in Howe Sound. After striking out at West Vancouver Yacht Club, Eagle Harbor Yacht and the Thunderbird Marina, we finally found moorage for the weekend at Sewell’s Marina in Horseshoe Bay. We are right next to one of the busiest ferry docks in Canada, maybe the world. We are getting used to the BC ferries as we have also moored or anchored very near them in Campbell River, Snug Cove, and Drew Bay.

After securing moorage, we met up with our fellow cruisers from Mulan at their land base of operation in Fisherman’s Cove in West Vancouver. They were completely welcoming of us into their home including a trip to Costco and making us in a part of a reunion barbecue that they hosted for everyone who had bee a part of the Mulan adventure! It was great to see those that we had already met along the way again and meet the others who had served as crew on Mulan at various times. Finally, even though it was actually Susan and Andrew’s wedding anniversary, they gave us the gift of an evening and most of a day without kids.

When the Mulan crew returned the kid half of the Capaz crew to the boat, we were all joined by the Blackdragon crew for a Sunday afternoon and early evening of catching up and dinner. Both of the newly land based cruisers commented that even though hanging on the boat was familiar, it was also a bit weird for them. There was alot of discussion of the process of “re-entry”. We are all in different stages and it was nice to hear the insights of those a little farther down the road than we are. One CLOD (cruiser living on dirt) told us that rum helps – I think that has been the best advice thus far – especially when shared in the company of friends!

Just to alleviate any confusion when I mention “painkillers” during our transition time!

Waterfall Wonderland

2010-09-28T17:38:00.001-07:00

Princess Louisa, British Columbia, Canada

September 25-27, 2010

Why “Waterfall Wonderland”? Well, it was! The up side of having some rain fall is that it makes for absolutely spectacular waterfalls. They were so numerous that we lost count and then the centerpiece of Princess Louisa Inlet, Chatterbox Falls was pretty amazing when we arrived. After Saturday night’s torrential rainfall all night long, the Falls were a once in a lifetime sight for us.

We were very lucky to have our good friend, Rose, along with us for the trip up Jervis Inlet. She arrived late Friday night and did not complain at all when we left at 7:00am to time the slack tide at Malibu Rapids. The trip up was uneventful and we only saw a few minutes of bumpy water right where the locals had said we would at Egmont, the opening to the Skookumchuck Narrows and Sechelt Inlet. After that, it was smooth motoring. The trip through the Rapids was also, uneventful, thankfully.

There were only two other sailboats at the dock when we arrived and they were very welcoming. Our first night brought the above mentioned torrential rains, but Sunday dawned misty and beautiful although, this time of year it takes until mid morning for the sun to peek over the tops of walls of the Inlet. Rose and I explored the Beyond Malibu site which is pretty well boarded up for the season. After lunch, Brad and I climbed the near vertical “trail” to the mythic trapper’s cabin. Convinced we had made a wrong turn, we stopped about a hundred yards from an impassable waterfall only to find out upon our equally grueling return that we were “there”.

Monday, we had a relaxing morning before leaving for the early 9:00am slack tide at the Rapids. Just back into Jervis Inlet, we answered the call of a small powerboat that had been on the dock with us the night before and had apparently run out of fuel. We caught up with them after about an hour and towed them back to Pender Harbor (about 30 miles). They offered to take us out to dinner, but all the restaurants were closed because it was Monday!

While we were away from Garden Bay, the resident bear has continued to enjoy the apples that are on the ground at the neighbors’ house. The caretaker and another club member snapped some pictures of what we are supposed to be looking out for!

Re-Entry Update: We are chipping away at our re-entry tasks. We have bought a car. We have secured moorage and live-aboard status at Shilshole. We have laid the groundwork for our return to skiing after two years of not being on or near snow.

Cortes Rendez-vous

2010-09-21T21:26:00.001-07:00

September 21, 2010

Cortes Bay, Desolation Sound, British Columbia, Canada

We arrived in Cortes Bay between the low cloud ceiling of the morning and the high winds that kicked up in the late afternoon. The moorage in the bay is so protected that we didn’t even realized the wind was blowing til we went up to change over the laundry. G-ma, Auntie Barbara and Susie arrived just as we were finishing our dinner. Once they had unpacked and settled, we met up in the Cortes Room and chatted while the kids worked on puzzles.

Any day that starts out with fresh cinnamon rolls can’t go badly and it held true for yesterday. We took advantage of having the car and made a trip to the grocery and co-op. Bryce wanted to take G-ma to the bookstore. While we waited for it open, we headed down the road to visit Hollyhock and strolled through their beautiful gardens in the fabulous fall sunshine. Bryce got to pick out a couple graphic novels for he and his brother. I can hardly wait to get back to our fabulous library system – talk about things we have missed over the course of our year+ away from Seattle. G-ma took all the ladies on a hike up to Red Granite Bluff (which is just above Lively Beach – article forthcoming in the Capaz Chronicle). The recovery from her knee replacement surgery is impressive – she may ski a run or two this season yet! Brad filleted our salmon and we had fabulous salmon and prawn feast for dinner. G-ma and company even let me bored with our newly trimmed slideshow of pictures from the big adventure.

We awoke bright and early for a trip to Prideux Haven for the day. It turned out to be much closer than our distance calculations and we hit the pinch point right at low tide but still had plenty of water under the keel to spare. I got Auntie Barbara out in the two man kayak for a nice little jaunt and chat. Back on the boat, we had lunch in the cockpit while the sun played peek-a-boo behind big white fluffy clouds. The boys went for an explore along the shore that had Brad and Austin going overland while Bryce piloted the dinghy around to meet them on the other side of a little peninsula. Under beautiful sunny skies, we headed back to Cortes Bay. Our early departure for Wednesday morning was confirmed by the “Securite” warning issued by the Canadian Coast Guard for impending nasty weather. We returned early enough for the boys to fit in a quick trek up to Red Granite Bluff before G-ma fixed up G-pa’s special scalloped potatoes for dinner.

Circumnavigating Quadra Island

2010-09-19T14:21:00.001-07:00

September 18, 2010

Octopus Islands-Kanish Bay-Campbell River- Rebecca Spit-Carrington Bay

It took us awhile but after giving up on exploring the Broughton Islands, we finally figured out a plan: we would circumnavigate Quadra Island. Maybe someday, we will actually get to circumnavigating Vancouver Island. We will have to save an adventure or two for another time.

Our first stop was Kanish Bay which was the bay that we hiked to (Small Inlet) from the Octopus Islands. The weather lifted a bit and we had a nice evening. Brad and I even went for a little bit of exploring in the dinghy as the sunset turned to dusk.

On through Seymour Narrows and its wild currents to Campbell River for a little provisioning. We ended up in a small marina that is owned by a hotel and so had access to their hot tub before bed. We also visited the Campbell River Maritime Museum which has a its centerpiece a 1958 salmon fishing boat that has been restored because for 17 years, its picture graced the back of the $5.00 bill. We got Austin some long pants that fit so that his ankles won’t be so cold and a new warm jacket. There was also a stop to obtain some local salmon fishing knowledge and gear at the outdoor store. We even fit in a pretty extensive grocery run and stop at the Seattle Embassy. All that in less than 24 hours. I wonder if it was the dip in the hot tub or the level of activity that contributed more to everyone’s excellent night’s sleep.

We trolled for about 3 hours on our way to Rebecca Spit: the only bites were little and had to go back to grow into big salmon. The first night at anchor, we were the only boat in the hook of the spit and had the entire end of Drew Bay to ourselves. The weather was great and the boys spent the whole afternoon on the beach making driftwood sailboats. I took the kayak in search of ice cream, but came back with a brand of pierogies that we can’t get in the states anymore and some beets for borscht so that we could have a little Ukrainian feast for dinner.

We trolled for a couple more hours on our way up to Carrington Bay on Cortes Island. One good sized fish, but since we have to use barbless hooks here in Canada, it got away. Brad had visited here years ago with his dad and some friends on “Heather” as an Explorer Scout. He knew about the cool rapids between the bay and its lagoon. Just before dinner, we zipped up to the head of the bay. Even though the tide was already past high, the bay level was still a good foot above the lagoon level and so the water was pouring in through the rapids. The boys (all three of them) raced logs through the rapids.

On to Cortes Bay so that we can meet up with Auntie Barbara, G-ma and her friend. Getting up early pays as we will be having salmon for dinner tomorrow!

Octopus Islands

2010-09-16T09:00:00.001-07:00

September 14, 2010

Octopus Islands Provincial Marine Park, Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada

Even though it rained (again) on our visit to the Octopus Islands, it was fantastic (we must be Washingtonians!!). We just hunkered down our first evening and Austin beat us at all Scrabble with “JADE” for 60 points!!!

The boys dove into their schoolwork the next morning as we all waited for some clearing. Mid-morning, Brad and I took a little kayak tour that included going through a slot that is probably high and dry at low tide but had cool currents surging one way and then the other when we transited it. In the afternoon, it dried off enough for a trip to visit the “Cruiser’s Cabin” and do a little reconnaissance for the next day’s hike. There was a kayak group from Toronto camped on the beach where the trail begins and we chatted with them a bit before heading back to our nice, warm, cozy boat!

Clearing Fog – Waiatt Bay

Hiking to Small Inlet and Newton Lake

The next morning dawned still with fog here and there. As it started to clear, we cut homework short and headed off for our hike. We crossed a small isthmus from Waiatt Bay to Small Inlet and then continued up to Newton Lake. We are all very excited to be back in our native evergreen forests (second growth or not). In the afternoon, schoolwork was finished, naps were taken, islets were explored, and plans were made for our Cruiser’s Cabin artwork and the rest of our week.

The priority for our final morning in the Octopus Islands was to complete and hang our new art in the Cruiser’s Cabin. It was decided that we would add to our previous contribution from 2005 when we visited with the Voodoo Child and had part of the Toland family aboard. Upon arrival, there was a kayak tour group having a fabulous picnic lunch on the newly rebuilt deck. We hung our newest attempt at driftwood art (power tools are a definite plus). Back at CAPAZ, we had a quick lunch before we needed to pull anchor and head for Osikollo Channel’s slack tide.

A Plan Coalesces

2010-09-15T23:41:00.001-07:00

September 11, 2010

En route between Cortes Bay and the Octopus Islands, Approaching Surge Narrows

A “Dead Head” encountered entering Desolation Sound

We may have finally figured out what our plan is for the next few days. We were toying with the idea of making a run to the Broughton Islands, but with 3 days to get there and another 3 to return, we would not have more than 3 or 4 days to explore before needing to turn south for a couple of rendez-vouses that we have set.

Our alternative plan is to do some exploring around here and visit a couple of our favorite places along the way. With that said, today’s goal is the Octopus Islands Marine Park. In 2005, we spent a rainy night in Waiatt Bay which dawned into a beautiful morning that was cut short by time constraints. Even with our short time, we were able to fashion a work of art to leave at the “Cruiser’s Cabin”. With our return, we are anxious to see if the old art project has survived 5 years and we have plans for a new one.

Brad passes on from father to sons: The all-important skill of making hamburger patties

For the last couple of days, we have been relaxing at Cortes Bay. The kids have been playing on the beach and doing puzzles in the clubhouse. We also found an old board game called “Regatta”. A quick on-line search gave a set of rules to print out and Bryce and I “out-sailed” Brad in our first game. Austin and I took the bikes to the store (lots of hills between us and the store) in search of a few food items and shoes. We got the couple of things on our grocery list, didn’t find shoes, but did locate a great little book store. The guys set the prawn traps and got two prawns yesterday, not really enough to share at last night’s “green box” gathering. They decided to leave the trap out over night to pick up on our way around the south end of Cortes this morning.

We are really having good luck as not only did the boys pull up almost 30 prawns, but also we got to see some transient orca whales. One of the boats that also saw them, said on the VHF that the group had been in the area for about a week. We think we saw a mom and baby, what a treat!!!!

Mom and Baby, maybe???

Going the Right Way

2010-09-08T18:27:00.001-07:00

Garden Bay, BC, Canada

September 8, 2010

Leaving Plumper Cove

On Monday, when we left our friends in Howe Sound, the weather was anything but great. We were having our doubts about our decision to head north (although, not so much after looking at the longer range weather forecasts). So northward we pressed. We were much happier than the steady stream of vessels making their way home into the southeasterly seas and winds that we had at our backs. We could have sailed north, but as we pondered raising the sails, Brad’s exact words were, “It is wet and cold out there.”

We arrived in Garden Bay (in Pender Harbor) a little after noon. The boats that came in all afternoon mainly from Cortes were a little ragged. We let Adios in the laundry line ahead of us as they took a wave over their bow that opened their forward hatch and doused the forepeak.

I took Austin with me on our foraging expedition to Madiera Park on the other side of Pender Harbor because we are looking for some shoes for him. He left his crocs on Blackdragon and so we won’t be seeing them til the middle of next month. Until then, he needs some water shoes or boots that he can use for walking around rocky beaches. He does have a pair of running shoes, but after a year of crocs or no shoes at all, they seem to be an unacceptable choice. There was a thrift store, but it was only open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and the drug store was already closed (on Labor Day hours) by the time we got there. So, Austin just helped with a big stock up.

On Tuesday, boat school was back in full session after a brief hiatus during which only reading and writing were required of the boys on any kind of regular basis. New math books and new spelling programs have been added back into the mix. Luckily, it was a little drizzly and we got through the morning with only a 40 minute break at low tide to harass the starfish on the beach. We were missing our private marine biologist, Mike from Io so that we really could count it as science time. The introduction to Bryce’s first chapter of math called for a group of four people to gather data for him from a jumping jack exercise. So, I guess you could say that we all had a little PE, too.

Austin and I took another swing back through Madiera Park for shoes to no avail. We did pick up a few forgotten and additional items at the supermarket. The liquor store was open and we found a good all purpose British Columbia specific animal and plant identification book for our upcoming hikes and other land-based exploring. On the way back to the boat, we discovered that Pender Harbor goes much deeper into the heart of the Sechelt Peninsula than I had thought. The inner-most bay had a fairly narrow entrance that we must have hit pretty close to max flood. We really had to ignore the “watch your wake” signs as we tried to head back to Garden Bay because otherwise we would not have been able to make any progress against the current. We were glad that Juanny (our outboard engine) was in a good mood, because though rowing it would have been a great workout, it would not been fun.

Before a sunset dinner of steaks and baked potatoes on the outstation patio, I finished the first big chunk of my quilt. One down, 5 or 6 more to go. I prepped the next section while we were staying at my parents house last month. I get lots of help on big projects like this, usually from Brad. However, with Brad sailing CAPAZ to the mainland, I was lucky that my dad willingly stepped in and turned all the pieces right side out, thus eliminating one whole step for me. Bryce’s love of aesthetics is a perfect fit for helping me organize the “window” pieces for the next step and he has said he will give me a hand with that when we get to Cortes (we will see if I will be able to lure him away from Crab Beach to help me).

Leaving sunny, clear Pender Harbor this morning, we were preparing ourselves for a foggy Malaspina Strait. Magically, as we rounded the corner, the fog began to dissipate into patchy low clouds clinging here and there. It looks like it will be a smooth and sunny trip (albeit a little chilly) up to Cortes Island.

Fog ahead in the Malaspina Strait Patchy fog behind in the outer islands of Pender Harbor

Blackdragon Rendez-Vous

2010-09-06T07:06:00.001-07:00

September 6, 2010

We left Ovens Island relatively early to make Pollier Pass on a decent tide. the morning was beautiful and the Straits of Georgia turned out to be calm enough for breakfast making and warm enough for a bathing suit (behind the dogder, of course). We entered Howe Sound around noon, ahead of our friends on Blackdragon. A quick cell phone call verified the location of the nice little cove where they liked to anchor. We christened our new “Home Depot Special” stern tie set up and were ready for a little raft-up as Blackdragaon approached.

We are not really sure where the afternoon went. For sure there was a lot of catching up and maybe a Steve-a-rita or two. We are sure of what the boys did: fish. They also set the crab traps (not in deep enough water evidently because they only got a couple of smallish-but legal- rock crabs) and rehabbed an abandoned prawns trap. I sauteed up 7 little prawns that boys gobbled down and gave a big thumbs up. While the kids had boy night on Capaz, Steve and Tracey taught us a new game called Wizard. I think there will be the purchase of a Wizard deck of cards in our future.

True to the forecast the wind piped up a bit and we moved to Plumper Cove Marine Park on Keats Island at the bottom of Howe Sound. Our steering lubricants are having as hard of a time adapting to the cooler weather as the humans aboard Capaz. While Brad stayed on Capaz to figure out the above mentioned stiff steering problem, the boys and I joined the crew of Blackdragon ashore for a nice little hike around the island. In the afternoon, there was another round of Wizard during which I blew a big hole in Steve’s theory that the dealer always wins. After dinner, the Dolling’s neighbors arrived in their runabout and joined us for a round of Mexican Train aboard Capaz while the kids watched a movie back in the media room.

There was supposed to be rain on Sunday, but we lucked out. After a good sleep-in on Capaz, Brad got some boat work done (an oil change) and the boys got some more fishing in. Gas, alcohol and salmon lures (along with a gelato) were procured across the way in Gibson’s by the ladies. We could not, however, talk the menfolk into moving the boats over to Gibson’s harbor so that we could take in the outdoor movie set-up of an old sitcom that was filmed in the area called the Beachcombers. We ended up having another great dinner back in Plumper Cove with the whole crew aboard Blackdragon (we ate in shifts). The kids ditched the adults for Capaz and a movie. The adults drank tea (no kidding) and played cards!!

Swiftsure Yachts Board Meeting

2010-09-05T10:42:00.001-07:00

September 1, 2010

I am pretty sure that we had quorum for a Swiftsure Yachts Board meeting last night aboard Pete and Kirsten’s boat, Charlotte. We actually tried not to talk about work too much since the crew of Charlotte are trying to have a vacation while Ryan holds down the fort in Seattle.

SV Charlotte in Genoa Bay

Timing could not have been more perfect. As we came into the Satellite Channel from south side of Portland Island on our way up from Victoria, Charlotte came into the channel on the north side of the island on their way over from Bedwell Harbor. We followed them around the south end of Salt Spring Island back into Vancouver Island’s Genoa Bay.

It was great to catch up and the boys had kids to play with most of the afternoon and evening. Besides Alden who seemed pretty psyched to see his big boy friends, they were joined by another young man a little older than Bryce from Puffin out of Portland. Though the weather was definitely an improvement over Tuesday, it still turned very chilly when the sun dipped below the high hills surrounding the harbor.

This morning dawned gorgeous and we parted ways with Puffin and Charlotte as they turned south and we continued north. We only went as far as Ovens Island in Ladysmith Harbor. We left early to catch the pushing tide in Sansum Narrows and arrived before noon. Though we have been to Ovens Island several times, we have never been to the town.

While the boys played and Brad took care of a couple of boat jobs, I took the dinghy across the harbor to explore. I am sure the weather will not turn too cold any time soon, as I am now outfitted with three pairs of long warmer pants courtesy of the sale at the local thrift store. At the grocery store I finally found box milk (aka bilge milk) and when the cashier offered up the van for a free ride back to the dock, I bought out the store. All in all, Ladysmith is a very nice little town!

Ladysmith from Ovens Island

Tacos and T-birds

2010-08-31T07:17:00.001-07:00

August 30, 2010

When we arrived at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club for a couple of days, we were lucky enough to be able to connect with a couple of friends that we made during our years of racing in the Thunderbird class fleet on the mighty “REV” otherwise known as #447! Seattle and Victoria have traditionally been the strongest fleets in the class and so when the REV crew needed challenging racing, our friends up here in Victoria were only too happy to provide it for us – with us traveling up here for races or them voyaging to Seattle, even meeting halfway in Port Townsend on occasion. Over tacos, we caught up with the reigning World Champion fresh from the regatta earlier this month in Toronto. We had a great visit with Mark and Rhonda on CAPAZ. Then with a fabulous dessert, we were joined by more T-birders, Vidas and Hillary who live in the neighborhood and were able to drop by the boat. We all reminisced about ancient and not so ancient racing fun and found out what is happening in everyone’s lives away from Thunderbird regattas.

What Mark does when not racing Thunderbirds

Both Mark and Rhonda are Guides for Prince of Whales, one of Victoria’s original whale watching outfits!

Butchart Gardens

2010-08-31T06:40:00.001-07:00

August 28, 2010

Our Butchart Gardens voyage actually started last night. After finding a place to anchor in Tod Inlet and finishing up the last of delivery tuna, we sought a spot in the dinghy from which to watch the Saturday night fireworks that the Gardens put on. We enjoyed the aerial displays and even though we couldn’t see the ground displays they lit up the tree that were between us and them in a most pleasing way.

This morning, all six of us, Nana and Poppy had joined us in Victoria, piled into to the dinghy and made our way to the Gardens before too many tourists descended. I worked on my familiarizing myself with my new camera taking tons of “foliage” shots. We had packed a nice lunch and found a nice bench in the sun to eat it at which time the people watching was almost as enjoyable as the colorful views that vast array of plants and flowers provided us. Nana and Poppy took the bus back to Victoria so that they could catch their ferry back to Port Angeles.

We returned to Capaz and ended up moving the boat to a better spot that also proved to have better beach access. After dinner, Brad and I returned to the lit gardens for some live jazz that went well with ice cream and some hot drinks that we had brought along in a thermos from the boat. You gotta love rum: the all-latitude drink!

Reunited and It Feels So Good

2010-08-28T08:26:00.001-07:00

Victoria, BC, Canada

August 27, 2010

The boat and Brad arrived at 1:00 am and the mom and kids got through Canadian Customs by 11:00 am. We are all very happy to see each other. The boat was right in front of the Empress Hotel. One quick laundry so that everyone has clean sheets and the search for warm clothes and bedding stowed into the depths of the boat (it’s really not that cold, but we have really thin blood) and we are ready to continue on.

Long time family friends who live in Victoria, Ruth and Steve, shuttled me to Costco for a re-provisioning run (which except for the perishables) is still waiting for stowage. The boys did a really good job of eating all the fresh fruits and veggies. There is still quite a bit of frozen meat, since there seemed to be an virtually endless supply of mahi-mahi and tuna. We are looking forward to taking part in the record breaking salmon run that is currently in progress.

Brad and the boys put on their tourist hats and visited Miniature World in the basement of the Empress Hotel (always a favorite). We rounded out the day with a visit to Victoria’s version of the Spaghetti Factory. Right as we finished, we got to meet Third Mate Dave’s son, Reef. He was drawn to Capaz’s steering wheel – gaptta start early with these little guys.

The McWhirter Family

We have grandparents arriving for the weekend so I will have to keep it short as that stuff on the boat will not stow itself!

Day 16: Arrival

2010-08-26T20:46:00.001-07:00

Augus 26, 2010
17:34 HST, which is 8:34pm Pacific Daylight time (03:34 UTC August 27)
Lat: 48 19.7 North
Lon: 123 52.6 West
Distance to go: 22.5 nautical miles

We entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca earlier today and truly are almost there! Before getting to Cape Flattery, we realized that something was wrong, either the engine was having issues or more likely the prop was having issues. I noticed that we weren't even coming close to the speed we should be doing given the RPM's when I turned on the engine. So, I ran the throttle at medium to see what RPM's we were making. The engine wouldn't even turn at 2000 RPM's much less the 3200 it should have at max throttle. Suspecting a problem with the prop, I taped our underwater camera to the boat hook, turned on the movie function and took a video of the prop. Hopefully we can add this video to the blog at some point. Anyway it showed clearly that a net had snared itself to the prop. We limped into Neah Bay where courageous Dave got in the water and removed the net from the prop. I took a video of this as well. Ever since then, we have been motor sailing making good time. The tide is now ebbing and will likely be in our face pretty much the rest of the way. This means when we reach Race Rocks (just outside of Victoria Harbor) there will be significant current against us which will make for slow going. We should arrive in Victoria before the end of the day though! We are all excited to be here. It has been a relatively easy trip so far, lets keep it that way (touch wood).

Brad

Day 15: Happy Crew, Happy Boat

2010-08-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

August 25, 2010
15:51 HST (01:51 UTC August 26)
Lat: 47 29.6 North

Lon 127 44.5 West
Distance to go: 190 nautical miles, (132 miles to Cape Flattery)

We are all getting pretty excited about making landfall tomorrow and arriving in Victoria later in the day! For the first time in well . . . . 15 days we heard chatter on the VHF. Yes, we left the VHF radio on all the time. We heard a Canadian naval plane contacting vessels inbound to the strait of Juan de Fuca. That reminds me of a joke: Do you know how Canadians spell Canada? (for the answer go to the bottom of the email).

In any case, there have been other signs that we are nearing land. Clumps of kelp have started appearing in the water. I haven't seen that for a while. The water color has changed. It has more of a green tinge to it. I saw what looked like a seagull earlier this morning. We are getting close!

After motoring for what seemed like forever, we finally got the wind shift that I had been predicting. You see, a front was supposed to overtake us bringing a shift in the wind from the SW to the NW. It also was supposed to bring an increase in wind. Well, it didn't happen yesterday, and we started the watch schedule with the engine running. I had the last watch from 3:30am to 6am HST. Since we are still on Hawaiian Time and it really was 6:30am Pacific Daylight Time, the sky was already light. I poked my head out the hatch and it was misty and cold. The front was upon us. About 1/2 hour into my watch the wind abruptly shifted and started to build. Game on. I unrolled the headsail and waited for one of the crew to wake up about 1.5 hours later. Randy surfaced and we hoisted the main and turned off the engine. One thing I neglected to mention was that the boat speed was about 1 knot off of what we should have been doing with the engine RPM's we were running. Really there were only two likely causes. The first one that came to mind was that we had picked something up on the rudder or keel, like a net or a shark, something like that. The other option was that something was wrong with the prop itself. Anyway, we backed down the boat which took care of the problem. Thank goodess it wasn't the prop (touch wood).

Right now, it's blowing about 20 knots on the beam and we are making about 8 knots of boat speed. Making good time! By this time tomorrow we will be in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and in cell phone range. I guess it's back to civilization. Since April 1st of this year I have sailed about 8000 nautical miles at sea. I think that's enough for a while. Strangely I'm not really burnt out on the whole thing, it just isn't holding that magic for me that it used too. I never thought I'd say that, but there you have it.

Well it's getting to be that time where we all gather in the salon and watch a bit of TV and Randy cooks dinner, then I get on the SSB and talk to my friend on Mulan, we watch more TV, then hit the sack. Tonight we will reef the main and mizzen before it gets dark, so we don't have to do it in the dark of the night were it to get stinky. We are almost there!

Brad

Answer:
C, eh, N, eh, D, eh
(joke courtesy of Dave)

That reminds me, Dave told me a little lymeric. Here's how it goes:

There once was a man from Nantucket, who's Di.........ok, maybe that one isn't appropriate.

Day 14

2010-08-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

August 24, 2010
16:40 HST (02:40 UTC August 25)
Lat: 46 22.1 North
Lon: 131 01.5 West
Distance to go: 340 miles to go

The last 24 hours have been spent motoring in less then 10 knots of wind from the stern. When conditions are like this, we all sleep really well. The boat glides along in a calm, but undulating sea, rocking us to sleep. The engine noise drowns out any other noises that might keep us awake. I can't remember be so well rested on a long passage like this. Nothing much has happened since the last blog.

I know that we are all looking forward to getting there. I personally haven't been out of the company of my family for more then a few hours for almost a year. It's hard to be that close for so long and then to not have them there. So it will be a big relief when once we are re-united.

As I type, I saw something out of the corner though the pilothouse window. It was an albatross, flying, skimming, just above the waves. We haven't gone a day out here with out seeing a bird. It amazing to me that we were about as far away as you can get from land and still there are birds out here. I know that several species of bird inhabit the skies above the oceans, not touching land for years. When they do come to land it is only to mate and raise young. Then they return to their solitary life out on the big blue.

It's massive out here, water for days and days on end. Sailing like this really brings home how much of our planet is covered with water. Earth is not a land world. It is a waterworld, the "Blue Planet". Being out here, seeing this seemingly ending expanse of water, it's hard to believe that we, mankind could fuck it up. But we are. Doing some motoring through the high gives you a glimpse. For days, in the middle of this leg, we couldn't go more then a minute or two before coming across some sort of garbage floating by. Plastic. I don't mean to go all environmentalist on you all, but we as a species need to come around, wake up and figure out how to live more harmoniously with the planet. Otherwise, our kids or our kid’s kids are going to pay the price.

Yes, I'm rambling, but as I said not much has happened over the last day. Plastic aside, it's beautiful out here. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you come out here sometime and see for yourself.

Well, about 2 days to go!

Brad

Day 13: Almost There

2010-08-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

August 23, 2010
15:11 HST (01:11 UTC August 24)
Lat: 45 04.4 North
Lon 134 22.2 West
Distance to go: 500 nautical Miles

Well, I'm back. Now that you have heard from the rest of the crew, I'm back on the job as the Capaz Blogger for the Hawaii to Victoria BC leg. It has been a pretty typical 24 hours. Yesterday, was beautiful as we motor sailed in light winds. We had Fish for dinner, again. Randy whipped up another one of his fabulous meals. And, again, we watched a few more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory". The joke is that we have to check in on how Penny is doing. Jorge (the autopilot) has no problem steering in motoring conditions, so our watches were very routine. I'm not sure how the rest of the guys spend their watch, but with the cooler weather I stayed below for the most part and monitored the radar and AIS all the while watching 2 episodes of Stargate SG1. It's a tough existence out here, the intrepid sailors braving the harsh seas, but someone has to do it.

This morning, we unrolled the headsail and put up the main to do a bit of motorsailing. The wind picked up out of the south, enough so that we hoisted the spinnaker. We have been flying that sail for the last 5 hours, but the wind is starting to dwindle and the crew is dousing even as I type. So, the chute comes down (live play by play). I will go check the engine room look at the oil level and then start the engine for some motoring. So hang on a moment, while I go do that. Be right back...............I'm back. I checked the oil and asked the guys to do a line check to make sure we didn't have a spinnaker sheet or other line in the water. Wouldn't want to wrap a line around the prop: that would be bad.

I cooked up some eggs and bacon and put them in a wrap with some cheese for breakfast. We all fended for ourselves for lunch. With the spinnaker up it was nice to play the stereo and hang out in the cockpit. After lunch we watched a movie, "Michael Clayton", which we all enjoyed. Tonight I'm sure we will watch some more Big Bang Theory and the process will start all over again.

The day before yesterday our friend Andrew set sail an Mulan from Hawaii also bound for the Pacific Northwest. Andrew had planned to leave about the same time as we did, but got stuck waiting for an engine part. It was good to touch base with him on the SSB last night to get a report. It sounded as though all was well aboard Mulan as they sailed north from Hawaii.

I really don't have any more news for today. It looks like we should be in Victoria late Thursday evening or early Friday morning, but time will tell.

Cheers!

Brad

Day 12 motoring in the calm after the storm

2010-08-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

August 22, 2010
16:09 HST (02:09 UTC August 23)
Lat: 43 56.5 North
Lon: 137 8.2 West
Distance to go: 636 nautical miles

Today's crew blogger is Harold

This is “Hunt and Peck Harold” with a veery brief outline of the last few hours. Last night, we saw another episode of our TV family "Big Bang Theory". We get worried about what Penny has been up to. We have become one in our nerdness. Twenty-five knots of wind and big seas made even brushing our teeth a challenge and flossing was optional for last night only. We were greeted this morning with a spectacular sunrise calm seas and 10 to 15 knots of wind off our beam. Sweet! The water temp has dropped from 80 to a refreshing 65 and we felt that the tuna should be ready for our BBQ. We deployed the tuna jig and shortly after hauled in our dinner. Albacore tuna on the BBQ tonight. Taking a 360 degree view makes me realize how BIG the Pacific is: how vast and powerful and beautiful. Helps me realize how small and insignificant we all are. This is a gas!
Peace and Love Harold

Day 11: Big Wind Last Night, Making Good Time

2010-08-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

August 21, 2010
17:37 HST (03:37 UTC August 22)
Lat: 42 48.8 North
Lon 139 52.9 West
Distance to go: 774 nautical miles

Today's crew blogger is Randy

The wind and waves built gradually last night, and by sometime past midnight, Jorge the autopilot had gone on strike. Brad and Harold broke-out the foul-weather gear and had steered for a few hours, giving our friend a much-needed siesta. By morning, we had a North Pacific version of mixed chop, where small waves play with these school bus-sized things in a fairly random order. You can admire the top of your rudder off the stern while a small breaker lightly cleans the windows on the coach house. The boat slaloms across the mix in a surprisingly graceful way, and we spent the morning watching the parade of peaks and troughs like some kind of maritime parade. It's a busy existence. All speculation now is on when the motoring will start later this evening, as the weather patterns change yet again on our route.

Randy

Day 10: A Report from Dave

2010-08-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

August 20, 2010
15:42 HSST (01:42 UTC August 21)
Lat: 41 16.4 North

Lon: 143 16.9 West
Distance to go: 951 nautical miles (under 1000!)

As I'm sure you are all growing bored with my perspective on this trip, so I thought it would be nice to have blog entries from other on the crew. The first to step up to the plate is Dave. Here is his report:

An update of life on the high seas with your hardy, intrepid travelers. The bouncy, head-on seas of last night have been replaced by easy, rolling swell from the NNW, quartering in on Capaz's port bow. Easy sailing today, with sunshine all day up until about 20 minutes ago. Sunbathing, reading and fishing from the Lido Deck have been the highlight of the day. Everyone is hoping for an albacore strike after too much success with mahi-mahi. (Yes, there is such a thing as too much luck fishing: "Fish AGAIN?" But that's how it goes when you roll with Captain Brad "Fish Killer" Baker.) The race is about neck and neck and neck and neck for the lead in our summer reading derby, as books get devoured and passed around and devoured. Every once in a while the reading is interrupted for a little sail trimming or repair work. We nightly watch an episode or two of The Big Bang Theory (sitcom), and wish that Penny would just fall for Sheldon already. Following dinner is usually a movie. Yes, for these hard men of Capaz, who fear no fish (until the 4th night in a row) nor stormy sea, homesickness is the only true hardship, as we miss our loved ones at home. Your correspondent speaks at least for himself that it won't be a moment to soon to reacquaint with his wife, Meline, and 5 month old boy, Reef, when at last we find port, in approximately one week's time. The water and air temperatures continue their decline, making showering on the swim step a somewhat chilly affair, and chasing the fleece layers from the depths of stowage. Brad insists that turning around and going back to Hawai'i is, in fact, not an option. Randy, who will be starring this fall in the reality series, "Boat Chef on Stormy Seas" just re-entered the galley for his nightly role as Director of Cruise Cuisine. He volunteered early for this role, likely after sizing up the competition, and figuring out that he would rather cook dinner for four every night of the trip than eat anything that I might decide to "create" for a meal. So he is a smart man, as well as a good and diligent chef. To his credit, Brad has stepped in on several occasions and Harold and I are nothing if not mighty in the meal cleanup arena. While my thoughts certainly turn to home, this is a great journey and an amazing opportunity to cross this vast ocean that I have previously only flown over. It could hardly be more different than life at home, and only confirms and inspires my desire to undertake similar journeys on my own boat in the future.

Aloha, Third Mate Dave

Day 9: Dolphin Day and Fixing Stuff

2010-08-19T20:19:00.001-07:00

August 19, 2010
17:09 HST (03:09 UTC August 20)
Lat: 40 26.8 North
Lon 145 45.3 West
Distance to go: 1072 nautical miles

Sorry for the late blog entry today. The afternoon was spent with Harold and I doing a repair to the mainsail: one of the slides had broken off. The big repair though was to the gooseneck on the boom (where the boom attaches to the mast). One of the tabs that holds the gooseneck to the mast had broken off. We attached two L-brackets using some metal epoxy. This should work for the remainder of the trip, but I'll have to get the boom repaired and welded once back to Seattle.

The other highlight was a large pod of Common Dolphins decided to come play with us. It was a big group that seemed to enjoy leaping out of the water and playing off our bow. They hung with us for about an hour. Very cool!

We are still motor sailing, but should be just sailing tomorrow. The wind should increase as we move into the day after tomorrow(Saturday). A low should pass in front of us moving from NE to SW. The GRIB weather files show winds up to 20 knots for us, so I suspect we will see winds into 30 knots at times. It will be downwind which is a good thing, but we wanted to make sure the main and the gooseneck were in good shape for the coming breeze. It will be nice to get some sailing in after all of this motoring. After the low passes us, it looks like we will end up with another light patch before a NW breeze fills into to bring us home.

The very preliminary and I stress preliminary ETA is sometime late on the 26th or more likely during the day on the 27. Lets see if it comes to pass.

Capt. Brad signing off.

Day 8: Halfway Baby!

2010-08-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

August 18, 2010
16:35 HST (02:35 UTC August 19)
Lat: 38 43.7 North
Lon: 147 57.3 West

In a couple of hours, we will be equidistant between the start of this trip and the finish. We continue to motor in very light to no wind. It has been a mellow day with a lot book reading and I-pod watching. This morning, I put the hand lines back out. Harold and I were the only two on deck enjoying the surprisingly nice sunny morning. We discussed politics and current events. I realized I'm not really prepared to enter real life again. Being out cruising, I have been truly disconnected from what has been going on back home. I will be returning in a couple of months but it will be with a whole new perspective on things. This is a good thing. Anyway, while we were having our discussion, a rather large mahi mahi started jumping through the air making B-line toward our lures. I kid you not! I have done . . . I don't know how many . . . . crossings like this and have never seen anything like it. The fish, from a few hundred yards off, maybe jumping a half dozen times until it reached the lures and immediately took the port side squid. He didn't stay on the hook long and Harold and I thought he was done, but nooooo. He was still in the game. We watched again as he came up behind the starboard side squid and took that lure. He eventually managed to shake that one loose as well, but it was very entertaining to watch. Right after he threw the second lure, a small albacore size tuna type fish took the same squid, just like yesterday. This fish managed to escape as well. The making of future fish stories has been the highlight of today. Big Halfway Day party tonight!

We might even drink a glass of wine with our movie!

Capt. Brad signing off.

Day 7: Motoring, Mahi, Movies and Pizza

2010-08-18T01:11:00.000-07:00

August 17, 2010
21:52 HST (07:52 UTC August 18)
Lat:37 24.1 North
Lon: 149 28.8 West

After an evening of quiet sailing, we motored most of the day today, sometimes getting help from the sails when there was a little wind and sometimes not (like now). Sorry that I didn't blog earlier, but you know the days are just packed with reading, sleeping, resting.....you know. Actually, I did do a few chores like get the inner forestay tightened up, fixed the charger for the Sat phone, weather routed, checked on our fuel consumption, stuff like that.

Last night, we watched the second of the Shackleton series. Those guys were tough. It's amazing what they went through and he didn't loose a single person. Amazing! Dinner was Pork Loin served with a cabbage dish. Again excellent. Randy has pretty much become the dinner cook on board, of which I know Dave, Harold and I are very appreciative.

After a couple of days off from fishing, I decided to put the lines back in the water this morning in hopes of catching something other than mahi mahi. I didn't even get the second line all the way out before a rather large mahi mahi took the lure. We took a video of Dave and I pulling the fish in and then releasing it. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera started when I spotted a school of mahi mahi leaping out of the water heading out away from the boat. They would jump like a dolphin would, flying through the air in an arc. They were a bright blue in color and there must have been 20 of them. I had never seen that before and had no idea that they did that. We also hooked a small tuna but it didn't make it to the boat before throwing the hook. Later in the day we hooked another mahi mahi which we also released and decided to pull the lines in hoping for better luck catching an albacore tuna tomorrow.

We watched a couple of movies today. First was a movie called "Wanted" which none of us had seen and new nothing about. It was a story about a secret fraternity of assassins, lots of good gore and gun fights. The second movie was the Abyss, special addition. I hadn't seen this movie for quite a while and forgot how good it was. While watching the movie Randy made up some pizzas, so it was Movie and Pizza Night.

The sea conditions have really laid down and the drizzle stopped today. It's still warm enough to wear t-shirts outside when it's not windy. We all took advantage of the mellow conditions to take showers on the swim step. We are all smelling clean again, at least for now.

It looks as though we will motor until the 21st, then sail for a few days. After that the models show it getting light again. We are motoring slow so as to save fuel for future light air.

I am on watch right now and will be until 11pm. Dave comes on after me. Ah, the moon just poked out from behind some clouds. I think I'll go on deck and enjoy the evening before I had things off to Dave.

Capt. Brad signing off.

Day 7: Post is coming

2010-08-17T20:07:00.001-07:00

As is well on Capaz and they will post from the boat later tonight! ~PJ

Day 6: The Wild Night

2010-08-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

August 16, 2010
15:12 HST (01:15 UTC August 17)
Lat: 34 57.6 North
Lon: 151 32.8 West

Last night, the wind picked up to 30 knots plus. We were caught with our pants down around our ankles. The Navigator (me) had said that the wind shouldn't blow all that hard. Well . . . . . it blew pretty darn hard and the corresponding seas matched. We were using the genoa, not the smaller jib that we use most of the time. The problem is the genoa is lighter and doesn't reef (get smaller – less sail area) very well. We also couldn't roll it up all the way because in the heavy air the roll was so tight that we ran out of line to roll it up. This morning at 4:30am during an attempt to reduce sail, the lazy jib sheet got hung up on the inner stay. While trying to clear it, we bore away to keep the jib from flogging. While I was on the foredeck, Jorge(the autopilot) decided he couldn't handle the downwind conditions and turned himself off. The boat accidentally jibed. Luckily, no damage other than a broken traveler line. Consequently, we had an “all hands on deck” call to get a second reef in the main and to get the boat back on the proper course. Things were a bit exciting last night.

During the morning hours the wind died and we took the opportunity to change sails back to the smaller jib. It's a good thing we did, because the wind picked up again from the South and we are now sailing downwind in 20 knots of wind and very confused seas. Not all that comfortable. The weather has definitely changed as well. We now have a constant drizzle with a marine layer overcast skies.

Jorge has been acting up. After working flawlessly for 4 days, he has now started faulting fairly regularly. I took out the drive motor and took it apart to see if there was anything obviously wrong. I didn't really find anything. The motor was quite hot when I took it out so I decided to slow down the rudder response so the drive motor wouldn't work so hard. It does seem to be better, but does cut out every so often. Bummer!!! Hopefully, it will last for this trip and our cruising in Canada.

Last evening, we watched the movie “Tropic Thunder” which was a lot of fun. We had chicken tacos for dinner as well. Today, we mostly are trying to catch up on sleep and stay dry, so we are all below. Well .. .. .. it's bouncy and I'm tired of looking at a screen, so I think I'll sign off for now. All is well aboard Capaz and we are making good time!

Cheers!

Brad

Day 5: Change in the Weather........

2010-08-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

August 15, 2010
16:08 HST (02:08 August 16 UTC)
Lat: 34 00.2 North

Lon: 154 11.4 West

The good news is that we are still sailing. The bad news is that the situation is likely to change pretty soon. Over the last 33 hours, we have had excellent sailing conditions. Yesterday, we sailed all day under spinnaker. We took it down before dark, jibed from port tack to starboard tack and stuck the genoa out on the pole. We ran wing on wing. Our course for a good part of the night and today has been directly toward the barn, meaning every mile made has been made toward Cape Flattery. At day five, we are about a hundred miles less than one third of the way there. Good progress so far.

Last night, we had fish again. We decided that fish three days in a row was a enough and kept the fishing lines stowed today so we could enjoy a change of pace. I see that Randy has pulled out a box of chicken broth. I suspect he has something in mind for dinner tonight.

We have really settled in to the routine. At least once a day, we all gather in the salon and cockpit and talk about varying subjects as we get to know each other better. It's a fun group and we are getting along famously. The the wind has been blowing up to 20 knots from generally aft. The seas quite mellow for that wind speed. This makes for a relatively comfortable ride conducive to hanging out, reading and doing whatever.

For the '”What Has Broken Report”: The thermostat for the fridge stopped working. I just connected the wires so that it runs whenever we have the genset running. This works fine for now but we will have get a new thermostat as soon as we are plugged into the dock regularly. I spliced a new genoa sheet and now have two custom tapered genoa sheets. When we hoisted the genoa, we noticed a 3' long rip in the foot. We had to lower it again and do a repair using sail tape, a strip of dacron and 5200 adhesive. And other then the Autopilot misbehaving early on in the trip we really haven't had much going wrong with the boat. Now I must touch wood again so as not to jinx things.

Change in the weather.....Ok so it's transition time. We been riding a SSW wind for the last 33 hours or so. This wind has been compliments of a warm front associated with a low that passed well to the North of us. That low and this front are in the process of dissipating. The weather model shows an interesting transition phase where we are likely to have very shifty winds for the next couple of days. At least it looks as though we will have wind to sail in at least some of the time. After that the models shape up for us to do a lot of motoring as we attempt to get to the east side of a building high pressure and NW winds. The good news is this motoring will be mostly toward where we want to go. That is........if the weather behaves as I forecast that it will. Time will tell.

Capt. Brad signing off

PS PJ Bryce and Austin, I love you!

Day 4 Sailing Again

2010-08-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

August 14, 2010
11:24 HST (21:24 UTC)
Lat: 31 48.2 North
Lon: 156 56.3 West

After motoring for 22 hours, we started sailing again this morning. At 6am (boat time which happens to be Hawaiian Standard Time which also happens to be I believe 9am PDST) we turned into the wind and hoisted the main. Next, we poled out the genoa on the port side. The wind was blowing about 12 knots from the SSW. About 2 hours later, the spinnaker went up and life has been good sailing at around 8 knots with winds in the high teens.

Yesterday was pretty mellow. I believe Dave is averaging a book a day reading-trying to beat Lydia’s record. For dinner, we had grilled fish with a mango salsa, a green salad and pasta with red sauce. People would have paid good money for a dish like this in a classy restaurant. Thanks again, Randy! (and grillmaster Brad)! After dinner, we watched another movie. this time it was volume one in a three volume series about Shakleton and his last expedition to the Antarctic. I suspect we will watch volume two tonight. I cooked up some bacon this morning and gave the crew the choice of having their eggs just the way they wanted as long as what they wanted was scrambled. They could choose to have them scrambled. We hooked two Mahi Mahi simultaneously this morning. So, we let one go and cut up the other for yet another fish meal maybe it will be for lunch this time.

The weather outlook hasn't changed much. Hopefully, we will be able to milk a couple days of sailing before what looks like a rather prolonged motoring stint. The weather models can and do change, but if the current trend holds we will have to motor through a long light patch. However, right now we are coasting along at 8 knots with the spinnaker up, mostly sunny skies, the stereo playing and all the crew with their nose in a book. Jorge (the autopilot) is doing a fine job of driving.

Capt. Brad signing off

Day 3.......Motoring already!

2010-08-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

August 13, 2010 (Friday the 13th)
12:56 HST (22:56 UTC)
Lat 29 25.3 North
Lon 157 10.7 West

Yup, we are motoring. Since the last blog entry, the wind has slowly tapered off, until it reached a low of about 5 knots this morning. After looking at the weather models(I talk more about this in a bit), we decided to crank up the Iron Genoa and do some motoring.

For dinner yesterday, Randy fried the Mahi Mahi with a light breading on the outside. This was served with a green salad and diced up potatoes. Yum! After dinner we watched a movie, "Children of Men". Very intense! Brad popped some popcorn. The watch schedule started right after the movie finished, with Randy and Dave on first, I hit the sack. My watch was to be the 4:30am to 7am stretch so I had a full 7.5 hours of sleep. Nice!

By far the highlight of the last 24 hours was standing the night watch. I believe all aboard would agree with that statement. Last night was the peak of the Percied Meteor Shower. Well, let’s put it this way: If you want to watch the stars with absolutely no light pollution, the middle of the Pacific on a clear night is a pretty darn good place to do it. I had only about a half an hour to watch the show before things got too light with the coming sunrise. I lost count at 30 meteors after only 10 minutes of watching. It was spectacular.

With the lighter wind and seas, things have definitely become more civilized. Everyone aboard the boat has had a shower except yours truly. I believe there will be a mutiny aboard if I don't follow suit, seeing as we are all sleeping in each other’s bunks.

The weather........well, the short story is it doesn't look good for a short trip. The Pacific High is in the process of being split in two by a front and a low coming from the west. This weather system is forecast to dissipate. As it does, the high will re-establish itself. This all will happen right in the path of where we want to go! Bottom line is a lot of light air and possible head winds. We have decided to motor NNE to try and hook into some of the wind generated by the front and low. I fear that we will not be able to get north fast enough to take advantage of this, but we are going to give it a try. We need to be able to sail another two or three days if we hope to pull off my master plan. What is the master plan you may ask? Well, I want to motor right through the center of the Pacific High and hopefully have a enough fuel to come out the other side and catch NW winds for the sail to the Strait of Juan De Fuca. We have enough fuel to motor for about 7.5 days, maybe a bit more if we keep the RPMs down. That means we need to do some more sailing before doing the long motor or I don't believe we'll have the fuel to pull it off. The models are having a hard time figuring out what is going to happen in our neck of the woods weather wise, so I'm hoping there will be periods of good wind for sailing. I know it's Friday the 13th, so please knock on wood for us or do any other ritual you think may send us luck.

Capt. Brad signing off.

PS We caught another Mahi Mahi today so fish is still on the menu.

Days 1 and 2: Trucking Along

2010-08-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

August 12, 2010
10:44 HST (20:44 UTC)
Lat: 26 51.6 North
Lon:158 00.4 West

Fish on! Mahi Mahi just came on the menu for dinner tonight! I literally had just sat down to type in this blog entry and the shout came from above, "Fish On". It's actually now 11:10 am, as I had to take a break to bring in the smallish Mahi Mahi and do one instructional fillet on one side. Dave is taking a shot at cutti ng the other half.

Backing up, we arrived in Honolulu in the afternoon of August 2nd, which I believe PJ has already blogged about. After a hectic week of prepping the boat for the next leg and PJ’s seemingly non-stop car trips to and from the airport, Costco and everywhere else, we finally cast off the lines from the Hawaii Yacht Club and set sail.

The crew consists of Dave McWhirter, a long time college buddy of PJ and sailboat owner; Harold Beard, a dentist and friend from our Voodoo Child sailing days who has done numerous open water deliveries including a sail all the way to NZ from Washington. And last but not least Randy Holbrook boat owner, friend and fellow SYC member. I really couldn't ask for a better crew.

We threw off the lines at 11:19 HST (21:19 UTC) on August 10th. Once clearing the channel, we immediately set sail with a the wind aft, blowing about 20 knots we were on our way. As we rounded the SW corner of Oahu, we looked for a calm spot to stop the boat and give the bottom an inspection and quick scrub of the waterline. I didn't do this in Ala Wai Harbor, mostly because of the rather large shark doing the rounds in the marina. Once in the water, I discovered that our Max Prop zinc was no longer present, so I put a new one on while Dave scrubbed on the bottom. This took a little more then an hour to complete and we were off again.

Once we cleared the island of Oahu, the trade winds filled to full force and we sailed the first 36 hours in 20-25 knots with seas reaching as much as 3 meters at times. The wind was forward of the beam so we took a fair amount of water over the bow and sometime over the entire pilot house and bimini. PJ, I am happy to report that the forward cabin remains dry. Needless to say things were bouncy. Randy was the only one impervious to the wave action. I and Dave felt squishy at times and Harol . . . . well, he got physically sick. I sent him over the edge the first night when I had him do a log entry and he had to focus on the screens and number etc. I'm happy to report that we are all now feeling great with the squishies hopefully a thing of the past.

Randy was a trooper the first night literally spending a couple of hours in the galley putting together a chicken and rice dish. It was at the height of the waves and wind and his accomplishment was no small feat.

Yesterday was spent settling in and getting used to life at sea. Dave spent more then an hour on the aft deck basking in the sun and looking at the waves. We all did a lot of napping, reading etc. The autopilot was misbehaving basically faulting and shutting itself off every few minutes. I had changed the brushes in Honolulu and the new ones had not seated themselves yet. I am happy to report the Jorge (that’s the name of our trusty autopilot) is now behaving wonderfully and we haven't had a autopilot fault for over 12 hours (I am now touching wood so as not to jinx things).

Current conditions are quite nice with blue sunny skies, winds in the high teens with an apparent wind angle of about 70 degrees, small seas and making good time! We are heading due North. The weather models don't look great for a fast trip. Right now it looks like it may take us 3 weeks based on what I'm seeing in the weather models. I will write more about this perhaps tonight with a synopsis on the weather and thinking for our routing.

All is well aboard Capaz!

Cheers!
Cpt. Brad

PS PJ is very glad that the forward cabin staying dry and that she and the boys are already enjoying visiting friends and family in Seattle while CAPAZ bashes toward the mainland.

Enjoying Oahu

2010-08-08T12:03:00.001-07:00

Waimea Valley, Oahu, Hawaii, USA

August 6, 2010

We took almost an entire day off of boat errands to drive to a reserve on the North Shore of Oahu called Waimea Valley. We found it very similar to the Valley out of Wailuku on Maui. It is basically a botanical garden with a few hands on cultural activities along a paved path that leads to a waterfall where you can swim about a mile up the valley. On the way, we made a quick stop at the Dole Plantation where we completed the pineapple maze.

We had packed a lunch, so we ate under the shade of the banyan trees.

We learned about taro and invasive prawns. Brad and Austin figured out how to play an ancient game that was a key part of the Polynesian oral history tradition. We had a great conversation with some of the docents who had been to Tahiti (for surfing) and the Tuamotus. We swam in the pool below the waterfall where the lifeguard assured us that there were no freshwater eels (like in Daniels Bay). We also saw the almost extinct moor hen which is duck that does not have webbed feet. It actually a cross between a goose and a chicken.

We drove back along the north shore, but there was no legendary surf (wrong time of year and a very calm day at that). A quick stop at Zippy’s for plate dinners and burgers and we headed back to the boat. A local family who is contemplating cruising met us at the dock and checked out what it would be like to live on a 48’. They won’t have any problem as they have already spent some time living in a motorhome while touring around the states (on the mainland, of course).

One Thing at a Time

2010-08-06T10:55:00.001-07:00

August 6, 2010

Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

View of Waikiki from the 33rd Floor

There is a philosophy in the cruiser community that the day is successful if you can accomplish ONE thing. It’s a strategy for us to meet our goal of slowing life down a little so that it can be enjoyed. Out among like minds, it is much easier to to be successful at taking it easy, but when we come into a port it is always a challenge to strike a balance between getting things done that need to get done and keeping a reasonable pace of life so we can enjoy whatever said port has to offer. I am working very hard at this balance, but it is difficult.

When we arrived on Monday, the priority was simple: get checked in. So, we checked into the country and secured our moorage. Luckily, Lydia was going to try to catch a flight back to the mainland late that evening and so taking her out to dinner was another easy choice.

Tuesday, I had to finish getting us checked and work on getting a condo and car. I took the bike out to the container dock where Customs is located and checked that one off my list. Since I had the bike, I multi-tasked a little with a quick recon to the little grocery store that is in the mall right across from the marina and a quick stop at the Seattle Embassy (aka Starbucks). Sometimes, Google makes things easier – but when the tasks become easier, I always try to squeeze more of them in than I probably should. Anyway, I spent a few hours searching on-line for places and directions to them where we could take care of some of things that have to get done before the boat leaves for the mainland next week. I was also completely overwhelmed by trying to find a condo and car. After the years spent working at a brokerage, I should know better: there are people for that. Brad had the great idea to call our trusted travel agent and within an hour, she had our reservations made for the next day for less than anything I could find! Mulan arrived in the evening and we had to do some catching up with them.

Wednesday, the boys and I took the local bus out to the airport to pick up our car. Through no fault of our own (we were a little lost at the time), we found Costco. A quick phone call to see if the condo was ready and we decided to do a Costco recon and advance directly to checking in. We got checked in and got our Costco purchases into the fridge. Now that there was a car available, Brad was anxious to get some of his errands rolling. Home Depot and West Marine were back out towards Costco, so while the kids veged in front of “Shark Week”. We made another run out towards the airport and knocked a few more things off the list, including another trip to Costco now that I was sure that we indeed had a full sized fridge in our room. We ate dinner together back at the condo and then returned Brad to the boat where we picked up lots of laundry. There is a washer/dryer on the floor here, so that’s an on-going project.

It was now Thursday and we had not done anything to ENJOY Oahu. Drastic measures needed to be taken, so we called a team meeting. We got out that thing with the squares on it . . . . . oh yeah, I think it is called a calendar and we did a little strategic planning. I know this is going to require time management and even some multi-tasking. But if we hadn’t done it, we were in danger of only “getting things done” here on Oahu and not seeing anything the island has to offer. We ran a few more errands and then, spent some time by the pool before heading out to a nice pasta dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Two more tasks were completed: post the “Capaz Chronicle” and get the pictures from the crossing onto the blog.

Today we will try to bring back some balance by doing a little sightseeing.

Surfers waiting for the break this morning off Waikiki

Day 14: Sunrise over Haleakala

2010-08-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

20* 30.2' North
157* 11.5' West
August 2, 2010

We spent most of yesterday trying to see the Big Island of Hawaii through the clouds that shrouded it. We were able to make out a wind farm near the southern tip of the island, but otherwise it was pretty much the suggestion of land. Once we were in the leeward side of the island, the swell became much gentler and we enjoyed the respite even though we had to turn on the engine. Once we entered the Channel between Hawaii and Maui, the swell and wind increased.
A little after 6:00 am, I was treated to an absolutely fantabulous sunrise over the dormant volcano, Haleakala on Maui. Off our starboard bow is the island of Lanai.

Allied ship during combat exercises off Oahu

We are pretty excited about coming into Honolulu this afternoon. Once we hit the dock, there are lists of things to do before the new crew flies in to help bring CAPAZ back to the mainland and the boys and I fly to Seattle for a couple of weeks.

The CAPAZ Crew enjoys dinner on land at the Chart House

Day 13: Are we there yet?

2010-08-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

18* 22.8' North
155* 11.4' West
August 1, 2010

On this morning's watch, I have been continually scanning the horizon to the northwest of our position for a glimpse of the Big Island. We within 60 miles of it and with Mauna Kea at over 13,000 feet, we should have no problem seeing it. However, one needs it to be clear all the way to the horizon to be able to see such things and the current weather conditions are prohibiting me from calling, "Land ho!" at this point.
Luckily, the VHF radio is picking up transmissions from the US Coast Guard Honolulu. It just hit me that we are essentially once again within the easy reach of the US Guard for the first time in months. After following a ca;; pm the radio and hearing how the French Polynesian Coat Guard or Navy handled a distress call, I am very glad to be back in this jurisdiction. The USCG's competence is reassuring.

There is land in this picture – I promise!
Ah! There it is! As the squall line in front of me has passed to the south, I can see it: the top of Mauna Loa! Hawaii here we come!

Day 12: Getting Close Now

2010-07-31T09:48:00.000-07:00

16* 22.2' North
153* 02.5' West
July 31, 2010

Sunset behind a squall

We say goodbye to July and our eleventh month of this adventure today. Even though we are technically out of the ITCZ and into the trades, we are still experiencing some unsettled weather and squalls. I spent most of yesterday trying to recover and catch up on sleep lost two nights ago as we sailed through a patch of 30 - 40 knot winds for several hours. The last 24 hours have been more consistent with winds hovering around 20 knots, only occasionally gusting to 30. The seas have remained pretty rolly, but again our bodies seem to be getting used to it. Brad really hasn't had anything to fix or MacGyver recently until last the I-Pod charger broke. I guess that is how he amused himself on his watch, because when he got me up, it charged and ready for me!

Day 10: Big Left Turn

2010-07-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

12* 46.2' North
148* 44.5' West
July 29, 2010

After trying to motor due north through the doldrums, we have picked up the wind and made a nice big left turn towards Hawaii. Not only are we again moving faster through the water with the wind, but the miles are clicking off more quickly because we are taking a more direct route. For the time being, the winds gods have smiled on us with an almost southerly wind direction which we expect to change to the east as we enter the trades. We will certainly take this gift for as long as it presents itself.
Last night was a rough night that made sleeping difficult. We were starting to see the swell waves coming from the north, but we did not have the stabilizing effect of our sails since there was no wind yet. The result was a very rolly night.
I am just glad that we are no longer pointed at the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska and instead, we are now aiming for the leeward side of the Big Island of Hawaii!

Day 9: ITCZ

2010-07-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

09* 50.2' North
148* 31.0' West
July 28, 2010

Well, here we are again . . . . . traversing the ITCZ (or ITCZed, as our friend Andrew likes to refer to it) . . . . . The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone or in the olden days . . . . . the Doldrums. Today, weather forecasting computer models can pretty accurately predict the movement of this unstable band that circles the earth expanding and contracting between about 10* North and 10* South. Weather conditions inside the band can consist of squalls and/or no wind at all. The models are showing it to be just finishing an expansion phase with the expectation of contraction to happen over the next 24 hours, meaning that the northern edge of the zone should be moving towards us as we continue north. On our previous trip through the ITCZ, we did see a few squalls and light winds with all but the fewest of sprinkles missing us. Not so this time. Yesterday after hoisting the chute for a couple of hours and watching a few squalls pass in front of us, a large one set itself directly in our path. We did not pass in front of the leading edge where there can be a period of increased wind, but rather after dousing the spinnaker, we entered from the side just behind the leading where the heaviest rain activity can be seen. Suffice to say that the boat is now cleaned of salt and so are Brad and I. The air temperature is still quite pleasant, so we took advantage of the heavy rain and showered! The ocean swell has remained very gentle and we were able to have tacos (think: lots of ingredients awaiting assembly on a not so stationary counter, hence the infamous "one dish meals" that we have been consuming of late) last night without incident. It was a treat. Since we have been able to open hatches without so much fear of rogue waves pouring in through them, Bryce took the opportunity to bake us a batch of cookies. As much as our sailor ancestors dreaded the doldrums, we are very contently motoring our way through them, enjoying the break from the pitching, heaving and heel of life while sailing fast!

Day 8: Triple Digits

2010-07-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

07* 10.7' North
148* 52.0' West
July 27, 2010

As of my watch this morning, our distance to Hawaii has dropped below 1,000 miles. The dolphins that greeted me as I came on watch seemed excited for us!
After seven solid days of winds hovering around 20 knots and the boat traveling through big swell at 7 to 9 knots, I awoke from a good night's sleep to lighter winds, calmer seas and the boat's much gentler motion. It is a welcome respite. I can now take two or three steps without the boat lurching. We were expecting this change as we are approaching the ITCZ. Beyond it, we should hope for the consistency of the Trade Winds. But for today, we will enjoy the little bit of variety in our lives at sea. We may even get the opportunity to do laundry or have a little more complex dinner! Who knows - we may even have to turn on the engine for the first time since leaving Rangiroa!

Complex Cooking

Day 7: Halfway Day

2010-07-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

04* 15.2' North
149* 05.5' West
July 26, 2010

Early this morning, we reached our halfway point of this leg. The second half of the trip should go a little faster because thus far we have been pointing a little to the east of Hawaii to compensate for an east to west current and possible wind shifts that could make our sailing angle to Hawaii very tight and uncomfortable. The closer we get the less these two factors will matter and the more we will be able to point the boat directly at Hawaii.
We are close enough to our friends on Mulan that we were able to talk to them on the VHF radio this morning and share the sunrise with them.

Day 6: New Shellback on Board

2010-07-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

01* 14.0' NORTH
149* 22.2' West
July 25, 2010

As you can see from our position, we have crossed back into our home hemisphere! Upon crossing the equator after dinner last night, we were again visited by King Neptune. He checked and verified the status of those aboard alleging to be Shellbacks and found one pollywog. After Lydia, the pollywog in question, met Neptune's requirements she was also granted the status and joined the ranks of the Shellbacks. Among other things: hair was cut, grog sacrificed and drunk, and sea creatures (or their sweet tart semblances) were consumed! We then celebrated Lydia's accomplishment and new privileges and protections with champagne and thin mint cookies!

As we have instantly changed from Winter to Summer as we crossed the equator, we have noticed that our days are lengthening a little as each passes. For the last year, the course of our adventure has kept us pretty much in places at the times of the year that we visited them where the days have been about 12 hours long give or take. There is a joke among cruisers that when the clock strikes 9:00 pm it means cruiser midnight. I think those of us who reside (when living on land) in the higher latitudes feel this phenomenon more acutely. Seattle is, after all, a little more than halfway to the Arctic circle from the equator! For us, when the weather is warm in summer, the days are long and when the sun sets it is pretty much the end of the day. We associate sunset during warm weather with bedtime, so for a year now, we have been having sunset around dinner time when it is downright hot out and then often being awake for 3 or 4 more hours afterward. It might be interesting to see if we feel any after effects once we are back to our "normal" rhythms.

Day 5: Last Day in the South Pacific

2010-07-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

01* 44.3' South
149* 14.1' West
July 24,2010

There is not much news to report from CAPAZ (which is good news because this status quo is quite a good thing!) except that Lydia finished yet another book! Right now, we just keep making miles. In the next couple of days there will be some definite milestones: crossing the equator and a brand new shellback will join our ranks, halfway between Tahiti and Hawaii, less than 1,000 miles to go, etc.
As we spend our last day in the South Pacific Ocean and prepare to enter our home hemisphere, I look back on the last just over three months. They have been incredible, truly the experience of a lifetime. We have had great times with old friends and made some fabulous new friends. The places and people who we have met along the way have been as diverse as the many rainbows we have also encountered. My French deinfitely improved and I even learned a few phrases in Marquesan and Tahitian. So to the South Pacific, from the crew of CAPAZ, I say,
Naa naa and Maru uru,
Au revoir and Merci beaucoup,
Good-bye and Thank you!

Day 4: Pizza Boats!

2010-07-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

04* 27.1' South
148* 57.3' West
July 23, 2010

Yep, dinner was the most exciting thing for Day 4. Brad made us pepperoni pizza boats (what we have always called French bread pizzas) which we enjoyed in the cokpit at sunset.
We have started burning through the reading material. Lydia says she has read through two and a half books and I am about the same. Bryce has completed two books that Brad read aloud to both he and his brother before we left Seattle. Brad would be farther along if he had a "book spot" - he keeps misplacing his book, but I think he is close to completing it.

Yesterday, was magazine day. Lydia was kind enough to gather a bunch of magazines and bring them with her. We got through the older People magazines and passed them on before we left Rangiroa. They are like gold in the cruiser community. We have quite the spectrum on board from the aforementioned People to the New Yorker to 48* North and Lats and Ats (Thanks Margaret!). I even caught Brad with his nose in the newest issue of People.
We find it funny that our little cruising clique seems to permeate the magazines of the sailing category this month. Brad got to tell our friend, Andrew, on Mulan over the SSB this morning that he made back page of July's Lats and Ats (he was interviewed at the La Cruz Boat Show back in March!). We plan to try to get a picture of Brad reading our beloved copy of 48* North as we cross the equator tomorrow morning and then we will send it off to the magazine!

Day 3: Smooth Sailing

2010-07-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

07* 08.4' South
148* 44.5' West
July 22, 2010

If you were aboard CAPAZ right now, you might not agree with my title of "Smooth Sailing" as we are rocking and rolling constantly with the current side swell. But really, at the close of our third day at sea, things are going our direction. We have had constant wind right around 20 knots. It has shifted to just south of east in direction which allows us to point comfortably almost due north. This will help us compensate for some westward current and any future wind shifts in the other direction. If those future wind shifts do not materialize, then we will be rewarded with our last couple of days into Hawaii being a downwind sleigh ride. Commanders Weather has our daily position and will alert us if there is any weather that will affect us and our route to Hawaii.
There were no more culinary mishaps to report and Brad has McGuyver'd the old sat phone booster antenna so that it is much more reliable. We will keep posting blog entries over the satellite phone unless Brad is able to get the sailmail working again.
Ahead, we have the equator crossing and the ITCZ!

Day 2: Challenges on the High Seas

2010-07-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

10* 12.7' South
148* 25.7' West
July 21, 2010

Luckily our challenges on the high seas are self-inflicted. The boat is going along fine with only a jib sheet breaking thus far. Brad has even devised a "fix" so that it can't chafe through again.
We are currently experiencing a technological challenge in that the modem doesn't seem to be working with the SSB radio. That means we are not able to send or receive sailmail. How can I post this blog entry? Well, luckily we have redundancy in the form of a satellite phone!

One of the “Dishes Fairies” caught in the act

But not the one who left the hatches open!

I had a seriously challenging evening in the galley. I was feeling sorry for myself because the floor below me was moving and my work area also happens to be the door to my refrigerator. When just as I was about to serve up our dinner, a wave came over the bow and through the hatch and port light above my head that I didn't realize the dishes fairy had left open (yes, there is a "dishes fairy" aboard CAPAZ - I make a bunch of dirty dishes and somehow they end up clean and put away!) pouring gallons of salt water on my head, into the mashed potatoes and dousing the stove. You could say that I lost it a little bit, but despite Neptune's efforts, dinner was not a loss.

Day 1: Hawaii, Here We Come!

2010-07-21T04:40:00.000-07:00

12* 57.4' South
148* 05.9' West
July 20, 2010

We had an uneventful (and that's how you want it) trip out the Tiputa Passe at Rangiroa around 11:00 am. We had a dolphin swimming with us out the Passe and he stayed with us for about 15 minutes. The winds have not calmed as the forecast predicted, but instead have stayed right where CAPAZ likes them between 18 and 25 knots. We are cruising along trying to point just east of Hawaii and achieving that goal pretty easily with the wind either right at the beam or just a little ahead of it.
Everyone seemed to spend most of today letting their bodies get acclimated to the movement of the boat. Really not much to report except that we are all glad to be underway. The boys are excited to be on to Hawaii and somewhat familiar territory. They have big plans for our time back in Seattle while Brad and CAPAZ make their way toward the mainland. We have also started talking about where we want to go in British Columbia before we bring the boat back to Seattle around the first of November.

Honolulu Bound

2010-07-19T11:04:00.001-07:00

July 19, 2010

Rangiroa, Tuamotus, French Polynesia

14* 58.1’ South and 147* 38.2’ West

We arrived in Rangiroa Atoll in the morning and had no trouble with the smaller passe. Brad fixed the anchor windlass and the rest of us got in a snorkel at the “Auquarium” about midday. We were excited to have burgers at the Snack on shore but when we got there, there were only two burgers left, no beer or coke. The boys got the burgers and the rest of us all had some form of fish and fries. We walked around town a bit and Lydia, Lon and I decided to check out the feasibility of dropping Lon off at the airport with the dinghy. If the wind calmed down, it would be an option. Unfortunately, the landing was far from perfect and Lon ended up slipping on a very slimey boat ramp and required some stitches above his eye. Needless to say that when he went to the airport yesterday, it was via taxi. We had a quiet evening watching a movie and everyone tried to get a good night’s sleep.

This morning, we are getting the boat ready for passage and we hope to leave around 10:30. There are a few things to do, so I am going to post this and get back to it.

Rough Ride to Rangiroa

2010-07-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

15* 02.1' South
147* 57.6' West
Hove to off of Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
July 16, 2010 (late)

We left the protection of the reef on the lee side of Tahiti about 5:00 on Thursday evening. We had dinner in the channel between Moorea and Tahiti and then it got rough. Some of us held on to dinner, some of did not. All in all, we were able to keep a semblance of watch schedule. During the night, the wind hovered around 30 knots with big seas. By mid-morning it had only come down to about 25 knots. The seas really aren't predicted to started abating until tomorrow morning. By then, we will be safely inside the atoll. We are currently hove to in the lee of Rangiroa. The passe that we will use to enter the atoll is around the corner to the east about 10 miles away. It is important to try to enter the atolls on the slack tide in daylight which will be around 8:00am, so we will get moving again from our holding position at about 5:00am.
Lydia and Lon are unsure if they are going to do any diving, but the Bakers are looking forward returning to snorkel on the reef that is just inside the Tiputu Passe. Lon will catch a flight back to Tahiti and then return to Seattle. Lydia will continue on with us on to Hawaii. We are hoping that the first part of this leg is NOT an indication of things to come.

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Crew Arrival and Capaz Departure

2010-07-15T19:59:00.001-07:00

Marina Taina, Punaauia, Tahiti, French Polynesia

July 15, 2010

Waves hitting the reef outside the Marina Taina anchorage!

Tuesday night, our crew, Lydia, and her husband, Lon arrived at about 10:00pm. As usual, there were glitches, but it was nothing these two veteran travelers couldn’t overcome. Lon will be sailing with us to Rangiroa in the Tuamotus and then returning to Papeete and the states. Lydia will be going all the way to Hawaii.

Yesterday, we celebrated Bastille Day trying to find the big pirogue races. We were in the dinghies and not all that interested in going all the way to Papeete proper, so we gave up and went snorkeling instead. We saw a wrecked WWII airplane and an old shipwreck as well as our first anemones with tiny little clown fish. Lon and Lydia treated us to a great pizza dinner at the Dinghy Bar at the marina. The kids ended the day with a movie night inviting their buddies from Silver Lining and Victoria.

Today has been spent doing final provisioning,stowing, checking out of French Polynesia and preparing to leave for Rangiroa this evening. There was a discussion at lunch about maybe delaying a day for weather, but we have decided that it probably won’t make that much difference.

The next few (or more) posts may not have pictures, because we are leaving reliable internet land and they will be sent over our SSB radio. When we were in Rangiroa last month, there was internet, but there are no guarantees , so you will just have to stayed tuned.

Bryce’s 12th Birthday

2010-07-14T18:19:00.001-07:00

July 12, 2010

Marina Taina, Punaauia, Tahiti, French Polynesia

17* 34.8’ South and 149* 37.1’ West

Bryce had been concerned about being underway on his birthday on Friday, July 16th. He was really OK with celebrating it a couple of days early especially if we could round up a few kids.

As we arrived back at Tahiti and got ourselves situated at Marina Taina, we realized that we might able to get a birthday party together for Monday night with TWO kid boats. After checking Monday morning with both of the other boats and meeting with our agent, we got cake baked and ended up having a boat full of boys all day long. We broke up the day by venturing ashore to the beachfront McDonald’s. The after effects of our fast food feast meant that it was a fairly quiet afternoon aboard CAPAZ.

After dinner, we were rejoined by the crews of Victoria and Silver Lining along with a couple of the latter’s Tahitian relatives who jumped right in to play video games with the rest of the kids. We sang Happy Birthday and Bryce opened a couple of presents. All in all, Bryce was glad he was able to get his birthday celebrated before we left for Hawaii.

Eclipse

2010-07-12T19:02:00.001-07:00

At 18* 17.6’ South and 149* 29.9’ West

July 12, 2010

Best Image from my camera (note: shadow image to right of sun)

Just a minute or two before totality

Were the 53 miles, about 9 hours to get “there”, 6 hours of heaving to, and fantastic sail back all worth it???? In a word, YES!!! We all agreed that making the effort to get “there” which was to put ourselves into the path of totality was worth it. The eclipse was incredible to witness.

We left from the eastern side of Papeete on Saturday evening just before 5:30 pm. We had a nice sail around the top of the island of Tahiti and part way down the channel between it and Moorea. Once in the lee of Tahiti, the wind shut off and we motored for a couple of hours until the wind filled again. We reached our destination that we figured south of Tahiti by using the Google map tool on Xavier Jubier’s website at about 2:00. (You can go to the website, select the July 11, 2010 Eclipse and then move the cursor to the lat/long listed above into the path of totality to find from where we watched the eclipse). Brad set up the boat for heaving to which is a tactic usually used during stormy weather, but thankfully we have only used it thus far to wait when we reach a destination ahead of schedule and there we drifted for about 6 hours. Brad did his usual radio check in at 7:15 am and boats to the west of our position, said that the eclipse was already starting. We donned our special glasses, waited for the sun to come out from behind a cloud and began to see the moon take a small nibble out of the sun. This continued for about 50 minutes until there was just a thin slice of sun remaining. It was amazing how little of the sun needs to be showing for it to remain daylight. Once the sun went into total eclipse, it got dark and the birds got confused. I stopped taking pictures and actually got a pretty d video of the “diamond ring” that we were told to look for and saw. I also happened to catch the sun coming out of totality in my video clip. After hearing reports back in Papeete and from other boats in the Western Societies of the eclipse being just “sort of cool”, we were additionally glad that we had made the effort to get ourselves within the path of totality. Everyone that we have talked to who also made the effort has agreed with our assessment of it being a very worthwhile experience.

Brad and I were both taken away from Seattle by our parents in February of 1979 to see the total eclipse that roughly followed the path of the Columbia River. Brad’s dad took him to a hill above Ellensburg in Eastern Washington where they sat on the tailgate of their old pick-up truck to watch the eclipse. In my family, we were down at Long Beach, Washington and went to the mouth of the Columbia River and stood just in front of the lighthouse at Cape Disappointment. I remember all the city lights coming on in Astoria, Oregon which is the city across the river as the eclipse reach totality. These memories that our parents gave us were sparked when we first heard about the possibility of seeing the eclipse in Tahiti from a cruiser email group when we were back in Mexico. We decided that if it was possible, we would really like to pass the opportunity for this experience on to Bryce and Austin. We are so thankful to Frank Taylor, the astronomer Tahina who encouraged us to “chase” the total eclipse as it would be really close to Tahiti. As a side note, he, as an Arizona University astronomy student, had also viewed the same eclipse that Brad and I watched in Washington back in 1979. We met him in Moorea where he gave a quick overview of the eclipse at Brad’s birthday party.

The French Government would be so proud of the Capaz Crew all wearing their safety glasses to view the Eclipse

Reality Sets In

2010-07-10T10:50:00.001-07:00

July 9, 2010

Arue, Tahiti, French Polynesia

A Little Poker Instruciton

It hit me yesterday, after I had cooked up some dishes for our upcoming crossing voyage, that we are leaving in a week! I must be getting better at this whole thing.

We have some fresh foods provisioning to do which you can’t do until right before you leave anyway. We are gassed up and Brad has taken care of some minor repairs and checked almost everything off the maintenance list. He went up the mast and performed a rig check.

Views from the top of CAPAZ’s rig

We are sorting out the details of our crew getting in and out of French Polynesia. I would highly recommend the services of Tahiti Yacht Agents as they have been nothing but helpful and though we probably could have done all our own check in and check out procedures, it was great to have them done correctly the first time. Also, it is nice to know if problems arise, there someone who can get you pointed in the right direction at the very least and probably help solve the problem.

There is still adventure left in our adventure. We are watching the weather and if it looks like it will be clear enough, we will sail south of Tahiti about 30 miles to intersect with the path of the 100% track of Sunday’s total eclipse. After that, we are moving to a Marina that is much closer to the airport where our crew will be arriving. After Wednesday’s Bastille Day celebration, we will point CAPAZ toward Rangiroa. Once there, one of our crew will leave us and return to the States. The remaining five of us will continue on to Hawaii. Brad and his new crew will have a few days to prep and set sail for Victoria, BC. The boys and I will fly to Seattle and then rejoin Brad and CAPAZ upon their arrival in Victoria. From there, we will head north for a couple more months of cruiser, before returning to our home dock at Shilshole.

As we have learned through our cruising adventure: it is best to have a loose plan and make adjustments to it as necessary. It might prove to be a good philosophy for life in general.

Rainy Fourth of July

2010-07-04T11:21:00.001-07:00

July 4, 2010

Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia

We are feeling right at home with the squally and drizzly weather that has greeted us here in Papeete for the Fourth of July. There are a bunch of Americans downtown at the main quay who will no doubt take this opportunity to celebrate. We are staying in a suburb called Arue which is to the east of Papeete. We are going to try navigating the bus to check out downtown and connect with our American cruising friends.

The motorsail back from Moorea yesterday was short but a little bouncy. We got into Tahiti Yacht Club and tied up to a mooring ball just before the first of several squalls hit us. We got ashore to restock on fresh fruits and vegetables and then we were going to return with Jarana and search out a Chinese “restaurant” that has been recommended to us, but the rain kept us on the boat. Jarana ended up coming over for Brad’s most excellent baguette pizzas while we watched to the lightening off in the distance.

PS More pictures have been uploaded!!!!

Early morning paddler (outrigger canoe) – Point Venus in background

Happy Birthday Brad

2010-07-02T13:44:00.001-07:00

July 2, 2010

Uponohu Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia

This turned out to be a great place to celebrate. We found another birthday boy, Pierre who is captain, dad, etc. on Victoria, and many other reasons besides the usual Canada to have a big beach celebration. So, we organized a potluck and bonfire on the beach.

It was still very windy (yet balmy as our friends visiting from Seattle pointed out) which is why we are in Moorea instead of Papeete, but that didn’t stop a good portion of the anchorage from coming ashore to help us celebrate! There were outstanding dishes contributed as well as the standard birthday cakes. We had to convince some of our drunk French friends that the American tradition is that you cannot have cake until you have sung “Happy Birthday” to the birthday folk.

We were lucky to have among those attending an astronomer who took some time and gave us the low down on the upcoming total eclipse on July 11th. We will be in Papeete and if we choose to go 40 miles to the south we will be in the path of the total eclipse. We will watch the weather and decide if we make the voyage. Brad and I both remember the total eclipse that we observed in 1979 and would love to give the boys the same opportunity.

Brad also received some birthday greetings over the SSB radio and email. All in all, I think it was a successful birthday celebration as evidenced by our slow movements this morning. After checking weather, we will decide if we will head back to Tahiti today or tomorrow morning.

Marooned in Moorea

2010-06-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

June 30, 2010
I am not sure if “marooned” is quite the right word, but I do love the alliteration of it all. In any case, the weather has us “stuck” here. It’s really not a bad place to be stuck or marooned or whatever. We were planning on heading back to Tahiti for Brad’s birthday, but since no one seems to moving – no boats are heading on to the western Society Islands and the other boats that were heading back to Tahiti the same as us, we are deciding to just stay put and celebrate Brad’s birthday here.

Here is dramatically beautiful. We are in Opunohu Bay on the leeward (sheltered from the wind) side of Moorea behind a protective barrier reef. The wind has been up and down for the last two days, but the most telling tale were the three boats that tried to leave this morning and turned right around outside the barrier and came back in to re-anchor.
We have been very busy hiking, biking, snorkeling, hanging out with sting rays and some of our cruiser friends. The water here is nice and clean, so Brad has gotten the boat’s bottom washed and scraped off most of the growth. The kids have been spending their last few days with both crews from Totem and Stray Kitty who will both continue west as well as meeting some new friends who will be heading back towards to Tahiti along with us from a boat called Victoria.

Time seems to have really speeded up for us. It is hard to believe that we will be headed for Hawaii in two short weeks. Luckily, we are pretty ready and we are very excited for our crew to arrive shortly before we are aiming to leave in mid-July.

Note from the blogster: We are posting pictures to older blog entries and have most of June’s done and posted, so go back and check ‘em out! -PJ

Moving on to Moorea

2010-06-25T12:18:00.001-07:00

17* 31.4’ South, 149* 32.1’ West

Tahiti Yacht Club, Arue, Tahiti, French Polynesia

June 25, 2010

Tahiti Yacht Club

Outrigger Canoe Club next to our mooring

We are doing a very quick (one day really) turn around of gas, food and repairs so that we can spend a few more days in Moorea with Totem. I have not been to an American style super market since Mexico and was a little overwhelmed when we went to the one nearby to the Yacht Club where we are staying on a mooring ball. With the provisioning and all, we have not had any time at all to do any exploring. We will return here on June 29th and probably be in the same spot until we leave on July 15th where we will try to take care of celebrating birthdays and getting ready for our trip to Hawaii. We also hope to get in a little exploring then!

Land Ho . . . . . . again!

2010-06-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

17* 07.3' South
149* 17.5' West

June 23, 2010

Tahiti – 30 miles out!

This time it was Bryce who called, "LAND HO!" for Tahiti. We were a little more than 50 miles away. Tahiti is a much bigger landmass than anything we have been aiming at for the last few months. Brad and I were very tired after having dealt with fuel issues. We decided to try to go fast and get to Tahiti from Rangiroa in one overnight rather than two. Brad is hoping that the problem is related to some sludge at the bottom of our fuel tanks.
We plan to do a little bit of exploring, but our big goals here are to get re-provisioned and take care of few pieces of business before we leave for Hawaii around the 15 July. I am still hoping for faster internet so that I can work on uploading some pictures!

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Winter Solstice

2010-06-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Rangiroa, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 21, 2010

If there is a "winter" here, it came roaring in last night with the wind howling at 25 to 35 knots for several hours. Before that, at dinnertime last night, we had torrential rains! It is the first sustained rains we have had since Manzanillo in February and this time Brad worked on getting rain water into our water tanks.
We are at anchor in a pretty protected corner near the east pass. We also knew this weather was on its way, so we were not very surprised when the weather whipped up.
It was still pretty windy this morning, but things are definitely calming down. The sun is out, so it is still pretty warm. As soon as the intense part of this system pass by us, we will pull anchor and head for Tahiti, probably tomorrow.

I didn’t take any pictures during the nasty weather, but here are some of the anchorage:

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Last of the Tuamotus

2010-06-18T16:36:00.001-07:00

14* 58.0' South
147* 38.2' West
Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 18, 2010

The overnight passage between Toau Atoll and Rangiroa Atoll was very pleasant. We left Tuesday about 1:00 pm on a nice, but dying breeze. Brad's navigational timing was again spot on as we sailed to within 6 miles of Rangiroa's Pass before we the wind got light and we turned on the engine and motored through the pass about 10:00 am. We did not wait for slack water as this pass is very deep and we had a pretty exciting moment or two (for she who was hand steering anyway) as we had about 4 knots of current against us.

Rangiroa’s eastern pass: Passe de Tiputa

The anchorage and the main town in this part of Rangiroa are on separate ends of the main motu about 5 miles apart. We were very low on dinghy fuel and one of the pearl farmers nearer to the anchorage than the town sold us 5 gallons of gas. We then proceeded to make a foray to "the village" where we were finally able to hit an ATM (though we still had a few French Polynesian Francs held in reserve) and get some more fresh fruits and vegetables. We are not sure if anything is grown here other than coconuts and grapes (there is a winery!) because most of the fresh stuff seems to come from the Marquesas. This community is definitely not as egalitarian as most that we have seen in since we made landfall in the Marquesas. There are definitely differing levels of income and social stratification here. I am sure that we will see even more of this in Papeete.
Yesterday, we crossed the pass to another village (much closer to the anchorage). We were able to use the internet at the post office and found a little store where the women was making Polynesian style quilts and had soft ice cream! Back on this side of the pass is a hamburger stand/restaurant that is right at the main quai and a bit out over the water so that you can watch the fish and stingrays swim around a shallow reef right from your table. The kids loved it.

We have brought the bikes to shore and done some riding up and down the main atoll. There are definitely more tourist attraction-type opportunities here: scooter/bike rentals, pearl farms, artists, and of course, dive centers. Brad and I did not quite make it to the main village on this morning's ride, but maybe that will be tomorrow's activity.

Snorkeling the reef just inside the Passe is fantastic. Since there are more people here, the fish are not at all afraid of them and often seek out the human snorkeler in hopes of handouts! Sometimes, they get in the way of the camera!

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Time to plan

2010-06-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

15* 57.7' South
145* 52.7' West
Toau, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 13, 2010

Yesterday, we caught the mid morning tide out the north pass of Fakarava and very slowly motor sailed the 11 or 12 miles to the Toau pass. There was just a little wind, but we really didn't need to go very fast. So, we enjoyed lunch and some down time.
I got to drive CAPAZ through the pass which was exciting even though this is a very wide (relatively) pass with no real obstructions. I still got a surge of adrenaline when the depth went to 27 feet and there was a pretty good current pushing us to one side.

We continued on down the inside of the lagoon to where our friends on Io were anchored. They gave us a little information about what they had found out about the area in the day since they had arrived.
After some time ashore, we ate a quick dinner because Mike, who is a biologist, offered to lead a reef hike after dark when many of the creatures are more active. They were also going to do some hunting for spiny lobsters. I stayed on the boat and got in some reading. Brad and Austin returned after about an hour and a half. Bryce, however, hunted lobsters and parrot fish until everyone was ready to head back to the boats around 10:30. He was so invigorated about his experience when he returned that I am pretty sure you will be able to read all about in the next issue of the Capaz Chronicle.

Lobster Life Support Set-up

This morning, we had a quick planning session before we took the dinghy and kayak down the motu a ways for more exploration. The outer reef was much closer to the ocean side of the motu than it is here where we are anchored. Brad and I had quick snorkel in fairly swallow waters with some amazing coral formations, though not as many fish as we have been seeing in some of the other places we have been.

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Civilization . . . . . Almost

2010-06-13T00:48:00.000-07:00

Rotoava, Fakarava, Tuamotu, French Polynesia
16* 03.5' South
145* 37.2' West
June 10, 2010

Yesterday we dodged coral heads on our way to Rotoava the largest settlement on the atoll of Fakarava. Actually, if there were any coral heads, we couldn't see them because the light was bad for most of the two hour trip. The charts have a marked channel here, so we were reasonably confident that no big ones would sneak up on us. What we did have to watch out for as we approach the north end of the lagoon were the buoys marking the strings of pearl oysters.
Today, we took a tour of a pearl farm where we not only learned how natural pearls come about, but also how the Japanese devised a way to fool nature and use the oyster to manufacture pearls. It is a very interesting process. Then, of course, after our free tour, we were escorted to the boutique where the farm's pearls were available for purchase at a rate much less than retail in Tahiti! Actually, the man who owned the farm was incredibly nice and patient with all our questions. The Hinano Farm operation that we visited is 6 or 7 km out of town, so he brought us down in his van and we got to see a little more of the atoll.

We have also taken the bikes ashore and have been doing a little exploring that way also. The boys and I made it up to a structure that turned out to be an abandoned lighthouse. From the drawing of town, we had originally thought that it might have been more of an archeological site – it was old and pyramid-like, but not that old and made out of cement. It was still a great ride for the boys with a few minutes on the ocean side beach before we had to turn around and head back to town.

The reason that I called this post "Civilization . . . Almost" is the town seems to have everything a small town would need except a bank or ATM. It is a little bit of a mystery how the cash circulates in these small settlements as the locals seem to pay for purchases at the local magasin mostly on account, but we have also seem them using cash. Where do they get it? Is there someone named Pierre or Fredrique who has a vault in his maison where he is able to keep a large supply of cash that the locals can use to change their government checks. Luckily, if you ask really nicely (and make a fairly large purchase), the clerk at the magasin will "try" to run your carde credit.

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To a Motu

2010-06-09T18:00:00.001-07:00

16* 15.4' South
145* 37.2' West
Fakarava, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 9, 2010

Yesterday, we decided to go to a motu. I thought that "motus" only described the islands or islets that make up the ring of whatever land there is around an atoll. Evidently, they can also be smack dab in the middle of the atoll also, as we are anchored off of one right now. It took us about 4 hours to reach this atoll. We had a coral head watch going the whole trip and one reason that we stopped here on our way to the north end of Fakarava which would have been another couple of hours.
Anchoring here was exciting. It is deep around the atoll - over 100 feet of water and it comes up quickly with coral heads close to the shore. There are trees on this particular motu, so we first decided to perform a stern tie like we would in British Columbia. Unfortunately, we couldn’t seem to get the anchor to bite into the underwater slope that approached the motu. Then, we tried anchoring stern to stern with Totem and then tying off the sterns. This would have been a great solution except that a squall came out of the south and made the motu a lee shore with the maximum windage of both boats working to push us onto the shore coral. As the scouting group was exploring the motu at the time that the squall came up, there was an emergency evacuation. After Brad scouted the rest of the motu in the dinghy while I held station on CAPAZ off the motu with Totem silhouetted against a beautiful rainbow, we decided to try the other side of the motu. It was getting late in the afternoon and the light to look for coral heads was failing. The rule around here is when you are inside an atoll, have your anchor down by 3:00. We are anchored in 90 feet of water with all our chain out and almost enough swinging room to not hit the shoreside coral heads if the wind changed direction again. Which it did at about midnight. We were able to pull in enough chain to still be safely holding, but not swing so close to the motu. The squall passed and the rest of the night was quiet.
I think I have had enough of motu exploring!

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Back to Bonfire Beach

2010-06-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

16* 26.0' South
145* 21.9' West
Fakarava Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 8, 2010

Southeast corner anchorage in Fakarava Atoll

We returned to the anchorage where we had initially stopped to escape the wind two days ago. It also makes the trip to the other end of the atoll a little shorter. Our charts are pretty good for this atoll with channels marked both on the chart and with actual markers, but the chartered catamaran who came in here last week taking on water proves that it is still a very good idea to have a watch on the foredeck for coral heads!

During our two nights back here, we have gotten in more beach time and had yet another bonfire to celebrate yet another birthday. The kids have been playing on a rope swing that hangs from a coconut palm and they (along with Brad) devised a "rope swing" off CAPAZ's cabin top using one of the halyards.

We also kayaked up the inside of the motu and found a nice little bay that made for a very short easy walk to the ocean side where there was great shelling. In Mexico, we were introduced to a beautiful family of shells called cowries. The are a fairly precious find in Mexico. As we have traveled, our knowledge of the species has broadened. Not only have found many of the different varieties in various sizes, but we have also come to recognize the different stages of their life cycle. In Anaho, back in the Marquesas, we found big live cowries in some tide pools. They have a membrane called a mantle that extends from their soft body out over their shell and this how they "grow" from the outside. At this point, we found a great explanation of the animal's life cycle in one of Totem's shell books and realized that at their immature stage, they look much like another type of mollusk and only in their mature stage do they achieve their distinctive shape. Anyway, it was really cool to be able to find evidence of the immature stage here. It may very well be that we have been looking a these kinds of shells all along, but only now realize just what we are looking at. Such is the voyage of discovery!

Spoils of Shelling

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Scaredy Cat Swims with Sharks

2010-06-04T17:53:00.001-07:00

16* 30.2' South
145* 27.2' West
Tumakohua Pass, Fakarava, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 4, 2010

Everyone is shark crazy. They are so excited about shark sightings! I am not in this group. Ignorance is bliss as far as I am concerned. In Makemo, when Jamie surprised me to show me a sea cucumber while snorkeling, realized that I needed to be a little less focused on my picture taking and just a little more aware of my surroundings. Even with my heightened awareness, I had yet to see any sharks while I was in the water.

Pass Drift Snorkel

Yesterday, with a gentle shove from my friend, Andrew, I entered the Tumakohua Pass on the incoming tide where there would almost certainly be sharks for a "drift snorkel". We had two dinghies drifting with our group so that anyone and everyone could get out of the water at any point. I have to admit it was a very cool experience. I did not see the 42 sharks that were reported from a drift snorkel the other day, but I did see three on each of my two passes. You basically just float with the current and the whole pass and channel is full of coral and tons of fish. Where it is deep, you will see a shark swimming below you out the pass (against the current) and they really aren't paying any attention to the humans floating on the surface. There were also lots of big fish hanging out in the medium depth water.

Potluck location

Sharks in the shallows

In the evening, we were able to use the outdoor gathering area of a small resort (consisting of four beautiful bungalows on piles over the water) for a fantastic potluck. The covered area was lit which is very important as it is pitch dark here by 6:00 pm. It was also built with one edge out over the shallows a bit. The lights attracted fish which were very easy to see in the crystal clear water. The kids spent alot of time in calf deep water checking out the critters. They say the best was the small octopus that they found and would not leave alone until it squished itself into a small hole where they could not bug it any longer. Oso Blanco and Mulan had been the only two boats in this anchorage 5 days ago, now there are 19 boats. It made for a great spread with lots of variety. We are noticing that there has been a bit of a change in cruiser demographics. Out of the 19 boats, 10 of them were cruising families with kids. Last night was fabulous for the kids to be able play on shore with so many other kids.

The “village” – really just a dive shop and snack shack, was the old capital of the Tuamotus. Due to its small “landmass” the capital is now in Rangiroa. There are a couple of pensions like the place where we had the potluck, but for the most part it is fairly abandoned.

Old Main Street .

Sculpture near the dive shop More Sandcastles for hermit crabs

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Missing Links

2010-06-03T12:10:00.001-07:00

Sorry for not including the links to the newest issue of the Capaz Chronicle in the previous entry. Here they are:

New Issue is at http://www.box.net/shared/j6v6g6s4ur

Back Issues are at http://www.box.net/shared/zptbclu4u0

Cheers,

The Bakers

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Overnight Voyage

2010-06-03T01:09:00.000-07:00

Totem in the Fakarava South Passe

16* 26.0' South
145* 21.9' West
Fakarava Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 2, 2010

We left the south end of the Makemo on Monday morning and made a quick stop at the town by the pass. We uploaded the newest edition of the Capaz Chronicle, but gmail thwarted all attempts to send out the links. For anyone interested you can view the newest issue and past issues at the following two links:
The computer frustration was tempered by the boulangerie still being open and being able to stock up on French bread.
We had an uneventful trip through the pass, but upon reach the outside of the atoll, we were greeted with 20+ knot winds and ocean swell. Around dark as we rounded the northwest end of Makemo, we were greeted by squalls. More wind and lightening to boot. It made for an interesting night of sailing. The 40 knots of wind from one of the squalls under a double reefed main got us going too fast, because we needed to reach the southern Fakarava Pass at a certain time. Luckily, the big wind lasted only fifteen minutes or so, then we had mid 30's for a bit, and then things settled down to around 20 knots for a couple hours. We were still going too fast, so Brad decided to practice our hove to maneuver. It worked really well.
The trip in through this pass was very exciting as we followed about 20 minutes behind our friends' catamaran, Stray Kitty. They reported seeing 8 feet of water right where the lowest spot was marked on our chart. We took their advice or hanging a little more to one side of the channel and didn't see it get quite that shallow. We had good way points for the trip up to the anchorage where we rejoined our fellow cruisers: Mulan and Oso Blanco.

The kids have been wanting to have a bonfire on the beach again for awhile. So, we sent them looking for wood and everyone went back to their boats to dig something up that could be cooked over the fire. Most people came up with hotdogs and one of the boats produced a bag of marshmallows for roasting.
Today we will explore the anchorage a bit more and then head back to the pass in the next couple of days because Brad really wants to do a pass dive.

Mulan and Io on the way back to the pass anchorage

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Escape from the Fetch

2010-05-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

16* 39.3' South
143* 23.6' West
East End of Makemo Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
May 29, 2010

A low pressure system to the southeast of our position in Makemo created some wind that, over its 10 miles or so from the opposite edge of the barrier reef that comprises the atoll, got some pretty good wave chop built up. We made the decision to seek shelter at the eastern edge of the atoll where our anchoring gear would not be in as much peril from the wind, waves and coral heads.
We spent the afternoon traversing the nine miles or so very slowly so that we could easily see the coral heads with the catamaran, Stray Kitty and Totem following behind us. We made our way to the other end of the atoll without mishap.

Once we arrived, we were greeted by beautiful turquoise blue flat water, white sand beaches and an impending squall approaching from the ocean side of the atoll. We were again lulled to sleep with the gentle lapping of our lake in the middle of the ocean.

This particular atoll does not have continuous motus or islets all the way around it. Most of the "land" on this atoll lies on the north side of the atoll. The remainder is formed by the ancient barrier reef that used to ring the volcanic island that once inhabited this location on the map. The reef is what keeps the water so relatively calm, no ocean swell. We are currently anchored where the more or less continuous motus give way to open stretches of reef only.
Our first morning here, a group walked out to end of the motu shelling as we went. The hermit crabs get the best shells which is a little frustrating. However, a local had taught one of our group that if you whistle the crab will poke out of his shell making it possible to evict him. After one successful eviction, I got way too much grief from Bryce and Austin, so my policy on shelling is only uninhabited shells.

Yesterday, after schoolwork was done we packed a lunch and headed into the beach for an afternoon on the beach. The made a hermit crab sanctuary and there were quite a few games of cards. The dads took the spear guns and went in search of dinner. They got a total of five fish and we decided on a potluck aboard Stray Kitty after using Capaz's swim step as a fish cleaning station.

Today we went in search of some good coral heads for snorkeling. Unfortunately, the wind was up a bit which made the windward side of the each coral head we tried a little too rough. The dinghy ride upwind was not very much fun for the wet snorkelers. It is really beautiful here, but we will probably move back to Makemo tomorrow and then, continue on to Fakarava.

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Lake Amid the Ocean

2010-05-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

16* 37.6' South
143* 34.7' West
Makemo Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
May 24, 2010

Again, apologies for not writing until today. When we arrive somewhere, blog entries are just not the top of the priority list. At least I've gotten some great material over the last 18 hours.
Our crossing from Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas was fantastic. We were able to sail for a good part of it, but did finally run out of wind and had to do some motoring. It important to time your arrival at an atoll as many of them you can only transit the pass at slack tide. We were aiming for about 1:00 pm and Brad and Jamie navigated us here at just about the right time. Our first big reef was well marked and since the sun was at our backs, we were able to get a good look at it.
The water here is incredibly clear. We are anchored off the town in about 45-50 feet of water and you can definitely see all the way to the bottom. There is another reef behind us and we checked it out yesterday as soon as we could. The coral is amazing - the dyed stuff that is sold as curios is really that color in the wild. We saw many different kinds of fish that we haven't seen before. I haven't laid eyes on a shark yet, but that is OK with me. They boys (all of them - big and small) were very excited about a ginormous moray eel that they spotted. It inspired Bryce's comic strip for this month's Capaz Chronicle.

Today we took the bikes into town and did a little exploring. There are nice, flat, well-maintained, cement roads here! Viva la French! Austin rode his scooter. It was a holiday here which seems to be the case every time we arrive somewhere. The bakery was only open for a couple of hours this morning and we just missed them. Fresh baguettes tomorrow - we are so addicted! There was a store open, so we picked up a few things and then, had our 9:45 am ice cream break! We rode a couple of miles out of town checking out the new school, the windmill farm and an ocean side beach. The wind turbines were actually our "land ho!" for this atoll. Quite a few of the homes especially as you get away from town have solar arrays. We are wondering if the French government has subsidies for them.

I ended up riding toward the west end of the atoll while the boys headed back to town and the boat. The road mostly runs along the ocean side of the atoll, but in most places it is only about 100-200 yards to the lagoon edge. I didn't make it to the end of the road, but I think there must be another village because there were a few cars coming and going to somewhere. I also watched some boys spearfishing the outer reef with big pieces of re-bar. There are these little fingers of water coming in from the lagoon side that almost reach across to the ocean, maybe they do in certain weather, because many have little bridges across them. Many of these fingers have a house on them with a little dock or boathouse. I was surprised to see a 45ish foot powerboat moored in one of them.
None of us are quite able to wrap our brains around the lagoon part of this place. It is like a huge lake in the middle of the ocean. FLAT calm today, so calm I made quiche for dinner (started it in the oven, put it in the solar oven and got the heck off the hot boat for another amazing snorkel of the reef right next the pass). If you look south, every once in awhile you can see waves break on the far reef (just reef to the south, no motus). The light on the water is pretty cool. At certain times of the day you can see in the water much better than others. The lagoon was so still this afternoon that it was hard to make out the horizon. The big squall clouds were reflected in the mirror of the lagoon making for a beautiful backdrop.
High ground, there really is none! That's why the wind turbines were the first thing we saw. I am surprised at how much growth there is. I was expecting one line of palms trees and broken coral! There are quite a few things that grow here - none of which you can eat except coconuts, but it still makes for a much greener place than I was envisioning.
I could keep going but I don’t think that I could do this place justice. Besides that the genset just got turned off and I need battery power to send this out in the morning!

Beckel – the pearl carver

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Squall Watch

2010-05-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

15* 46.5' South
143* 11.0' West
May 23, 2010

My watch last night was fascinating! As it got dark, we ran into three big squall lines. The first one, Brad helped me batten down the hatches and pull up all the cushions in the cockpit. He also went over how to set a bearing on our radar before he headed for bed.

Squall on the radar

The first big squall passed almost completely in front of us. Right before my eyes (on the radar screen) that part of the squall that was headed our way, broke up and disappeared from radar. (I called Jamie on the VHF just to make sure that my analysis was correct and he said they saw a lot of this kind of activity in the ITCZ - our time in the ITCZ was short and I was not feeling well enough to be examining the weather in depth!) With the moonlight, the actually clouds were still visible, but I thought we were clear and started putting the cockpit back together, when we got a couple of minutes of rain right along the edge. Luckily, I hadn't gotten very far in my resetting everything. The stars came back out and I opened all the hatches only to spot another squall forming to the east of us. This particular bunch of clouds and rain, looked like it was going to pass behind us which it did. It also weakened as it passed behind, but then broke into two cells once on the other side of us and they each began to grow. Then, a humongous squall began to show up on the radar. It was getting close to watch change so I started getting the cockpit stowed away for Brad after I set the bearing on the radar. This particular bunch of clouds was again heading in front of us, but more and more kept appearing on the edge of the radar. When I went off watch, the main cell along the leading edge had passed in front of us and had started to dissipate, but some of the parts of it that followed were actually gaining intensity. There must have been more activity while I was asleep, because Brad said that he and Bryce had gotten a little wet. The clouds are much higher and thinner as daybreaks. I must say that it is really nice to be able to feel better than I did on the big crossing and take more notice of the phenomena and surroundings out here!

Totem at Sunrise

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Fish Toss

2010-05-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

11* 40.4' South
141* 19.6' West
May 21, 2010

Ua Poa

I may have a new calling. I have impressive video in case I decide to interview for a job at the Pike Place Market throwing fish! Jamie could also use the same video to secure employment aas the "catcher". But, let me back up a bit.
We are en route between the Marquesan Island of Nuku Hiva and the Tuamotan atoll of Makemo. Yesterday afternoon, as we passed to leeward of the last Marquesan island that we will see, Ua Poa, we got a fish on. Actually, two fish on our hand lines. Brad started to pull in one with some difficulty and it tangled in one of the other lines before shaking itself free. He immediately started pulling in the other fish which was a little easier. Who knows how big the first one was (the proverbial: "one that got away") as the "easier" one to pull in was a whomping 47-inch bull mahi-mahi. That is alot of fish and our freezer is pretty stocked. We knew that Totem had successfully done a fish transfer underway on the crossing, so we arranged to pull up to their starboard quarter. With half of Brad's freshly filleted mahi-mahi secured into two big ziplock bags (just to be sure that they got at least one in case that my pitching stats were closer to 50%), I tossed and Jamie made two beautiful catches and the rest is history!

The Fish Here comes CAPAZ Nice Catch!

Besides all that excitement, the wind held for quite a while and we made over 150 miles toward Makemo. The seas have been so far mild. Both boys stood watches last night, Bryce with me and Austin with Brad in the middle of the night. Homework is done and we are looking forward to fresh mahi-mahi tonight!
Though I miss a morning latte, mocha, or frappacino from any of Seattle's fine and numerous coffee establishments, I have to say that a bowl of cold cereal on the bow accompanied by 15 dolphins playing around the boat isn't so bad either.

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Au Revoir to the Marquesas

2010-05-20T13:45:00.001-07:00

Leaving Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
08* 57.0' South
140* 06.5* West
May 20, 2010

After a couple of delays, we are fueled up and on our way from the Marquesas to the Tuamoto Archipeligo. The chart plotter gave us a straight line distance of 502 miles. We are sailing along in a little wind with relatively calm seas. This is a nice way to start out a passage after a month of basically gunkholing around the Marquesas.
A couple of the boats with whom we have been loosely traveling, Oso Blanco and Mulan are already exploring the atolls of the Tuamotos. We talked to the advance party this morning via the SSB and it sounds like we have fabulous adventures awaiting us there. Totem is currently sailing off our starboard beam and we hope to stay in line of sight so that we can maintain VHF contact with them and make any SSB relays through our radio since there has not been an answer found to their HF radio troubles. Tomorrow, a couple of other boats that we know will be following in our wakes.
It is very exciting to heading off to a new area to explore, but it is also a lil ttle sad as we realize we are nearing the southwestern reach of our travels. We will just have to concentrate on really enjoying our last couple of months of adventure!!!! We truly enjoyed our time in the Marquesas!

Brad readies the meat lines

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Sunday Best

2010-05-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

08* 52.8' South
140* 02.8' West
Controller Bay, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
May 16, 2010

We, along the Totem family and the whole town of Taipivai, donned our Sunday best for church. The priest came up to us before the service began and found where we were from and then invited us to sit in the second row. The church had stone walls about three high and then a roof that was lined with woven mats. There is about a four foot open area on the side walls between the top of the wall and the overhang of t he roof. This allows the air to flow through across the building. There were incredible cravings everywhere. pulpit was a really neat mix of Catholic and Marquesan symbolism.
There was alot of singing throughout the service, some of it accompanied by guitar, some a-cappella, some some solo, some the whole congregation. I was able to discreetly record a couple of clips with my camera. During the service, which was all in Marquesan, we recognized the priest introducing us "de Washington" and the song that repeated "hallelujah". There was also another call and response part of the service that at the very least was sung to the tune of "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore". The people were very welcoming and several of the older folks came up to us all after the service to shake our hands.
Brad and I had ventured into town the previous day and had been helped out by the woman who was running the store. We found her and the three kids we had met and befriended. We had brought an extra set of "Uno" cards to teach the kids how to play. One of the older kids already knew how to play a little and had a few English words. We had about seven kids playing. We left the deck of cards with the kids and they immediately started playing another round!

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Bay Aglow

2010-05-16T00:07:00.001-07:00

08* 52.8' South
140* 02.8' West
Controller Bay, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
May 15, 2010

Capaz and Jarana in Controller Bay

Bryce just alerted us to quite a fascinating experience. We were just cleaning up from dinner and it was probably about two hours after sunset. He came in from the deck exclaiming that the bio-luminescence was "out of control" (remember he is almost 12). We had noticed at dinner time that our anchor line was glowing and we are pretty used to seeing "sparklies" around the boat at night, but this is on a truly different plane.
First, we are anchored in between 15 and 20 feet of water. After turning off all of our boat lights (except the anchor light), we could then see that the entire bay had a light green glow to it. Right off, we could see that any lines in the water (our anchor bridle and the dinghy painter) were completely glowing like they were radio-active (at least in the movies) or had been dipped in glow-in-the-dark paint. As our eyes adjusted, we started to see the brighter flashes and glows as critters moved in the water. This more of a usual occurrence with the bio-luminescence phenomena. Then, we caught sight of two manta rays flapping their wings as the moved across our stern. These guys were probably six feet across at least. As we looked farther away from the boat, we would see very large flashes and then one was more steady and came towards CAPAZ. Again, it crossed the stern and Bryce and I are pretty sure that it was a large shark due to the way it was moving through the water and we both clearly saw its glowing dorsal fin.
We sat on bow for quite a while watching the little fish chase each other or get chased by bigger fish and hoping for the mantas to do another fly by. We saw several more big glows that were some distance away. It was pretty exciting and a little eerie to see just how much activity there is at any one time around our boat!

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Swimming Hole

2010-05-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

08* 56.6' South
140* 09.8' West
Daniel's Bay, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
May 12, 2010

After a great sail the rest of the way around the island, we are almost back to where we made landfall on Nuku Hiva. It took us so many tries to anchor here that our friends on Delos felt sorry for us and brought us a pitcher of gin and tonics. They seemed to do the trick as we are now securely anchored here.

This morning we rallied the troops for a famed hike to the waterfall. A good portion of the hike was on an ancient road that is made of stacked stones. At first we were walking through a settlement of several homes with tons of fruit growing in all of the yards. We wound our way up the river crossing and re-crossing it and its tributaries mostly on rocks, but once even on a log. The last quarter mile was into a canyon that was about 50 feet wide with walls that went straight up what seemed like a thousand feet. At the end of the canyon, we were rewarded with completely clear pool of refreshingly cool water. The pool disappeared behind a couple of huge boulders where there was a narrow grotto into which the waterfall fell. There wasn't much water flowing over the falls, so we swam in and could look up the chimney-like chute to the top. Many people had told us how amazing this hike was, but we really were not prepared for how spectacular it was. After a quick snack at the pool, we hiked back to the dinghy and enjoyed our afternoon in Daniel's Bay.

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Anaho Bay . . . . . Still

2010-05-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

08* 49.2' South
140* 03.8 West
Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
May 10, 2010

We are still here. It is a hard place to leave, though provisioning is challenging and will force us to do just that tomorrow. After the massive amount of planning that went into our Puddle Jump Crossing, we were more than willing to do the bare minimum of planning to get up here to Ahaho Bay for our rendez-vous with Kelly and then just go with the flow. Alas, we have finally gotten to the spot (in time and location) where we needed to do a little more planning to figure out what our time here in French Polynesia will encompass before we make our jump north to Hawaii in mid-July.
The boats that we have met here in Anaho Bay have been the icing on the cake in a place that had offered us something new everyday. There were the super-friendly, French fluent Swiss couple with their 9-year-old grandson and the family from Australia with three kids who were always willing to play on the beach with us. There were also the family on the catamaran who met our business partner on their leg through the Caribbean last year and the Californian/French/Tahitian family with two boys on a boat that spent most of its life in Anacortes, Washington. Beyond that were four boats that we had already knew from Mexico and before.
The men folk have been providing for the anchorage in the fish way. On an excursion out to the point, they caught a skip jack tuna and a mahi-mahi which we transformed into a huge sushi feast! That led to a grand plan of taking the Norhavn 64 on a more far reaching fishing expedition which ended up circumnavigating the island and returning with a 24 pound yellow fin tuna which was barbequed at the beach as part of a giant potluck. The wildlife has not just been providing us with sustenance, but also plenty of entertainment: The snorkeling has been like jumping into an aquarium on an almost daily basis and swimming with manta rays is something that I am sure the kids will never forget. The beaches are pretty nice and there are some hikes for those who like to explore. We have also experienced a pig roast in the nearby town and then here in the bay we partook of the goat in coconut milk and excellent poisson cru (the Polynesian form of cerviche) at the little pension's restaurant!
I am sure that you can see why we have had trouble making plans to leave here, but we have. The next post should actually be from somewhere other than Anaho!

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Full Day

2010-05-05T23:22:00.000-07:00

09* 49.2' South
140* 03.8' West
Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
May 5, 2010

The full day actually started the previous evening when we decided to have sundowners on CAPAZ. A sundowner refers to whatever drink you are holding when the sun goes down. Anyway, we invited the boats that we here: Oso Blanco, Totem, and Riga 2. Then, another boat that we had met in HIva Oa showed up so we invited them too.
That was a total 10 kids and 12 adults!
With that many people on board, plans were bound to be hatched. We wanted to get the kids to the beach that Tim and I had checked out on our first afternoon here. There was also a push to do an early morning snorkel session. Finally, before they headed into town earlier in the day, I had asked Annie and Behan to check out the restaurant for dinner possibilities and they came back with reservations for us for a pig roast! We had decided to take one of the boats to the other harbor and ferry people into the wharf.
OK, so the day went like this:
The sun wakes everyone up by 6:30 or 7:00, so the snorkeling was organized for just before 8:00. Brad, Kelly and Tim went and came back about an hour later so excited about swimming with manta rays. The boys had finished their schoolwork and wanted to go to the beach, so we had breakfast and packed up to head over. When we arrived at the beach, it was an easy landing, but it got progressively harder as the afternoon wore on. Mulan arrived and took a pass on going to the beach, but agreed to join us all for dinner (including the other two boats in the anchorage: Nika and Riga 2). After a couple of hours on the beach, it was time to get back to the boat to get cleaned up before meeting everyone on Oso Blanco which we would use to transport everyone to the next harbor where the restaurant was located. Once we were all (27 of us) assembled aboard Oso Blanco, the next thing to happen was to move everyone from the big boat at anchor to the quai in a dinghy where they could disembark to land. The men had it all planned out and it worked without a hitch, but our ferrying provided the locals with some Tuesday night entertainment. Everything had gone so well up to this point that we were a little early so we just did some walking around town. Since, we had added extra people to our group, the restaurant owners just added fresh fish to our feast. I don't know what kind it was, but it was soooo good. The operation of the pig coming out of the pit was a spectacle to behold! As well as the fish; the shrimp, the tapioca (with butter and garlic), several versions of breadfruit were all excellent. True test: the kids ate everything! The reverse process of getting everyone back to the Oso Blanco was a little more challenging in the dark with a higher tide, but all still went well.
We arrived back at Capaz wondering what Delos or Secret Agent Man would have thought if either of them had entered the anchorage only to find five sailboats abandoned with their dinghies tied to the backs. It might have been a little eerie!

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Tropical Logistics

2010-05-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

09* 49.2' South
140* 03.8' West
Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia
May 3, 2010

There are different reasons why people cruise. Many of the people around us have chosen to explore far corners of our blue planet in hopes of finding a place where there isn't a McDonalds or Starbucks for a thousand miles. We read about the "explorers" who "discovered" the islands of the South Pacific and wonder about how exciting that cultural exchange must have been. I am not sure that even here we can get a very good idea of how they may have felt as there cell phones (called "vini" after the provider here) and satellite dishes that beam in who knows what kind of programming.
Still, there are enough differences to really make it worth it. By worth it, I mean that it is not an easy place in which to arrive. We sailed almost 3,000 miles to get here, but even coming by more mainstream means doesn't come with the ease to which most of today's travelers are accustomed. There are no direct flights to the island of Nuku Hiva and there is no Hertz Rent-a-car waiting for you at the airport. The airport is located in the best place on the island for landing planes, not anywhere near any of the towns. Then, there are the roads, where there are roads. By the way, maps and street signs are pretty much non-existent.
On Capaz, as long as the bay is free of obstructions, we can pretty much go anywhere we like (we like protected bays with no roll, but you can't always get what you like). We found a beautiful bay that was rumored to be almost 360* protected which would be good for a visitor who is not completely comfortable on a boat, but intrepid enough to meet us here. (I should mention the visiting-cruisers-rule: To visit there are two choices: you can pick the place and we will tell you when we are getting close and you can buy your ticket, OR you can pick your time and as it approaches we will let you know where we are. However, you cannot pick the time and the place - UNLESS YOU GIVE OVER YOUR HUSBAND AS OUR CREW FOR A MONTH). There is always the other side of the coin: the road does not come all the way to this bay.
This is how we came to be meeting Kelly in Anaho Bay today . . . . and it all worked out. Kelly actually started traveling from Seattle two days ago. She endured a six hour layover in LAX- ick! and then an eight hour long flight to Papeete, Tahiti. Why is it even if we sleep or vegetate on long flights, we are still exhausted when they are over. As luck would have it, yesterday's flight to Nuku Hiva was full so Kelly had arranged for a hotel and recuperated by pool with a cocktail until she could fly over today. We heard her plane go overhead (there is only one plane a day) and then she made an hour and half taxi ride to the town in the next bay over where the road ended. We were able to borrow a sturdy Whaler from our friends to go and meet her. Then she got a nice 20 ride around the point to the gorgeous bay where we are anchored! Now that is traveling dedication and we thank her for loaning us Tim for the last month.

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North is South

2010-04-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

09* 54.4' South
139* 06.2' West
April 29, 2010
Tahuata, Marquesas, French Polynesia

I have been known to lose my bearings when waterways do not run north and south (I have lived most of life between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, near the coast of the Pacific Ocean), or rivers that are supposed to run east and west suddenly take a jog to the north (I still don't get the quadrants of Portland). It seems funny to me watching the sunrise out of the ocean from the dock in Annapolis (the sun is supposed to SET in the ocean). Imagine how disoriented I felt when I first visited the east coast of Australia - the sun was coming up out of the ocean and going around the opposite part of the sky.
Well, I am here to say that it has happened again! The other day, here in Tahuata, I did a couple of loads of laundry and baked some potatoes in my solar oven. We are anchored in a bay along the west coast of an island that runs roughly north and south - so far so good, this orientation is working for me. So, being the domestic engineer that I am with an area of expertise in laundry drying, I hung out all my clean laundry along the south side of the boat for maximum sun exposure. I pointed my solar oven in a roughly southerly direction on the bow so that I would not have to keep moving it all day. Luckily, I did go and check on things mid-morning and I noticed that my shadow (which I also use to help position the oven) was falling in the exact opposite direction relative to how I had set up the oven. Then, it hit me! I am in the Southern Hemisphere and the sun moves across the NORTH part of sky. Yikes! By that time, it was almost noon and the laundry was almost dry even on the shadier side of the boat, but I have made the shift in thinking.

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On to Tahuata

2010-04-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

09* 48.1' South
139* 09.1' West

Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia
April 26, 2010

I have fallen into bed the last couple of nights because our days have been so jam-packed. Yesterday, Tim, Behan and I rode into town early in order to catch the farm truck. We were rewarded with fresh lettuce, melons and passion fruit! Being Saturday, the baguettes were a little later than usual, but when Behan picked them up, they were still warm. I would call that a good thing. Brad had wanted to check out the Gaugin Museum and so, upon finding out that it was only open in the morning, he and Jamie, hoofed it into town with the boys. We only managed about a half hour, but it was worth it. What a collection of Gaugin's art - very impressive. A local young man, about the boys' age, took great pleasure in sharing a book full of traditional Marquesan designs. After a quick snack of soft ice cream (buy it when you can-it might be gone if you come back later), we headed to the local snack shack, Snack Make Make (pronounced: snack-makki-makki), for hamburgers. We ate with some other folks from the anchorage. One of the families had three young kids and we heading back to Sydney, Australia from buying their boat in Croatia! They had crossed from the Galapagos to the Marquesas. The boys pushed the bikes up to the top of the hill while I made a quick detour to the local carver's house - his wife had targeted me in the post office parking lot while I was trying to send the last blog post. They were a great couple with beautiful carvings for sale. Cruisers must provide one of the better opportunities for selling their wares - yes, we now have a small tiki protecting CAPAZ. Upon our return to the boat, we quickly grabbed water bottles and jumped back in the dinghy to meet most of the crews of Totem and Mulan for a hike up the valley above the anchorage to see some petroglyphs and a swimming hole. The rock art was impressive and the swimming hole was cool. The took great pleasure in holding very still so that the fresh water shrimp would come and give them an exfoliation treatment.
Today, we woke up and Brad decided we should rent a car and see the rest of the island. This activity came highly recommended by both Oso Blanco and Mulan. I rode to the car rental place here by the anchorage which was locked up tight. I then, continued on to the one in town. David, the owner and his wife, were more than happy to rent me their truck (the kind with a full back seat). Unfortunately, it required about a 45 minute tune-up before I got headed back to the anchorage. Brad and Tim made sure our anchor was secure and pulled together a picnic lunch and we were off. For the most part the roads here are great, but along the coast, going to the Tiki site on the other side of the island, Andrew best describes them as "good old country roads like back home" (he's from New Zealand). Did I mention the goats crossing the roads on some of the hairpin switchbacks? We are talking narrow and clinging to cliffs. All in all, it was worth it. The Tiki site at the end of the road was well worth it. The other place that we checked out was an idyllic community down a beautiful, lush valley that opens into a small bay. The whole mouth of the narrow valley is a community park with a soccer field, outrigger club, and swimming hole (the river is dammed up before it runs into the sea). There were locals picnicking and playing bocci ball. Even though it was a steep, rocky beach, I still managed to find a few good shells. The only gas station on the island was not open today, so we were sweating our fuel situation and coasted most of the from the 2700' ridge down into the anchorage.
We plan to get ourselves packed up in morning and return the car before we headed to Tahuata for a couple of days. Then, we will be heading northeast to Nuku Hiva for a rendez-vous with Tim's wife and my college roommate, Kelly!

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You Make the Choice

2010-04-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

April 23, 2010
3:00 am
Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia

So, I need to take a poll of my blog readers, so please respond (via the comments section-you should be able to sign in as "anonymous" and then you can sign your comment . . . . . . or not) sincerely to how you would approach my situation:
We have just arrived in a new port, new country, with new money (which we had none of), new food, new customs, new time zone and a new language (that I haven't spoken in twenty years). The boat has to be converted from passage making form to more of a live aboard form (one thing is we like to have a table in our main salon for typing blog entries).
I have been diligent about making sure that family and friends know about your progress (position) and welfare (we are all still fine) for three weeks fairly consistently. It was very hard for me to write most days as typing would often bring on the queasiness that I battled most of the passage, due to the inconsistency of the wave direction (give me the roll of an anchorage and others turn green - I am just fine).
This is what the last two days have looked like for us:
We arrived Tuesday in the outer harbor around noon and decided to try to find a spot in the inner harbor. There were about 20 already in the inner harbor and we are very used to the big open space of the ocean, but still we tried to fit into a tight spot for about an 90 minutes. To no avail, it was just too tight, so we pulled up the anchors and headed to the outer harbor. We tried to tuck in beneath the point as close to the bulkhead outside the breakwater as possible where we would spend a rolley night out there, but as I said consistent motion is better for me than what we had on the ocean. We were so hungry, that at about 2:00 we had a big chiliquilles "breakfast". It was too late in the day to check into the country with the local gendarme, but we did go back to the inner harbor and visit our friend, Eric on Secret Agent Man who we had not seen since November. He gave us the lay of the land a little and loaned us a few francs to go and buy some baguettes at the gas station (yep, the mini mart has fresh baguettes daily, tomatoes, huge cucumbers and onions besides the regular mini mart faire). Then, it was back out to the boat to get some dinner going - we had frozen some left over bbq pork and enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches on those fresh baguette. Brian and Erin and Brian's brother, Brady on Delos pulled into the outer harbor and we welcomed them with extra baguette that we had bought. Finally, we went onto local time which is 3 1/2 hours off of boat time. We had been trying to eat with the sun as we crossed, but Brad insisted on keeping the actual boat on PV (which I believe is either Mountain or Central time). The kids did the best job of making the switch as the adults on the boats were all in their bunks by 8:00 local time. The shell shock of $50 for a few hours of internet service kept us from even trying to sign on (let me tell you, you prioritize your internet tasks at that price - no typing or reading online.) I slept well and so there was no blog post to help deal with bad night's sleep. So, maybe it will be some consolation that the absence of blog posts means that I am sleeping well!
Technically, we were under quarantine flying our yellow flag that means we have not yet checked into the country. We found out that everyone is not required to be present at check in, so Tim, Austin and I made two trips ashore with the bikes and rode into town which is about an hour walk or 20 minute bike ride UP and around the point and into the next bay over. The gendarme was very nice and I have didn't even have to attempt to speak French as he wanted to speak English. Next, was money. Went to the bank and tried to figure out how many French Polynesian francs to pull out of the cash machine. Turns out that 30,000($255 USD or so) will buy you a few things, but not that many (I am a very numbers oriented person. It hard for me to make purchases without at least roughly converting to American dollars. I got pretty good at this in Mexico with the peso, but we are talking a whole other decimal place here!!!!!) Next, we needed to check out the food stores and mail our paperwork at the post office. We went to all the little "magasins", no more tiendas, but right along the same lines. I will truly miss all the cheap fresh produce to which we had access in Mexico. We found the stores with fresh baguettes donuts (we had Austin with us) and pain au chocolat and everyone has spring rolls which make for an excellent breakfast, I must say! By the way, while we were adventuring in town, taking care of business, Brad was back on the boat fixing the genset which had decided not to come on for our morning charge. No genset, no fridge/freezer. Turned out to be a loose connection. Also, with all our anchoring shenanigans of the previous day, the windlass (anchor pulling up and down helper) was not working in the down direction. That is not nearly as bad as not working in the up direction, but Brad still wanted to see what it's major mal-adjustment was. Back in town, when we arrived at the post office, we were able to get started taking care of our business with the help of another cruiser on how the internet works, and a wonderful Marquesan woman who made sure that I knew when it was my turn to go sit with the postmaster to buy my stamps and internet card. Didn't realize it then, but the post office is only open three per week - no wonder people were so patient. Tim and Austin decided to head back to the anchorage and so without the nine year old asking every two minutes if we were done yet (hey, he had gotten his donuts!), I figured I could take some time (a little over an hour - ahhhhh!) to download email to read and answer back on the boat and check our bank website to make sure that bills were being paid. The connection was so slow that my bank session kept timing out. It took a little over an hour to download about 100 emails - yikes! The other downside is that I have to at the post office to use the connection - but it is supposed to work at any post office in the islands. I needed to get back to the boat to make everyone lunch. We decided to lock the bikes up near the dinghy dock for ease of use. The Delosians came over to visit and we had some lunch during which time the VHF squawked that our good friends on Mulan (family from Canada) were getting very close to arrival. With the departure of a couple boats from the inner harbor, we decided to try our luck again and got a nice little spot (though it was still very tricky anchoring conditions) next to a boat that would be leaving in the morning. That was after we had to leave and bouy our stern anchor because it was holding fabulously - I guess my good night's sleep was warranted. Stern anchor retrieved and a call came over the radio with Eric organizing a pick up soccer about which all the boys got excited. I was more excited about taking out my braids and getting a good shower. We had already decided to eat in town and so we figured we would walk in after the soccer game broke up. I am not even going to write about that here because it was an adventure all unto its own worthy of a separate blog post. Suffice to say that we hit the hay upon arriving back at the boat with the exception of our hail to Totem being answered by them from the outer harbor.
Bright and early our neighbors left and Totem scooted in and is anchored right next to us. We were not as sure about the holding of anchor as we liked to be, so we stuck close to the boat. There is an outdoor sink next to shower that is great for doing laundry, so I spent the morning getting close to caught up on washing. I think Tim now believes that my self-imposed title of domestic engineer is deserved as he managed the drying end of the laundry. We also worked on getting the boat squared away live aboard style. Brad and I were all set for a bike ride into town to pick up a few more food stuffs before we headed south to Fatu Hiva and the famous Bay of Virgins in the morning. We have since decided to skip it as the weather has been less than conducive to getting there and we would been very rushed in our exploring. Anyway, we were just about ready to go and our anchor started to drag (it was not set well the night before), so we spent 45 minutes re-anchoring and then headed off on the bikes while the boys from Totem, Mulan and Capaz went with Andrew to explore the beach here in the anchorage. When we returned from our more of the same errands, the boys had cooked up a sleep-over and we needed to finish the laundry, put away groceries and get dinner out of the way. After dinner, I finally had a chance to sit down and read the emails that I had downloaded yesterday and the new ones Brad picked up today sitting on the curb outside the closed post office. Have I mentioned that the anchorage is in a bay surrounded by fairly tall mountains and so our radio doesn't work well enough to send emails??
The sun is coming up now, so I am going to head back to bed.

Normally, I would not write about every little thing that we do, but I guess it was appropriate since there were more than a few comments about us not making an entry for a couple of days and I hope that you can understand why. Would you have tried to squeeze a blog post into the last 60 hours?

It's great to have fans, but boy can they be demanding!

Airmail info:

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Day 18: Landfalll

2010-04-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

09* 48.4' South
139* 01.9' West
Baie Tahauku
Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia

18 days and 19 hours after departing from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico, we began our anchoring process on the other end of our voyage. The inner bay her is very small and there were already about 20 boats anhored. So after trying one spot that was just too tight AND in the path of the supply ship turn around space, we decided that the outer harbor wouldn't be so bad after all.
I was on watch as the sun came up and so the duty of calling, "Land Ho!" fell to me. I thought it might be kinda fun for one of the kids to do it, so as the sun came up, I woke Austin (Bryce had stood watch til late with his dad) and asked him if he wanted the honor. To which he replied sleepily, "Maybe another time!" However, about 5 minutes later he appeared in the companionway and we spent the next hour watching the sun rise and trying to discern the outline of the island (we could see it on radar, so we knew right where to look).
Once our anchor was down, we splashed the dinghy (after a frustrating, but ultimately sucessful search for our mosquito screen) and headed to the inner anchorage to see our friend Eric on SECRET AGENT MAN so that he could tell us the lay of the land. We talked to OSO BLANCO as we entered the harbor and will meet up with them next week.
The anchorage is a little ways from town and so we just went ashore right here for now. We will check in with the gendarme first thing in the morning and do some exploring in Atuona. Ashore at the anchorage, there is a gas station, that sells baguettes for about 50 cents a loaf, showers and fresh water, an outrigger canoe club and very small boat basin with room for about 10 fishing boats tucked behind the breakwater.
It is much more developed here than expected. The road is paved in cement and there are streetlights. The homes that we can see from the anchorage look nice, more like wooden framed contstuction than the cement boxes we have grown so used to seeing in Mexico.
So begins the next chapter of our adventure . . . . . . .

Day 18: Land Hoooooooooopefully!

2010-04-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

07* 50.0' South
136* 52.0' West

Sometime in the next 24 hours we should not only see land, but actually make landfall at Hiva Oa. It's all very exciting. Brad had predicted that we would take 20 days for this passage and it look like we will come in just under that.
All in all, we have had pretty good trip with fair winds most of the way and only about 80 hours of motor sailing. The ITCZ was a relatively narrow band for us to cross and the sea swell has been of mild height though it has been fairly confused for most of the trip. Going to Hawaii on the Voodoo Child, one of the most remarkable parts of the trip was that the swell was so consistant once we hit the trade winds. Hopefully we will get the chance to see that again on our next passage!
On another note, we reported that we were having some radio problems, but we have thus far been able to maintain checking in with our Puddle Jump radio group at least once per day. However, our friends on Totem seem to be having worse problems than we are having. After two days of not hearing them check in, Brad put out a "health and welfare call" on the net. Another party had been monitoring the Pacific Seafarer's Net which has a land-based antenna somewhere that can pick up VERY weak signals and relayed that Totem is indeed having radio issues, cannot transmit strongly enough to check in with our group, but they are fine otherwise. We look forward to seeing them in a few days in Hiv Oa.

Day 17: 300miles To Go

2010-04-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

06* 08.9' South
135* 12.5' West

We have been cruising along in the Southern Hemisphere trade winds. We may actually have to slow ourselves down to make sure that we make landfall during daylight hours. After more than two without touchng land, we are all wondering how our bodies will react to walking on a ground that is not constantly pitching.
We are aiming for Taahuku Bay where our papers should be waitingfor us to check into the country.
Besides, solid ground we are looking forward to a nice cold beverage. While we can hav ethem here on the boat, no one really feels like drinking. we are looking forward to beaches. The boys are looking forward to seeing the kids from Mulan, Totem and Oso Blanco. Austin is ready for this rocking motion to stop.

Day 16 One of those nights

2010-04-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

Lattitude 03 degrees 41.9 minutes South
Longitude 132 degrees 49.5 minutes West
April 17, 2010
20:00 Zulu (That's around noon back home)

Last night was one of those nights. One of those nights where the boat feels like it's on rails and knows it's way. We were harging forward on an ink black ocean punctuated by the white froth cast off from the boat and the Bioluminecent stars bursting into life in the water and just a quickly snuffing out. The wake glows. There were no clouds last night. Which is rare. The Southern Cross constellation was just where it should be in the south, not visitble to those back home, but visible to us on this our current home. The milky way spread from one horizon to the next. The moon had set so it did not hinder the viewing. Yes, it was one of those night. Surreal is a good way to describe it. Not many get to experience it, but it's well worth the price of admission. At least it is in my book. To cap it off as I watched the night sky a shooting star streaked across from horizon to horizon, leaving a glowing trail in it's wake. A trail much like the one our own craft is leaving in the ocean, quickly fading.

We have been making good time. Our 24 hour mileage wa 185 miles. All straight at where we want to go. The wind has been blowing on average around 13 knots. We are on a close jib reach and just trucing along. We have beneficial current which also helps. Todays mileage should be in the same ballpark as yesterday.

It's warm on board. Quality of life is much nicer because we each have fans over our bed. I can't imagine what it would be like if we didn't have those, but they make it very nice come nap time. As I sit here I look over at PJ who is having a nap on the our bunk in the salon being cooled by the fan.

Th end of this leg of our adventure is drawing near. We have 506 miles to go. At the current pace we should be able to arrive in daylight sometime on the 20th, but the wind can be fickle so we'll see how it goes.

All is well on Capaz. Thanks for reading the blog!

Brad

Day 15: Shellbacks

2010-04-16T05:40:00.000-07:00

00* 51.2' South
129* 54.9' West

The crew of CAPAZ: Brad, PJ, Bryce, Austin and Tim have all become shellbacks. At 0300 Zulu, the boat passed over the Equator (0* Latitude) and was visited by King Neptune. Everyone is short some hair and has been fortified with bilge water, worms off the keel and a shot of grog shared with Neptune.
Besides this exciting news, we are in good wind that looks as if it may hold us to our destination. For, as the song says, " . . . . on this heading lie the Marquesas."

Day 14 Busted Through!

2010-04-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

Latitude: 00 Degrees, 19.3 minutes N
Longitude: 128 Degrees 41.6 Minutes W

We have busted through the ITCZ. We are currently sailing in about 17 knots of breeze, with a boat speed from 7 to 8 knots. Our compass hading is 200 degrees but there is a strong current setting us to the East so our actual Course Over Ground is 215 degrees magnetic.

Sailing, or I should really say motoring, through the ITCZ was interesting. Seldom did we not have wind. There were a couple of few hour stretches where the water got completely glassy because of no wind. Even more interesting is we really didn't get much rain. We actually sailed in blue sunny skies most of the time. Our friends on Totem described it as being in a bubble. All around the Horizon are large ominous squall clouds, but where we were was Blue sky and Hot! So we motored for 1.5 days and yesterday, turned off the motor and started sailing in winds of about 7 knots. The wind has steadily built and Ironically we have seen more squalls today then we did in the ITCZ.

Last night we had torpedoes following the boat. Well actually it was Dolphins. But they looked like torpedoes. I'm sure many of our readers have experienced bioluminescence which is small critters in the water giving off sparkles of light when they are disturbed. As the dolphins swam along side the boat they gave off and erie sparkling glow leaving a trail of glowing water. Tim and I spent some time on the bow watching this mezmerizing sight. I tried to wake PJ to see, but she was out for the count.

My Father in law asked that I say something on why we are taking the route we we have. You can basically break this trip into three parts. The first leg is from PV to where you target as your crossing spot for the ITCZ. Second is crossing the ITCZ itself. Third is the final leg to the finish. When we left the forecast was for decent sailing breeze for the first two days. Then it was supposed to die for a day and start to fill in. The wind was going to be stronger the further west you went so we struck out on a course to go west. Wind direction paid a part as we could not sail directly west initially because of the wind direction. As it happened our course took us by two Islands, Socorro and Clarion. Once we were in the wind we were able to sail a more SW course and head for the ITCZ.

You don't want to cross the ITCZ to early as the width tends to be larger and in general the winds light. So we struck out to cross somewhere near 127 degrees west latitude. Without getting too technical, we also sailed a course that would allow us to take advantage of a wind shift more to the East. The wind shift did occur and we jibed the sails and headed S. We ended up crossing the ITCZ at about 126 degrees latitude. It worked great! So far that is. Now we are heading to the Marquesas. Initially we kept a more Southerly course because more wind is forecast that direction. well, we have plenty of wind so we've turned the boat on a course that makes hay to the islands.

On the docket for dinner tonight is white chicken chili. This recipe is from our good friend Amy Martin. PJ pre-cooked while on land. Yum!

Day 13: Ski and Sea

2010-04-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

02* 30.2' North
126* 23.9' West

We tried really hard to stay out of the sun, finding any shade possible. The cloud over that protected us until two days ago is now gone and has been replaced by fluffy white clouds (that sometimes harbor refreshng squalls) with lots of clear blue sky in between. Anther boat that is fairly close to us (within 60 miles or so) spent most of yesterday in the rain.
Tim has been a great help with school. He started out helping Bryce with his article for the Chronicle last week - this one is going to be the best ever. This week as we have added math and spelling back into the regime, Tim has taken over teaching, first with Bryce and today he helped Austin through his lesson, too!
Last night we had tacos in the cockpit. Brad grilled up an arachara and we put some of our last lettuce on the tacos. We started growing sprouts today for another veggie alternative. After dinner, the kids and I watched an old ski movie. How funny is that: to be out in the middle of the great blue ocean still in bathing suits at 10:00pm watching a ski movie!
Getting close to the Equator!!!

Day 12: Southern Cross

2010-04-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

05* 15.3' North
125* 63.8' West

"When you see the Southern Cross for the first time . . . . . " is how the song goes. Well, it wasn't really the first time (I have seen it from Australian soil) and not even the first on this trip (it was there last fall from Mexico's Baja just like John Steinbeck said it would be). Last night was the first time that the skies have really cleared up enough to truly see "the stars". On my watches, I have certainly had some good windows where I could see some stars, but not like I got just before dawn this morning. Just like the full moon rising over a hill, there is a kind of perspective that happens when you get a panorama of stars. The Southern Cross looked so tall and since we have started motoring (due to light and very flukey wind), we are southing right at it. I can definitely see why the ancient Polynesian explorers used it and other constellations for their navigation.
Just before sunset, we passed through the back edge of a squall line and we were treated to a rainbow show. First, as we approached, there was a vibrant piece of rainbow. Then, we noticed a very light second piece. These faded in and out as we sailed into some warm light rain. Finally, the middle of the squall, with the sun heading toward its set in the west, we got a FULL rainbow. This is a new one on me, as it not only made the typical full arch, but we could also see in continue below the horizon into the watery field that stretched out to our port side. Amazing!

Day 11: Still Sailing

2010-04-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

07* 05.4' North
125* 45.3 West

Here we are still sailing. The winds have not shut off for us yet, so we keep making southing towards the Marquesas under sail (that's less diesel that we have have to buy in French Polynesia at their astronomical prices). We just need to be able to get to Tahiti where we have a fuel purchasing waiver waiting for us. Anyway, that's a whole other blog post. The wind stayed so constant last night that Brad and Tim made the call to keep the spinnaker (yes, like a race boat) all night. We only hit one squall and it wasn't too bad. There was a pretty good one bearing down on us this morning, but we held our course and it sort of petered out and passed behind us while Brad was on the SSB running the daily net.
That brings me to our newest news. During the net, the SSB started acting funny and basically wasn't working. Brad has looked at it and is hoping that with all the transmitting that he was doing as net controller, that something overheated and caused the problem. He was able to send and receive email after letting the contraption sit for awhile. So......if blog posts and email from us stop, you know that it could just be our radio acting up again.
Along the same vein, our shore side support crew has let us know that the SPOTs are no longer coming through. We will keep sending in hopes that the device can pick up a satellite as we get closer to the islands. Again, if you have strong feelings about the hole out here, let them know at http://www.findmespot.com/ .
Otherwise, we are all well and excited about becoming shellbacks!

Day 10: Doldrums

2010-04-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

09* 40.3' North
125* 19.4 West

Between Latitudes 10 North and 10 South is what old fashioned sailors used to call the doldrums because there was often little or no wind in this band all the way around the
Earth. However, leave it to modern sailors to come with a much more technical, if not accurate name: Inter Tropical Convergence Zone or ITCZ*. Whatever you what to call it, traditional or modern, we are there.
Yesterday, we caught a shift that Brad has been predicting almost since we left Mexico and jibed making south on nice breeze. Said breeze has continued past the 10* North line as the actual ITCZ changes its size and shape daily, if not hourly. Those of our readers who live in Seattle have intimate experience with convergence zones and how difficult it is to accurately predict weather in them. So, we just keep sailing til the wind finally shuts off which Weather Boy, aka Brad, says is eminent. At which point, we turn on our motor and head south toward the closest patch of wind on the other side. One of the boats ahead of us, actually had to motor a little to the east for their wind. We will see what the weather Gods have in store for us.
We had fresh mahi-mahi last night for dinner and also boatmade sourdough bread. The night sailing actually took us through a few squalls, but towards morning as the little slice of moon rose, the skies cleared and showed us a plethora of stars followed by a beautiful sunrise and our first sunny day since leaving Mexico. With regards to where we are, we have the boat all opened up trying to keep as much air moving through it as possible, so that if any of the fluffy white clouds that are all around us decide to go over the top of us and precipitate, we will be able to frantically close it all up.

*We are pretty sure that the "T" stands for "tropical", but please accept our apologies if we are misquoting here. We do not have Google for fact checking.

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