Sailing to the Marquesas

This will be our longest passage so far, in distance, not in time. Here is a picture of the route and the winds and currents we can expect on the way. No stopping for us at the Galapagos islands, too expensive and complicated procedures. We sail direct to Atuona on Hiva Oa, one of the Maquesas islands in French Polynesia, some 4000 nautical miles to the west.

Here is what “Predictwind Departure Planning” advises when leaving around May 9.

• North of Galapagos is clearly faster
• It does not matter so much which day we leave
• expect around a 100 hours of motoring
• warning for possible thunderstorms around 10 degrees north is well noted

We will cross the equator where the North and South trade winds converge, the ITCZ or Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. There might be thunderstorms or no wind near that zone called “the doldrums”. Regardless, one wants to pass there as quickly as possible. So expect around 100 hours of motoring. That means fill up the tank and all our jugs with 800+ liters of diesel at Playita marina on Flamengo island. Auwww…crossing the Panama canal is a very expensive adventure: Pay Pay Pay everywhere.

But look at it from the bright side, its the last one! Looking forward to a month of sailing, off we go!

Motored for 51 hours while crossing the ITCZ at 5 degrees north. A tiny bit of rain but no thunderstorms. In the first week we ran into a kilometer long, floating fishing line 40 nautical miles southwest of Isla de Malpelo. Luckily the engine was off so the line did not get entangled in the propellor. We spend 2 hours that morning virtuously rolling up string and fishing line with large hooks and plastic containers attached and all that looked quite new. We where making quite a collection until the owners showed up…..

They laughed as we gave them their gear back, after all it was quite newly laid we realised.

After passing the equator we had good winds from the SE plus 1-3 knots of westward current. For most of the westward passage after Galapagos you can actually “choose” your favourite wind strength and current by sailing west on the same latitude of choice. The wind speed varied between 10 and 20 knots. Wave height never exeeded 3m. The wave interval varied and we once had a tiny splash into the cockpit.

Since we had to go down to 8 degrees south anyhow we chose to alternate between a beam and a broad reach depending on wind and waves:

• beam at COG 230-250 was chosen when wind and waves where less as it gives you more speed.
• broad reach COG 270 was chosen at higher winds and waves: less movement of the boat due to following seas. The loss in speed is compensated by the west going Southern equatorial current.

The 28 days at sea passed very quickly. Easy and pleasant sailing. Nothing broke during this passage, thats nice! The downwind poles where used only after 110 degrees west. On day 16, with still 1400nm to go, the wind stopped. That temporarily turned our boat into a noisy, bouncing raft but, as with Kontiki, the South equatorial current of almost 3 knots remained so we still did 90-100 nautical miles per 24 hours. The last week brought grey clouds with light winds and a bit of rain: 3.2 knots during the last 3 days arriving silently in the sunshine after 4005 nautical miles in 28 days, an average speed of 6 knots.

A once in a lifetime experience, crossing the Panama canal…total cost since leaving Dominica 4200 euro..