S/V Halley

04 49.436 S 110 59.428 W Day 18 from Panama to the Marquesas. 2,272 nautical miles of 3,800. Not sure what the big hoopla is about sailing across the Pacific. Sunny days, no squalls, a cooling and mild breeze and a friendly sea state. The other day we even had games and a sundowner up on the foredeck as Halley was sailing us straight into the sunset. We’d like to credit our seasoned seamanship, but it is of course luck. As nice as it is, we are in fact hoping for more wind to pick up the pace. Not to test the patience of the weather gods, but 5 or 6 more knots of wind would be welcome. And per the forecasts, more is coming in the next day or two. So will a building sea state. Silly comfy days may be over. In the meantime, we are continuing the watch schedule and the routines we settled into early on. Days roll into nights and back to days again. It’s almost as if time is suspended or running on a different track. We’ve been out for 18 days, but if I had lost count and somebody told me

01 14.776S 100 51.962W Day 13 from Panama to the Marquesas. 1,596 nautical miles of 3,800.

00 00.000N 99 16.515W Day 12 from Panama to the Marquesas. 1,484 nautical miles of 3,800. The pics and video say it all!

00 07.542N 98 27.470W Day 11 from Panama to the Marquesas. 1,418 nautical miles of 3,800. We’ve settled into a nice rhythm by now with a 3 hour watch schedule around the clock. Tonight, I’m doing the 6 pm to 9pm shift and will be back on again tomorrow morning from 6 am to 9 am. We keep the schedule rolling with a double shift in the middle of the day. This way everybody gets to experience sunsets and sunrises at the helm, the full moon while we have it, and the new moon towards the end of our trip when the stars will be popping.  The eleven days have somehow flown by. We all tend to be up and about from mid-morning to early evening. Usually a slow start with coffee and lounging followed by a chore or two. Mid-day we fold out the cockpit table and play dominos or card games. After that, perhaps a nap, a book or a podcast. Yoga or exercises up on deck is also part of the routine for some of us (yes, it gets bouncy up there - seated or lying down is the way). One person has dinner duty a

02 08.696N 90 19.424W Day 7 from Panama to the Marquesas. 901 nautical miles of 3,800. The birds were a welcome distraction at first. Two brown boobies spent the night perched on the railing at the bow of the boat. Probably weary visitors from the Galapagos, which we are slowly passing to the north. Pictures and videos of the birds sailing with us into the sunset - perfect. Then the word got out. The next night Axel counted 25 birds on his watch. We woke up to a deck covered in bird shit and collected boobie feathers that had blown inside the boat through the open deck hatches. The smell… strong and distinctly fishy. No more joyous “Oh, look a bird!”. Time for war. We held a morning counsel and devised a plan involving water jets, brooms, mops and railings smothered in cooking oil for a slippery landing.  But who should clean the deck? A game of Yahtzee would decide. I was leery from the start. Distinct memories of spending a skiing holiday in the mountains in Sweden with my siblings a

  3 06.364N 83 10.744W Day 4 from Panama to the Marquesas. 454 nautical miles of 3,800. We had great conditions for the parasailor sail yesterday. That’s our biggest sail, akin to a spinnaker. It’s tricky to set up, but after a few false starts it was flying beautifully. It fills with the wind and dances in front of the boat, pulling us along even in light winds. But all good things must come to an end. No wind since last night. The ocean is a flat, undulating surface that we glide across under engine power. The half moon reflects in the water and Halley creates a magical show of bioluminescence in her wake. Frequent checks of the weather models to see where we can catch wind. It likely won’t be until tomorrow. But the calm conditions have an upside. Earlier today, yoga and exercise up on deck, tidying up of the boat and then a swim break. A refreshing dip despite the water being the same temperature as the air (89F/31.6C). And at a depth of 10,000 feet (3,000 m), exhilarating.

  04 53.790 N 81 04.612 W We trail fishing lines after Halley from two rods mounted aft. They had only been out for an hour or so when the reels started to spin. Sails in to slow down the boat and then bring in the fish, clearly a big one. It put up a good fight, but eventually Chris had it. We think it was a black fin tuna, about 15 pounds (7 kg). Chris cleaned the fish and then he and Kicki prepared an epic lunch of the freshest possible sashimi. It was crazy good, melting like butter in the mouth. And enough to freeze a few pieces for a gourmet dinner later; perhaps seared sesame crusted tuna with a soy, mirin and honey dipping sauce?

  06 47.983 N 80 34.938 W We’ve clocked 153 nautical miles with an average speed of a 6.9 knot since leaving Panama yesterday at 1:30 pm. Keeping this speed up, we’ll drop anchor in the Marquesas in 23 days. Nice, strong northerly winds have pushed us along. It’s been sporty at times with gusts up to 34 knots (17.5 m/s). But in between us and the destination is the ITCZ, the inter tropical convergence zone, aka the doldrums. That’s the roughly 50 - 300 mile area of unstable weather around the equator, where we can expect little wind and frequent rain showers and thunderstorms. We won’t go fast there. In fact, we will likely have to use the engines, but at slow speed to save fuel.  Once we are through the doldrums, we will catch the steady, beautiful trade winds again, but they too can be fickle. The average speed of the entire trip could be significantly slower than 6.9 knots. We could be out in the blue for another 30 days. Off to a flying start in more than one sense. My siblings, Ax