Adventures on Patricia Ann

High 20s low 30s of wind and 15 foot waves

Next Stop…The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)

Now that we have made it past the halfway point, the next milestone is crossing through the Intertropical Convergence Zone, where the North East and South East trade winds meet. The ITCZ is a place of spotty wind, or no wind, and thunderstorms and squalls. It looks like we should

Photos for Day 11

So why am I doing this??

We are just past the half way point to the Marquesas, so it seems like a good time to try and explain why I am out here doing the somewhat crazy thing. Why am I doing this? It seems like a simple enough question, with a simple answer, such as,

Swimming in the middle of nowhere

We made the halfway point today! Went for a swim to celebrate. 1400 miles to the nearest land!

Ooopppsss I did it again!!

Another accidental gybe. 100% my fault this time. And I broke stuff as well. UUUGGGGHHHH. I hate admitting it and writing this. But it happened. We were getting ready to put the spinnaker up and had rolled up our jib so we only had a reefed mainsail up. David was

Back by popular demand - PHOTOS!

1,000 Miles from Nowhere...

Have you ever been 1,000 miles from nowhere? Well, that is where we are. There actually are not many places on Earth where you can be more than 1,000 miles from any land. The middle of the Pacific is one of these places. Yes, it is a little

A Day of Milestones...

We hit several milestones today: 1 week at sea 1,000 miles from Newport (not including the 200+ miles we sailed diverting towards Cabo) First time with the spinnaker up The sun was out! It got warm! It was a beautiful day, one we had been waiting for. We enjoyed

Doing 15.7 knots

Click post to view what 15.7 knots looks like

We made it to the Trade Winds!

We hit the trade winds late this afternoon, then gybed from starboard to port and we are now headed due south straight for the Marquesas! We also got to experience a bit of the eclipse. The sky cleared up and we could actually see the sun. Chris brought the proper

Searching for the North East Trade Winds

Why are we looking for the trade winds? Trade winds typically provide the ideal sailing conditions, with fairly constant speed and direction, all day, and all night. They are what sailors dream about! They will also be warmer than what we have been experiencing. We have been sailing in north

Life Onboard

Open this post to see all the photos!

The “Fix” for the Engine

We needed to come up with a solution to keep the engine from getting flooded again. The problem is the exhaust pipe is close to the water coming off our stern. Because we have so much additional weight on the boat, our stern is sitting much lower, causing the exhaust

Sleep!

Both Chris and I were exhausted after 4 days of doing night watches and the engine repairs. Our crew, David, Jade and Danielle have become very skilled at handling the boat and doing watches, so we let them do their night watches solo last night while Chris and I caught

Back on our way!

We are back on course for the Marquesas and have traveled just over 50 miles in that direction. We lost about two days by trying to divert to Cabo, a day sailing that way, in the wrong direction, and now we need to sail back. But we don’t care,

The Adventure is still on!

With lots of prayer, perseverance and determination, my cousin Chris and I were able to get the engine running. We could not have done it without the support from a mechanic friend of mine, Greg Fountain, and a Facebook Yanmar engine group. They gave us the confidence we could do

Marquesas here we come

Latest update from Dale: just a quick update. My cousin Chris and I spent 4 1/2 hours with our heads in the engine compartment this morning. With 20 knot winds and 10 foot seas we took the engine apart got all the water out and it fired back up

Engine is alive!

Latest update from Dawn: Hi guys, I have some good news! Dale has started the engine. They've been working for four hours while the boats healing and engine running. He's double checking with the mechanic to see that it's safe to go and then

Engine Problems...

During one of my routine inspections of the engine, I found sea water coming out of the air intake on the engine. This is NOT a good thing. It means the inside of the engine got flooded with water. This could potentially destroy the engine if the water is not

Flooded engine, heading to Cabo San Lucas for repairs

Latest update from Dale: "We’re going to have to go into Cabo San Lucas to do some engine repairs. Our engine has been flooded with seawater. It’ll take us four or five days to get there. We may not have enough power so we can’t use

Lies and More Lies!!

The South Pacific Sailing brochure is full of LIES! Warm trade winds. LIES! Relaxing downwind sailing. LIES! Sunny skies with white puffy clouds. LIES! Time to read books, relax and enjoy the best sailing conditions of your life. LIES! Star filed nights with warm ocean breezes. LIES! We passed the

It was BRUTAL last night

Its not all fun and games out here. Last night the wind picked up to 30+ knots (not in the forecast) and 10ft seas. At 2 am I was down below sleeping with Chris on watch with Danielle. It was raining and we got hit with a gust well into

48 Hour Update

At 3pm today we hit the 48 hours at sea mark. Everything is going well onboard. It is still much cooler than we would like, but we know warm weather is ahead! We have covered 357 nautical miles in 48 hours, about a 7.5 knot average speed, which is

24 Hour Update

We have now spent 24 hours at sea. Everyone onboard is doing well, including our dog, Catalina! We covered 170 nautical miles and averaged just over 7 knots, which is great speed. Based on the increased wind strength right now I think we may go a bit further in the