I have pieced the following blog from emails Sunil has been sending me from Charm’s satellite phone(minus the stuff meant just for me ofcourse). Every day seems to bring a new adventure, and its fun to follow him on the World ARC fleet viewer They are currently No. 2 overall and No. 1 in Multihulls. Day 9 brings them to 1180 nautical miles from Marquesas and 1848 NM traveled
Marquesas Crossing Day 2: Racing Nica
We had a good 24+ hours of sailing. Covered over 200 miles in the first 24 hours. Averaging around 9 knots. Once we hit the trade winds in a day or so – our speed should pickup. Nica is on our port side about 9 miles out and we are racing them.
I saw quite a few sea lions in the open ocean 150 – 200 miles from Galapagos! They seem to be in pairs. Its is my turn to make dinner today and I’m making burgers and small baked potatoes
Marquesas Crossing Day 3: Dolphins!
Just as I sent the email yesterday we saw a pod of dolphins ahead – dozens of them – some breached completely out of the water. Seemed like they were busy hunting for food as they didn’t follow the boat.
Finally Joe was successful in catching a small tuna this morning – about 14” long. This afternoon, there’s a squall in the distance but we have managed to evade it so far. Nica is catching up and within radio distance of us. Lara made delicious burritos for lunch. Everything going well on board.
Marquesas Crossing Day 4: Squishy squids and our first big squall.
This afternoon we mostly sailed at 10 to 14 knots. The peak was 19 knots. Last night was rough – we were in a squall with heavy rainfall and big gusts. Started late evening and lasted all night. We did our watch from inside just stepping out to change the heading as needed. Things were lot better and pleasant in the morning. The raincoat has proved to be a great purchase.
The swells are larger than in the earlier crossing so the boat rocks quite a bit. Marin and Tully had a touch of sea sickness. So far it has not affected me one bit. It was pizza night yesterday and Lara made zucchini cake this morning. In short we are eating very well.
John and I have a tea service twice a day. He is happy for the P G Tips you brought. Am learning a lot about sailing from Joe, John and Lara.
We see flying fish all around us as we cut through the water. Couple nights back we had quite a few small squid on the boat. Not sure how they got there. Probably from the waves breaking on the bow. Joe stepped on one and its ink spread all around. There were a couple on the side rails. But the most amazing was the one that flew through the hatch and landed on my bed. When I got up at night for my watch, unknowingly I squashed it and smeared it in the bed sheet. Later in the day, I discovered it, and we had to wash all 3 sheets. Sleeping with a squid is a new first at Charm and I expect it to feature in Lara’s blog sooner or later 🙂
Marquesas Crossing Day 5: Spinnaker Disasters
Today was a generally pleasant day of sailing – averaging about 9-10 knots. We did however lose the yellow spinnaker in the squall a couple days back when it ripped. The other one ripped today when it was being hoisted. John was able to patch it with tape. But we have been sailing with the gennaker all day. Nica was a few miles ahead of us through the night. They moved further north and are out of AIS range.
I did an exercise circuit with Lara in the cockpit today and took a hose shower after 4 days. I feel like a new person. Will head to bed to get some rest before midnight watch. We had tuna ceviche from the fish we caught.
Marquesas Crossing Day 6: Social Charm
Another pleasant day of sailing today and we made good progress.
Cobin is teaching me to juggle. Lara teaching all of us how to floss. It has nothing to do with our dental hygiene but is actually a dance. Today was poetry night. Everybody recited their poems – even I wrote one! Joe made delicious chili for dinner.
Marquesas Crossing Day 7: Water Maker Troubles
It was a nice bright and pleasant day today. I woke up to beautiful rainbow this morning.
Our water maker is acting up a bit. It’s pressure fluctuates out of operating range and so we are manually regulating it using a knob. And as all such knobs go it is located in an awkward spot in Joe’s room. Not sure what the problem is – it could be gunk in the intake or possibly the wave action reducing the flow. Net result is that for a few hours we slow down the boat to make water. In the meantime Nica gets further ahead.
Now that our water tanks are full, it is time to catch up to them. We take the first definitive step to show we mean business – we change the music channel to rock and roll and turn up the volume. The winds have been lighter than usual so the sailing is less work and more pleasant.
Marquesas Crossing Day 8: Another storm
It’s been stormy here since midnight last night. Pouring rain, wind gusts and large waves. Hoping for a bit of sunshine today but the forecasts do not look promising. The auto pilot goes off at times so one has to be very attentive during the watch. Am getting ample practice with the wheel.
We crossed 1500 miles during my watch early morning. We celebrated with bacon, scrambled eggs, English muffin bread and a cup of hot tea.
Marquesas Crossing Day 9: 1235 Miles to Marquesas and Boat Fixes
It’s been easy sailing last night and today morning. Fair winds and the auto pilot doing most of the work.
Yesterday Joe was showing me how to steer using the wheel with the auto pilot turned off. One needs to pick the appropriate cloud in the horizon and steer to it. Since the clouds move and the wind direction can change, you need to pick your reference point every minute or so. The wheel is like the clutch of a car – you just need to get a feel for it. Since there is a delayed response you need to anticipate and act quickly. The auto pilot had been acting up more frequently off late so he decided to reboot the system. Things went from bad to worse – it stopped working at all. 1500 miles from land is not an ideal place to lose one’s auto pilot.
After some basic diagnosis Joe decided to replace the port rudder hydraulic motor. Seems like he carry’s spares for everything. Long story short, I had to steer keeping the boat on a nice and easy course while Joe and John replaced the motor in the aft compartment of the hull. The earlier training helped, inspite of the pressure of the situation, I was able to keep the boat steady for couple hours. The good news is that the auto pilot is all fine now.
Sailing Jajabor 