First 5 days: Out to sea on Lake Pacific

---

Day 0: Heading west!

20 March 2003 - We have finally left the coast of Mexico from Zihuatanejo for destinations further west... first stop: the Marquesas. Our first day out has been kind of rolly but fun. The wind was coming from the direction we wanted to go. BUT, we did have wind! Which is what can be the worst part of getting off the coast from here - no wind. And we obviously can't motor the whole way there! :)

20 March @ 16:00 GMT
Just leaving Zihuatanejo anchorage
wind W 15 kts / seas 5 ft

Day 1: No winds?

21 March 2003 - The winds have died and we are motoring west for a few hours towards points where, theoretically, there is more wind for sailing. We shall see. At any rate, the motion is now comfortable and it is nice to have a chance to get acclimated. We haven't seen any boats since we were 10 miles offshore. We wonder if that will be the last one we see until we get to the South Pacific. It is sure nice to be out of the heavy traffic of the shorelines.

So far, we have been relaxing after several days of busy preparation, buying food and produce & every other thing we could possibly imagine we might need, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc. Crazy! We hear that provisioning in the first few islands will be tricky & more expensive, so we decided to buy stores for the first few months. We feel like we are living in a floating grocery store right now. Kind of funny!

21 March @ 16:00 GMT
16^o28' N  102^o50' W
wind W 5 kts / seas 5 ft
120 nm today (5.0 kt avg.)
120 nm total - 4% of the way there!

Day 2

22 March @ 16:00 GMT
16^o11' N  104^o31' W
wind 0 kts / seas 3 ft
98 nm today (4.1 kt avg.)
218 nm total - 7% of the way there!

Day 3

23 March @ 16:00 GMT
15^o46' N  106^o17' W
wind NW 5 kts / seas 3 ft
110 nm today (4.6 kt avg.)
328 nm total - 11% of the way there!

Day 4: Lake Pacific

24 March 2003 -

Eric taking photo of reflection in flat calm sea

We are still drifting out here waiting for wind... Our first day out was so beautiful and then the wind ran out of steam. We have motored the last 2.5 days and this morning decided to stop for a while and wait to see what the wind does. We are hoping that it will fill in, but the weather fax didn't look too promising. It seems that there is a zone out here that we are in the middle of that has no wind or swell. We

Lake Pacific!

are on Lake Pacific. We have been keeping out of trouble by doing silly experiments like dropping 5 M&M's of different colors and seeing which color disappears first. In theory, we should loose the reds first and see the blue last... but it turns out that while they don't melt in your hand, they sure dissolve quickly in saltwater. And since the water is SO clear - they started to dissolve before our test was complete. A few fish swam over to check them out, but spat out that nasty chocolate gunk and never took a second look. Despite the lack of test results, they did make beautiful little comets as their color dissolved in a trail behind them.

We've made okay time so far (due to our engine!)... Not too bad (just over 100 miles a day), but we are looking forward to the consistent winds of the Trades. Getting to the Trade Winds while we have such little wind is now the trick. We may decide to motor more, but we like to have a lot of reserve for charging the batteries and later use in the event of Doldrums near the equator.

24 March @ 16:00 GMT
15^o30' N  107^o33' W
wind NE 5 kts / seas 2 ft
78 nm today (3.3 kt avg.)
406 nm total - 14% of the way there!

Day 5: Drifting night & spinnaker day

25 March 2003 - Last night you would not have even believed that we were on an ocean! The water was so calm and mirror-like that we almost didn't believe it ourselves. There wasn't a breath of wind in the air!

We took our sails down, turned the alarms on our radar (that let us know if there is any other boat in the vicinity) and went to sleep. We both woke up several times during the night, half because we are used to being up every other 3 hours for our night watches and half because we were hoping to wake up to a fresh 10 knot breeze. This never happened... it remained absolutely calm all night long.

UNTIL 7AM!!! I (Ang) heard Eric wake up and start freaking out about there being a little wind. It gradually picked up and we set the light spinnaker and were off. By 7:30, we were moving along at a good 6 knots! We could not have been happier.

The forecast is still for really, really light winds. So we shall see if this keeps up. But we are optimistic! We are hoping that this will keep up enough to get us west to the vicinity of longitude 110W. There is supposed to be some wind there. Wahoo!

Boobie bird making a home on our cockpit awning

We have been surrounded by Boobie birds! It is unbelievable! Every surface on our boat that has any horizontal component is covered with them -- our spreaders, bow pulpit, bimini, radar, and even backstay (a wire at about a 60 degree angle!).

All is well and after last night we are even well-rested. We have been eating well thanks to some amazing treats from our friends on Waking Dream and De La Mer. Before we left, Lisa and Mary gave us some lasagna, homemade pasta sauce, an apple cake with cream cheese frosting, and slices of a Bon Voyage cake! We were really lucky to meet such amazing people while in Mexico! (And this is not just our stomachs talking, though they're happy too!)

25 March @ 16:00 GMT
15^o11' N  108^o01' W
wind N 10 kts / seas 2 ft
43 nm today (1.8 kt avg.)
449 nm total - 15% of the way there!

< Pacific Crossing : First 5 days : Days 6 to 10 >