Pacific Passage Completed

The Irish Blessing departed Galapagos on St.Patrick’s Day (appropriately!) and have arrived in Nuku Hiva on April 3rd. 17 days at sea. Frankly, I think 17 days at sea is as long as I would ever like to be out there. It felt so good to get in, drop the anchor, and jump in the ocean after 17 days.

Pacific Passage by the Numbers

3150 nautical miles Galapagos to the Marquesas (3600 miles) 300 gallons of fuel 1800 gallons of water made (onboard desalinator) 270 individual meals prepared Only 2 bags of garbage (all food waste overboard, all plastic cans bottles etc. washed and dried in order to eliminate odors) 5 fish caught (1 blue marlin released and 4 tuna consumed) 10 books read Movies watched- Moana, Caddy Shack, Red Notice, and too numerous to list from Cullen 128 flying fish cleaned of dock and 16 squid on morning inspection Each crew member stood watch 3.5 days at 2 hours a shift

It’s so great after a long night watch to watch the sunrise in the morning. It is typically calm, peaceful, and beautiful. It is also when we get the fishing lines out.

Catching a fish under sail is both exhilarating and challenging. Your moving at 9 knots which means you have to get your sails in before the fish takes all the line off your reel. Once you get it to the boat you then have the challenge of getting it up 5 feet to the water line onto the deck, subduing the fish before it beats you and the boat up, and finally cleaning it before it makes a bloody mess of your boat deck. That having being said there is nothing quite like fresh fish.

Nuku Hiva

Bad mid ocean poetry

My South Pacific sailing dream is coming finally coming true/ Sailed 4,000 miles since Panama to arrive at the Polynesian Blue/ Finally seeing the Marquesas brought us all to tears/ No time for sentimental stuff… We’re icing down the beers/ We will sail through Polynesia and all of Fiji too/ End of July we see Australia… I heard there’s kangaroos/ Then we are taking a break from the action to go home for awhile/ We miss our friends and families… It will be great to see your smiles

Time to make the call

I told many of you that I divided the rally into 2 sections. 9 months cruising Bonaire, San Blas, Panama canal, Galapagos, South Pacific, Fiji and exploring Australia (my South Pacific dream) and 7 months sailing around Africa to return to Antigua. I planned to make the call in Australia if 10 months away from home, family, and friends was enough. 10 months away from home is definitely enough. I would have seen Vanessa a total of 30 days and my daughters once in 9 months and Mike needs to see Louise, his granddaughter! After discussion with Cullen and Mike we are sticking with plan A and will be heading home in October to be home for the holidays and be involved in Kearney’s wedding planning “fun”. But the dream isn’t totally over as we will be meeting up with the Oyster fleet in Grenada in early March for the 6 week Caribbean portion back to Antigua.

French Polynesia

We are currently in the Marquesas, leaving today for a 3 day passage to the Tuamotus. These are all atolls which means carefully traveling in through the passes at slack tide so we neither get shot through or are fighting a current. The surrounding coral reef creates a totally protected pool where the visibility is unlimited and reminds you of an aquarium. We will also stop at Rangiroa which is known as the shark capital of the world where I took Vanessa scuba diving on our honeymoon. I think I enjoyed it more than she! We will spend 10 days in the Tuamatos before traveling on to Tahiti where we are excited to meet up with Cecelia and Vanessa at the end of April. We will then spend 6 weeks in the Society Islands, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, etc. before heading to Fiji. Hope all is well with you and yours. Happy Easter from Irish Blessing.