The last couple of days we had very consistent conditions. Fairly steady winds, usually in the 15 to 18 knot range with gradual increases to the low 20s.  Things were so predicable we decided on Friday night to not reef the main and go with full main and jib.  This kept our speed up all night long and allowed us to have our fastest 24 hour run at 190 nautical miles, a 7.9 knot average.

The cold weather is definitely gone! Everyone is down to bare feet, t-shirts and shorts, day and night.  We do our best to stay under the bimini for the shade since the direct sun is BRUTAL. Most of the crew is lounging about reading books or resting.  Chris and I take turns steering the boat.  This gives Otto the autopilot a break, and we like doing it as well.

As of last night, life on board has become a bit challenging.  We have good size swells, 10 plus feet, but also a cross swell which really bounces the boat around.  It causes us to roll quite violently at times and makes the sails slap and bang about.  On top of that it is very warm inside the boat.

The wind has also became a lot more variable.   We cruise along with 15 to 18 knot winds, and then suddenly it jumps into the mid to high 20’s.  It may not sound like a big change, but its nearly a 50% increase in speed and the forces on the boat really jump. It makes it hard for Otto the autopilot to navigate the wind and the swells, and sometimes he overcorrects and causes the boat to swing even more. Last night just after dinner we got hit by a 30 knot gust, out of nowhere, Otto just gave up and shut off.  This is quite alarming to say the least.  Fortunately I was there to grab the steering wheel.  We still had a full main up, and made the decision to reef.  We had not reefed the night before and we agreed as a crew we would try a full main again to keep our speed up.  After the 30 knot gust, David asked me what they would do if that happened to them on night watch, and the autopilot just shut off.  It would not be good.  So we decided to reef again.

The crew has learned the reefing maneuver well, but this was our first time doing it at night.  It definitely makes things a bit more challenging.  Of course it is dark, but we can’t turn on a bunch of lights, because then the helmsman, Chris, can’t see a thing.  So we have to be careful when using light and keeping it out of Chris’s face.  We got the reef in, it just took a few minutes longer than normal….

So we are looking for a change of pace at the ITCZ.  Not sure it will be better, but it will be different.

The crew continues to be in good spirits, despite having difficulties getting good sleep.  It’s a bit like trying to sleep on a roller coaster while your sweating hot.  Good times! When you are awake you get a great core work out, always bracing for the next big roll of the boat.

One thing is for sure, this is a BIG ocean!  We are still over 1,000 miles from the nearest land.  You just can’t appreciate the size and magnificence of the ocean flying over it going 600 knots at 35,000 feet.

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 enter the ITCZ right around latitude 3 degrees north.  The width of the ITCZ can vary greatly from 10 lor 20 miles to 300+ miles.  We want to get across it at its most narrow point so we can sail and not have to motor.

Right now our weather routing software, PredictWind, is showing that we should maintain pretty good winds all the way through the ITCZ.  But because of the fluky nature of the area, it really is hard to predict just what the winds will be like.  PredictWind does show that If we were even a couple of days later than we are, there will be a massive hole of no wind. We are hoping to miss that!

As we cross through the ITCZ, will also cross the equator, latitude ZERO.  We are probably 3 days away from making it to the equator. Meanwhile we just keep heading the boat south, which means our latitude, is dropping fast.

Our current latitude is just under 7 degrees.  Each degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles.  At our current pace we drop one degree every 8 hours or so. So about 3 degrees a day.  That will put us at the ITCZ sometime tomorrow (Monday) and crossing the equator on Tuesday.  Crossing the equator is a BIG deal for sailors.  I’ll talk more about that in a later post…

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, for the adventure, to live the dream, to conquer the ocean, etc.  But for me, it’s much deeper than that. This is more of a “soul level” question, like “What is the real purpose of your life?”

So why?  I have asked myself this question a thousand times, over DECADES.  “Dale, why do you. want to do this?” I have tried to convince myself I DON’T need to do it.  I’ll be OK.  I’ll certainly live.  I have a great life right here in Laguna. But the pull, the draw, the need to go is still there.  It’s like I am compelled to do this.  I have prayed to God countless times, “Lord if this is not your will, let me know, take this thought away from me.” But it is STILL there.  “Dale, go!”  Why? What does the Lord have planned?  There is so much else I could do with my time and my money.  “Dale go. See the world.  Explore my oceans.”  It doesn’t leave me.

My wife Dawn has walked this with me ever since we got married.  We have tried other adventures to quench my calling, such as vacations to French Polynesia, and sailing trips aboard our friend’s boat in Tonga and Fiji, with a crossing from Fiji to New Zealand in 2019.  Still, the dream is to sail across the ocean, in my own boat. Dawn has 1000% supported me.  This is TRUE love.  It’s not her dream or passion, but she sees it in me.  Its importance to me.  So she has done all she can to help me make this happen.  I could not have done it without her.  I love you Dawn!!

My emotion behind this is deep as well.  I listen to the song “Southern Cross,” about David Crosby sailing his boat to the South Pacific, and I start crying out of nowhere.  Or I read out loud this quote from Josh Slocum, the first man to sail around the world, and I get choked up:

“To young men contemplating a voyage, I would say go. The tales of rough usage for the most part exaggerations, as also are the tales of sea danger. To face the elements is, to be sure, no light matter when the sea is in its grandest mood. You must then know the sea, and know that you know it, and not forget that it was made to be sailed over.”

I can’t even read through it, even now thinking about it, the emotion wells up in me.  What is wrong with me??!!

"Those who sail on the sea in ships, who do business on the high seas, have seen what the Lord can do, the miracles he performed in the depths of the sea.” Psalms 107:23-24

There have been times I have decided, No, I won’t do this.  There is too much going on in life. I’m too busy, I’m too old, I don’t have the energy, etc.  About 3 years ago I decided, nope, I’m not doing it.  Then my daughter Danielle said to me “Dad, WE are doing THIS!” Ok, let’s do it!

A trip like this is a MASSIVE undertaking, and the responsibility I feel as captain is tremendous.  I have to keep 4 people and a dog safe, over a thousand miles from land.  I have no delusion about how challenging this will be.  I have not romanticized it thinking about sun soaked days relaxing on the boat as we slip down waves towards the sunset.  I KNOW stuff will be breaking.  All the time. I know I will have to keep a constant eye on weather, the boat, and the morale of my crew.  Many who undertake this adventure, skilled sailors, don’t make it across.  Last year alone, one boat sank when they hit a whale (they were safely rescued 10 hours later), two boats broke their masts, and 2 boats broke their rudders. So, of the 100 or so boats that attempted this crossing, 5 didn’t make it.  A 5% attrition rate.

Ultimately, I know that this is something God has put deep inside of me.  And I don’t have to know the answer as to “Why”.  I don’t think it’s a thing that can be answered with words.  It’s an experience to be lived, a journey to travel.  The answer to be revealed along the way, not to be answered before the journey has begun.

So, we go. We follow the path before us, not knowing all the answers, because the answers are bigger than us. To have answers somehow makes us more comfortable.  I do know that comfort is NOT the answer.  Being true to the desires God has put on your heart is.  Even if you don’t understand them.

That’s the best I can put it for now.  I’ll share more as more is revealed to me.  Thanks for reading!

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

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 up on the deck prepping the spinnaker, and I decided it would be a good time to do some calibration on our autopilot.  The autopilot was not steering quite right, and I needed to make an adjustment.  In order to do the adjustment I had to move the rudder all the way to the right, then all the way to the left, while tapping on the chart plotter screen when each maneuver was done.  After turning all the way right, I was looking at the chart plotter screen, got distracted, then WHAM, gybe!

See photo with highlighted parts.

• Blue circle is the main sheet block.  The green line running through it is the main sheet.
• Yellow is the traveler car
• Green line is the traveler track which is underneath everything.
• Purple is the traveler control line
• Red is where the traveler control line attaches to the traveler

The main sail swung quickly across towards the other side of the boat, We had a preventer rigged, which is an extra line we ran in case this exact thing happened.  It “prevents” the boom from flying all the way across the boat, unless the preventer breaks, which it did.

Failure number one.  Once the preventer let loose, all the force transferred to the traveler car that slides on a track on the cockpit floor.  You can see it in the photo.  The traveler car has control lines attached to it by a shackle to keep it from sliding on it’s own.  With all the force now on the traveler car, it loaded up the control line and the stainless steal shackle that attaches the two together snapped.  

Failure number two.  The traveler car now raced along the track at warp speed.  There is a stopper screwed into the track to stop the traveler car from coming off.  The stopper is attached with a 5/16 stainless steel bolt.  When the car hit the stopper, the impact was so great it sheared the bolt right off.

Failure number 3.  The car then came off the track, bent the stainless tube that runs 90 degrees across the track (see photo) and ALL the ball bearing flew out of the car and started rolling everywhere across the cockpit. This all happened very quickly and dramatically.

The main sheet that controls the main sail was now no longer attached to the boat, and was flying about the cockpit with a hug block attached to it and the traveler car. It was a very dangerous situation!

I was so angry with myself for making such a STUPID mistake that caused real damage to the boat.  I let my self-anger get in the way of solving the real problem, which was getting the boom and mainsail under control so as to not cause any more damage.  I had everyone trying to pick up ball bearings as the boom swung about (the ball bearings were critical to fixing the traveler and I had no replacements.) Thankfully my cousin Chris had a more clear head and had us drop the mainsail to reduce the impact of everything swinging around.  We then used some line to strap the main sheet block back on to the  traveler track so everything was now safe, and we could start working on a fix.

The Fix

We gathered up as many ball bearings as we could, and Chris began loading them back into the traveler car (see photo). We had about 2/3 of the total bearings needed, but what we have will work for now.

We then slid the traveler car back on to the track and  used dynema lashing line to reattach the traveler control line to the traveler car.  We removed the sheared off bolt that held on the traveler stopper and installed a new bolt.

Next we strapped down the boom with support lines on each side so it would not swing at all with all the waves constantly rolling us around.  We were then able to reattach the traveler block to the traveler car, and we were back in business!

The entire repair took about 1.5 hours to complete.  The entire crew did a FABULOUS job of getting the repair done, lead by Chris!

The repair to my ego? That will take much longer…

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 intimidating when I stop and think about it.

There is literally nothing out here but a LOT of water.  There are no other boats for hundreds of miles, and virtually no life that we can see other than the dead squid that land on our decks, the flying fish and the occasional albatross.  Albatross are amazing birds to watch by the way.  They fly over the ocean with such ease, thousands of miles from land.

The only thing keeping us alive out here is 47 feet of fiberglass. The boat is actually a mini city.  We generate our own power by using solar panels and supplement with our engine on cloudy days (which has been pretty much every day). We store the energy we produce in our battery system, which is 12v DC and gets converted to 120v AC through an inverter, so we have power just like you do at home.

Power is just about everything to us out here.  How much we use, and how much is left in our batteries is something we watch closely in our battery management system.  With this system I can see how much is coming in from our solar or our engine, and how much is going out.  And it has a gauge like a fuel tank to let me know what is left in the batteries.

We use power for just about everything on board.  Our refrigeration is running off it, which keeps our frozen meals frozen, and our fresh food fresh.  Refrigeration is by far the largest consumer of power on the boat.  We do have a mechanical refrigeration system that runs off the engine, so we turn that on whenever the engine is on.  This helps save power when the engine is off.

We also need power to make water.  We store about 100 gallons of water, but that is not enough for 5 people to live on for nearly 3 weeks.  So, we have a reverse osmosis system which takes sea water and makes it into fresh clean drinking water.  It truly is magic.  But it takes a LOT of power to run this system. It’s our second largest consumer of power.   So, every time we use water, we are basically draining our batteries.  Its something I must continually remind the crew of.  We do a lot to conserve fresh water.  For example we have a salt water spigot in the galley we use for washing dishes and then just rinse with fresh (its CRASY how much water you use when washing dishes…)

Our MVP crew member, Otto, the autopilot, also takes power.  The autopilot faithfully steers us where we want to go.  It never whines or complains but sometimes it will just give up if there is too much wind.  Then we hand steer. Its only happened once so far.  Otto can steer a specific magnetic heading or hold a wind angle to keep our sails full.  We normally keep it in wind angle mode so the boat sails well even as the wind shifts around.  We make small adjustments to this to keep us on our course.  All the crew know when on watch what our heading should be and our preferred wind angle.

So where does Otto get our wind angle and heading information? From our instrument system.  Which is always on and takes power!  Our instruments measure the speed of the boat through the water, the speed of the wind, the angle of the wind to the boat, the magnetic heading of the boat, our GPS position, the depth of the water, the temperature of the water, the barometric pressure, and more.  We have a system that logs all this data and transmits it to a web page, which is what you see when you look at our current location. AIS is another important system we have, which uses our radio to broadcast our boat location and information to other boats in the area.  It also lets us see details about the boats around us (if there are any).  We are alerted by this system if we are on a potential collision course with another boat.  A nice feature!

We are connected to the internet using Starlink, which AMAZNNG technology, full speed internet in the middle of nowhere. But it is a power HOG, so we only use it when necessary, 3 or 4 times a day so that we can send position updates, these blog updates, and text/call with family.  Its only for 15 minutes or so at a time. I’m glad it’s not always on, because part of getting out here is getting away from the constant flow of internet information.  But it is REALLY nice to have when you need it.

We cook with propane, so that at least does not use our batteries.

There are plenty of other systems on the boat such as bilge pumps, emergency beacon systems, plumbing, toilets, sails, rigging, lines, life raft, etc.  And I must be familiar with all of it.  Our lives depend on it….

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 awesome fast sailing with a top speed of 15.6 knots.  It made it extra nice since last night was very uncomfortable with extremely lumpy and bouncing seas.  It was a tough night for everyone onboard.

But we were all in great spirits today and enjoyed the ride.  Hoping for more of the same tomorrow.

We will take down the spinnaker before it gets dark and we will sail at night with a jib and reefed main.

Looking forward to a clear night and seeing the stars!

Click post to view what 15.7 knots looks like

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 glasses so we got to watch the moon cover about 70% of the sun. We were about 500 miles short of being in the area of the total eclipse.

We took the reef out of our mainsail (which makes it bigger) and had full sail area up for the day and made great speed.  Our top speed was 12.7 knots, about 15mph. After we gybed we went back to our reef (second reef point) for the night.  We are experiencing a lot more wind than what is in the forecast I get.  Forecasted wind is in the mid teens and we seeing wind in the low 20s.  A big difference. It makes for fast sailing, but its not as comfortable as we roll over the large swells.

Everyone onboard is doing great, including Catalina.  We are working well as a team and we all get along well.  Last night we each took a shift for 2 hours so we each got lots of sleep including me and Chris.  Much nicer than the 4 hour on, 4 hour off shifts Chris and I were doing so we were always on deck with another crew member.  The crew has gained skill so they can be on their own which is great!

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 and north west winds, which are typical along the California and Mexico coast.

We regularly monitor the True Wind Direction on our boat instruments and on the weather forecasts we receive. We expect to be in the trade winds sometime today.

The trade winds blow North East in the northern hemisphere, and when we cross the equator, the trade winds will become South Easterly.  Where the north east and south east trade winds meet there is an area of no wind, called the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) or the doldrums.  The size of the ITCZ varies based on weather and how far east you are.  Generally the more east, the smaller the ITCZ.  Because we want to keep sailing and not motor for days, we want to cross the ITCZ where it is the most narrow.  Our weather routing software, PredictWind, helps us pick the best location to cross.

We are currently sailing with the wind on our right side, on starboard tack.  As soon as we see the north east trade winds we will gybe (turn the boat to the left) and sailing on port tack to the equator.

Track our route here!

Open this post to see all the photos!

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 pipe to regularly go under water.  Its OK for this to happen to a degree, but when there are big waves also hitting our stern, it forces the water higher into the exhaust system, and eventually reaching the engine itself.

So we had to stop the water from coming in. You can see the bright orange object in the photo above.  This object is an emergency foam plug that was designed to plug a hole in the boat  It’s a standard emergency item to have on board.  It is made by Forespar.  It was a perfect fit for the exhaust pipe.  But we needed a way to keep it from getting knocked out by the waves, So Chris took a large zip tie and put it around the plug and then attached small lines to each side which we then secured to the boat.  So far it is holding great!

Now we have to remember to pull it out before we start the engine, and put it back in after we shut it off!