Encore

I'd forgotten that I had some trouble adjusting after our return to solid ground last year. I've remembered now. I don't know if it's somehow related to my persistent seasickness (or the medicine I use to keep it at bay), or if I'm just lacking mental fortitude (or, most likely, a combination of those things), but I have some crazy reactions. It's almost like I'm so accustomed to dizziness and nausea from being on the boat that I'm hesitant to let go of it, but it was actually worse for our first two weeks back on land than it was for the last couple of weeks on the boat.

The first week we were home, every time I'd lie down or move my head, I felt like I was on a violently tilting boat. Jason went to work, and Nora was happily away at camp, but Grace was around and able to drive me and be my support when I needed a quick shoulder (or hand or arm or head) to grab. She took me to the supermarket and reached things for me when I was afraid to let go of the cart because the floor was shifting beneath me. When we went to visit Nora the first weekend, everybody walked at a snail's pace with me, and they only laughed at me a little bit when I moved like someone who'd hit the tequila bottle way too hard.

For week two, Grace went to camp, as well, and I was on my own. I hit my lowest point when I went to the drugstore by myself, and something about the fluorescent lights and aisles of stuff made me feel horrendously ill. I managed to get the toothpaste we needed, but then I ended up crying in my car in the parking lot, afraid to drive myself home and feeling mighty sorry for myself.

So...I've done a lot of walking since then, and I've been really grateful for a variety of public transportation options. I remember reading somewhere in my endless internet searches that this weirdness sometimes lasts about as long as the time spent at sea, so it's getting near the deadline, and things have improved immensely. Lying down still feels like an adventure, but I'm feeling vastly better. Grace is home again, so we went for a hike yesterday and I only needed to grab her for balance twice.

Anyway, we're home! And Pensive is in Tahiti for a while, so we'll be able to go visit her there and actually spend some time seeing more than just the customs and immigration offices. I don't know if the videos we made will ever be seen. I find that I am completely incapable of figuring out how to edit them or do anything with them. It's got nothing to do with my crazy landsickness, just my lack of technological know-how. Here's my absolute favorite picture from the trip, though. A little dizziness is totally worth it.

Somewhere in the South Pacific

Landfall in Papeete, Tahiti

We made it. After a crazy night, we woke up facing an enormous island with lights, greenery, and gorgeous mountains. It was so different from anything we had seen for the last several weeks that we all sat in complete awe. We had a little welcoming committee of three boys in their kayaks racing to keep up with us at the back of the boat. It made for an exciting arrival. Finally, we pulled into a marina in Papeete around 11am.

It took about 6 years to get through customs, immigration (we were turned away because they were all eating lunch and could not be troubled to help us), and the marina office. Our first meal on land was at the restaurant across the street. The Banana Grill served amazing pizzas that we did not have to cook or clean up!!! We ate without fear of our plates falling away and each person had their own water glass. Luxury. We also had fresh pressed orange juice that may be the best I've ever had.

Nora and Mama have to catch a plane for Seattle at midnight so they can get back in time for Nora's dance camp. Papa and I will stay here until tomorrow at midnight when we'll follow them home. Because we didn't have much time here, we hope to return to see the beautiful island of Tahiti close up. We've decided that we're done with passages for a while and we just want to jump around from island to island, spending no more than three nights on the boat between anchorages or marinas. There are so many atolls and islands here that short jumps will be easy and more relaxing.

Final Coordinates!

Latitude: 17.5395 S
Longitude: 149.5699 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-17.5395,-149.5699

Finale

Last night, for the first time, we had zero wind. None. We sailed a total of about one mile all night. When we woke up this morning, the ocean was flat and smooth, like a lake, so we ate breakfast and went for a swim. Of course, it was extremely hot without a breeze, so we had popsicles for a mid-morning snack. Over the course of the day, the wind increased, and now it's blowing pretty strongly. We're about 75 miles from the marina in Papeete, so we're feeling reasonably confident that Nora and I will make our flight out tomorrow night. Jason and Grace will stick around a little longer to get the boat bedded down until we can come back for a visit.

Assuming we make it to the marina tomorrow as planned, we'll have been on the water for 23 days. We realized about midway through this journey that, even though the trip from Seattle to Honolulu took longer overall, this is the longest unbroken ocean traveling we've done, because we stopped in California midway through that trip to wait out a hurricane. And we've survived, and we still (mostly) like each other.

For dinner tonight, we cleaned out the refrigerator. We're all looking forward to a dinner on land tomorrow, with no cooking and no cleanup required.

Latitude: 16.4284 S
Longitude: 149.0091 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-16.4284,-149.0091

Tuna!!!!

WE HAVE FISH FOR DINNER!!!!! Mr. Crazy Squid delivered us a nice fat tuna. The day started a little wet and rainy and Papa was in the cockpit fiddling around while the rest of us were just hanging out in the cabin. I went up to throw out some egg shells or something and Papa was pulling in the fishing line with a huge grin. We all came out to see the fish jumping around behind the boat. Once it was close, Nora poured a bottle and a half of the cheapest gin at Target all over its gills. (The gin knocks out the fish quickly and is a lot more humane than the conker that takes roughly 3 hours.) Then we had a civilized fileting on the back. The whole thing was so much nicer than last year's murder scene. Mama is going to sear it and put it over sushi rice. Yum yum!

Lately, we seem to have alternating good and not-so-good days. However, yesterday was great and while today wasn't as action-packed and exciting, it was still a good day. Despite it's drippy start, the day got sunny for a good portion of the day. There was/is incredibly light wind so we sailed slowly with intermittent motorings. We voted this morning on arriving on Friday morning instead of Thursday afternoon or evening because to get through the channel and coral to the marina takes daylight. We didn't want to wait outside the lagoon all night to have plenty of time and light to navigate the hidden hazards. Apparently, you have to call the port master on the radio before you enter the lagoon channel place because there's an airport runway that has planes taking off right over the channel. They say to call if your boat exceeds 15ft vertically. Ours is 60ft...

The sunset tonight was definitely the best one yet. It was a full 360 degrees around us, complete with rainbow, bright pink clouds, gold high clouds and constant evolution. Mama took a video but I doubt it fully captures the colors.

We ended the day laughing at the picture. It's not our best!

Latitude: 15.5997 S
Longitude: 149.2018 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-15.5997,-149.2018

We've got it all!

First, a clarification. Nora said we were terribly bored. I prefer to think that we're motivated to come up with new and creative ways to entertain ourselves. Thus, uvula singing.

We had a rough night last night -- high, unpredictable winds banging and slamming the boat around -- and a tough morning. The forecast was for a huge storm, followed by alternating rounds of really high winds, from the wrong direction, and absolutely no wind, for the next several days. Our weather advisor recommended we change course altogether and head for an island called Rangiroa, instead of aiming for Tahiti.

(In case you're confused, like I was, here's my idiot's explanation for the wind. If you imagine a compass face, with the boat at the center and due north at 0 degrees, then you've got east at 90 degrees, south at 180, and west at 270. Our truest course from Hawaii to Tahiti was at about 160. Unfortunately for us, the wind has been blowing from about 145 for most of this trip. You can't sail straight into the wind, and our boat, while SAFE for ocean sailing, isn't DESIGNED for ocean sailing. The closest it can get to heading dead into the wind is about 50 degrees in either direction. That means we had to sail to 195, going too far west, or 85, going too far north. That's fine, it just means it has taken us longer than we'd planned. Nora and I have plane tickets to fly out of Tahiti on July 9, because she's scheduled to attend a dance intensive on July 10. One cardinal rule of sailing is not to plan anything on a schedule. We broke that rule.)

So, anyway, Rangiroa. While it might be nice to walk on dry land, there's no marina at Rangiroa. There's no airport. It's a small coral atoll, known for having a lot of sharks. It wouldn't serve us in any way to go there, so Jason and I agreed that our best plan was just to stick it out and keep aiming for Tahiti. If we get there late, we get there late, but there doesn't seem to be any justification in making a pit stop for nothing.

Luckily for us, the forecast was completely wrong! We've had wind coming from almost exactly the right direction, at a good speed, almost all day. We've made a lot of progress going the way we want to go, and we're feeling much more optimistic about getting to Tahiti on time.

In addition to favorable winds, we finally caught a fish, and then we lost him. We saw more birds than ever, flying fish, and regular fish jumping and leaping all afternoon. We had several little rainstorms and sunshine. We did have the high winds interspersed with almost no wind at all, but we got our little drifter sail out and made great progress.

Overall, I'd call it a win.

Latitude: 13 Degrees 54 Minutes S
Longitude: 149 Degrees 23 Minutes W

Mr. Find-a-fish-please

Today wasn't thrilling in any way. There was a band of storms that we had to go through but we pretty much caught the edges of all of them. We put out a fishing line again and during a particularly rough patch Papa and I (this is Grace) saw it get tight but we couldn't safely deal with it. Later, Papa and Nora pulled it in and while there was no fish, a part of one remained. We accidentally provided an easy meal to something bigger. Oops, I think we'll try the same lure again tomorrow but check it more frequently.

Speaking of lures, we have a few and they have names. There's Mr. Christmas, Mr. Flashy, Mr. Boring, Mr. Squid, Mr. Crazy Squid, and Mr. Natural. We've not named today's yet. As a boat with mostly girls, I don't know why they're all males. How sexist of us. Maybe we wanted Papa to have some company.

Aside from the storms, nothing has happened. Before bed last night we tacked back to what was more familiar and comfortable but today and tonight are on the eastward tack. This doesn't have much impact on anything except that we're going east-ish and the boat is tilted the other way.

Latitude: 12.8875 S
Longitude: 150.3396 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-12.8875,-150.3396

Nora's Night!

Hi, this is Nora! I don't usually write, so bear with me here. Or don't. I won't know either way. =)

We love the trip so much that we've decided to make it longer! As Papa said last night, we haven't been able to make it as far to the east as we would have liked, so we decided to tack at least for the day. Tacking changes our heading about 100 degrees so adds a day or so onto our passage but helps us get a little farther east. After tacking, if you've been heeling to starboard, you will now be heeling to port. It's very disorienting to go down in the cabin and realize that what you've been using to stabilize yourself now won't do you any good at all. You're already leaning into it.

We have gotten really bored. We haven't caught any fish, which is shocking, and really, we've had excellent weather, all things considered. So we're so bored that we've invented "uvula dancing." Yep, you read that right. Uvula dancing. Here, I'll give you a lesson. Tilt your head way back towards the ceiling, now open your mouth really wide and breathe in through your mouth. Good, now have somebody look into your mouth and breathe out through your mouth at them. Repeat that three or four times. Yay! You are a uvula dancing master. I told you. We're bored.

Latitude: 11.9887 S
Longitude: 150.9195

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-11.9887,-150.9195

The Captain's Point of View

Current position: 11 degrees 12 minutes S, 151 degrees 39 minutes W

That's where we are as I write this blog tonight. Tonight, nothing witty, this is Jason talking. But I'll give you the sailing run down on how we got here and what lies ahead. Exciting, I know. 2197.28 nautical miles have passed under the keel since we left Oahu. As the crow flies, the whole trip would be around 2500 nautical miles, so having gone the aforementioned 2200 with 450 left to go feels pretty good to me. No, my math isn't bad, but a sailboat can't always sail a straight line from start to finish. We would be there by now if we had averaged 6 NM per hour and steered a straight course, but unfortunately, that's not how sailing goes. We have to just go with what we've got. Yes, we have a diesel motor, but it's primarily good to a) get us in and out of a marina or b) only slightly augment the pace or direction of the boat while helping to charge the batteries. Oh, and the tank only holds 53 gallons of fuel.

The trip was supposed to have essentially three components. There was the northern trade winds, the equatorial zone (doldrums or ICTZ) and then the southern trade winds rounding out the three. The general prevailing trades leaving HI should be from the E, or maybe even the NE, which would have been great because Tahiti is way south but also a little east of Hawaii. Unfortunately, most of the winds have been from a bit farther south than would be ideal, oh, and there is the little matter of the two west-flowing equatorial currents, so we've had to scrap for every mile of easting we've made. At any rate, we will make it the last 450 miles or so in roughly 5 days, maybe fewer if the wind cooperates. If not, we will either have to tack back to the E against the wind and current (not fun and time consuming) or sail to the Cook Islands or maybe Samoa. Tonight, the main goal is to dodge this pesky little island called Flint Island (part of the southern Line Islands). Fortunately, it's uninhabited, so only the sea birds will laugh if we run aground!

Misdirection, ripped sails, and poor winds aside, I love it. I get to be part-time electrician, diesel mechanic, navigator, captain, plumber, astronomer, and all-around handy man - all while being a full time father and husband to my amazing family. I hope they don't feel held hostage!

Storms Galore

It all started around 3:15am. I had just gone back to bed when it started raining. I don't mean raining but more like absolute torrential downpour. All the hatches were open allowing the monsoon to enter the dry cabin. This drowning was accompanied with a sudden wind change. The direction switched and it jumped from 15-20 knots to 30 (which is about 40mph). Mama and I ran to the cockpit to help Papa with the sails while Nora jumped up and started closing hatches and securing everything that had flown across the cabin. Within one minute, the three of us in the cockpit were intensely soaked. Finally, the wind and waterfall from the sky calmed some and I dried up and went back to bed.

Repeat at 6 or 7 am. This time, there was a mess of lines up on the bow and Mama went climbing like a monkey to untangle them. She came back uninjured and incredibly wet.

When it came time to get up, everyone was seasick, pretty much everything was wet, absolutely everything was gray, and there was no break in the cloud line across the bow. After waiting in the cockpit staring at each other, a sucker hole appeared. Things started to lighten (literally) but it was only open for a couple hours. The rest of the day consisted of napping, reading, and huddling out of the on-off rain. Unfortunately, Papa had been awake most of the night and couldn't sleep all day.

Because that wasn't enough, the head sail's condition has gotten a lot worse. The place Mama taped the other day is fine but the outer edge or leg is completely ripped and we can see through it. We couldn't take it down today but putting up the storm sail is on tomorrow's to do list.

We're all tired and hoping tonight will be better but it was only one day and the storms can't last forever. We all know that we're lucky everyone is safe and that we'll get to an island with an airport someday. We also have to dodge an trio of islands tonight.

Latitude: 9.3946 S
Longitude: 151.9904 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-9.3946,-151.9904

Guests

It's been another quiet day. I was hoping this trip would be a mellower one than last year's, and it has been. That's fine for us, but it definitely hasn't made for very interesting blog material.

We did have a little bit of excitement today. Jason and I were talking about how little sealife we've seen -- we haven't even caught a single fish! -- and wondering aloud if we'd see more, now that we're moving out of the equatorial region. Before we finished our conversation, we saw some dolphins. There were at least a dozen of them, swimming and jumping around our boat, including one mother and baby pair. They're so beautiful, and they all looked like they were having lots of fun playing in the water Pensive displaced. They stayed for a while and then moved on to other adventures.

Jason and Grace went to sit on the back of the boat later and dangle their feet in the water, but Grace got a jellyfish tentacle wrapped around her leg and got several painful stings. She's fine, but that may have some impact on our eagerness to swim the for next few days.

That's about it. Dinner tonight is pasta with peas, followed by some chocolate from our friends' Deadly Bored box.

Latitude: 7.7276 S
Longitude: 151.8119 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-7.7276,-151.8119

Target practice

We're having some problems with our satellite connection, so we tried to send this update last night but can't tell if it went through. This may be a repeat. Sorry!

--

Last summer, our friends made us a sealed and decorated box that was labeled, "Survival Kit, open when deadly bored" It was full of games and chocolates and we absolutely loved it. They gave us another one for this passage and we had been waiting for the right moment to open it. Yesterday we hit the two week mark and Nora and I were so ready for something new to do. It was like opening a present. There were 8 water pistols, some chocolates (thank goodness, because we were worried about running out of our own supply), a few games, and nuts. We spent the rest of the day playing the new games and trying to shoot water into each other's mouths.

Today, Papa put a genius plan into action. He'd been thinking about it and working out the lines and logistics for the past few days and Nora tested it out this afternoon. It involved a sort of swing that we could lower into the water from the back of the boat. After a rough start when I ground Nora's fingers into a turning block (oops, sorry N), we dunked her into the water and watched her do tricks in the swing. I was next, Mama followed, and Nora took another turn. By this time, we were hungry and Nora's second time around was more like hanging her off the back and using her for pistachio shell target practice. She really enjoyed it.

The rest of the day was just playing games and reading books. There was another nice sunset and we're sharing bread and an enormous omelet for dinner.

Latitude: 5.7245 S
Longitude: 152.6337 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-5.7245,-152.6337

Target Practice

Last summer, our friends made us a sealed and decorated box that was labeled, "Survival Kit, open when deadly bored" It was full of games and chocolates and we absolutely loved it. They gave us another one for this passage and we had been waiting for the right moment to open it. Yesterday we hit the two week mark and Nora and I were so ready for something new to do. It was like opening a present. There were 8 water pistols, some chocolates (thank goodness, because we were worried about running out of our own supply), a few games, and nuts. We spent the rest of the day playing the new games and trying to shoot water into each other's mouths.

Today, Papa put a genius plan into action. He'd been thinking about it and working out the lines and logistics for the past few days and Nora tested it out this afternoon. It involved a sort of swing that we could lower into the water from the back of the boat. After a rough start when I ground Nora's fingers into a turning block (oops, sorry N), we dunked her into the water and watched her do tricks in the swing. I was next, Mama followed, and Nora took another turn. By this time, we were hungry and Nora's second time around was more like hanging her off the back and using her for pistachio shell target practice. She really enjoyed it.

The rest of the day was just playing games and reading books. There was another nice sunset and we're sharing bread and an enormous omelet for dinner.

Latitude: 5.7245 S
Longitude: 152.6337 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-5.7245,-152.6337

Stowaway

We discovered a stowaway on Pensive today! Jason was pulling our lines up off of the floor of the cockpit to prepare it for a gullywashing, and he discovered a tiny little lizard. We named him Marshawn (it's actually a much more fitting name for him than it would have been for the windvane!) and spent rather a ridiculously long time watching him run around. We even made a video and watched THAT after he found a good hiding place. He must be feeling braver today, now that he knows we've discovered him and didn't toss him overboard, because he's come out to say hello several times this afternoon.

We also finished our video project and opened the Deadly Bored box that our friends made us before we left. Grace will talk more about it tomorrow, but the girls spent a while today trying to shoot each other in the mouths with their new water guns.

It gets dark really early here. It's 6:30 right now, the sun has set completely, and the sky is darkening rapidly. It'll be fully dark by 7:00, and as you might imagine, we can see a LOT of stars. The last couple of nights, the boat's wake has been filled with bioluminescence, too, so there have been stars above and below us. I wish we could capture it in a picture, but our phone cameras just don't seem to be up to the task.

We've had several days of quiet calm and good conditions, but we'll be entering the southern doldrums soon, and the forecast is a little more exciting. We're expecting some squalls and changing winds, and maybe even a thunderstorm or two. I hope Marshawn stays safe!

Latitude: 4.2943 S
Longitude: 153.3773 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-4.2943,-153.3773

Absolutely nada

Not much happened today. There hasn't been much wind but the ocean's been nice and flat. Basically, I finished one book and started another, Mama and Nora made a video tour of the boat, we ate chips and salsa, and we watched a sunset. End of day.

Oh, also, Papa put out another fishing line today with a squid lure on it. Coincidentally, it seems we've entered live squid territory because Papa peeled one off the deck frighteningly close to where my head was. The squid must be a delicacy because when our line was pulled in, the whole fake squid and hook had been chomped off, leaving us with a sad bare line.

Because there's nothing else to write about I'll list the things we do for entertainment out here.
1) Read books like nobody's business (I think my average is one book a day)
2) Do Sudoku puzzles like little old ladies
3) Sit/lie somewhere in the cockpit and stare out at the vast nothing
4) Rack our brains for odd little bits of information as Nora pulls out the Super Quizzes she's saved from the newspaper
5) Because we aren't weird enough already, we also work in Spanish workbooks as an attempt to improve our language skills
6) Play chess (on a magnetic board so the pieces don't fly away)
7) Wait eagerly for one of Nora's hilarious impressions (Olaf the snowman, minions, Jim Gaffigan, and many more)
8) When there are little problems or things to be fixed, Papa does them and every so often enlists someone's help

Latitude: 2.4185 S
Longitude: 153.6633 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-2.4185,-153.6633

South

Today was beautiful. No falls, no disasters, just fairly calm water and favorable winds. We crossed the equator just after noon today. We've been told about different ceremonies and rituals that are traditionally performed upon crossing, but we just threw a few coins in the ocean (like it's our personal wishing well), and went for a swim. The current was pretty strong, so we didn't stay in the water long, but it was enough.

We donated the rest of our Velveeta to Poseidon, so let's hope he enjoys it more than the girls. The weather over the next few days will tell us. We'd bought some ice cream bars to celebrate, but they'd melted and refrozen several times, so we had some semifreddo to mark the occasion.

We still haven't caught a single fish.

That was today.

Latitude: 0.4633 S
Longitude: 154.3287 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C-0.4633,-154.3287

Disaster Strikes!

Our good luck ran out. Last night we waited until it was dark to roll up the sun shade. It takes all of us and Papa has to stand up on the bench at the stern of the boat to buckle the rolled up canvas. Well, it was dark, windy, and the seas were a little crazy. He was stumbling around and almost falling multiple times before the actual flop. He fell backwards (into the boat, thank goodness) and did some sort of complicated shin-skin-on-the-bench-and-bounce-off-the-nav-thing. In short, he fell off the bench hurting his shin and pride pretty badly.

That's not all, though! This morning, Mama looked down and saw that there was a fair amount of water under the floorboards. That meant the boards needed to be pulled up and the water needed to be drained. Despite his roughed up shin, Papa bailed the water with Mama's help while Nora and I pumped the bilge dry. We think it's just water that has come in when we've had the hatches open, not a leak.

Again, that's not all! Shortly after the water problem, everyone was in the cockpit except for Papa. Before I go into this, remember that we made a four week passage in the rough North Pacific, we've all cooked, showered, cleaned, changed clothes, etc. in the rocking boat and we've all been fine. Now, we were all in the cockpit except Papa when a rogue wave popped up out of nowhere and came over the bow of the boat drenching anything/everything and also tipping us at an extreme angle to the starboard (right). Papa flew across the cabin attempting to stop himself with his elbow and other flailing appendages and landed hard on the threshold to the bathroom. The door is basically a rectangular cut out in the wall. The thing is, there's 4-5 inches between the floor and the bottom of the door. This is the ledge that Papa landed on. He says no ribs are cracked and we joked that there is no internal bleeding but there is a large bruise, so....

Other than all of that, we've had a nice day. We'll reach the equator tomorrow (at least, our definition of it), there were no squalls, and the wind is finally shifting back to the desired direction. However, everyone's hands are absolutely disgusting. The salt has somehow killed the top layer of skin and convinced it to leave us. You could probably trace our path from the lovely bits we leave behind. We haven't caught any fish yet. The sunset was beautiful.

Also, Nora is frustratingly good at chess. No one can beat her, but Mama came pretty darn close.

In all seriousness, everyone is fine, no one is broken, we were and are all tethered to the boat, and everything was completely safe at all times.

Latitude: 1.3369 N
Longitude: 154.8477 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C1.3369,-154.8477

Equatorial Rules

Today was pleasantly uneventful. We had some pretty violent squalls until late last night, but things settled down around midnight, and today was mostly sunshine and good wind. We've had to go a little farther west than ideal, but we were able to turn slightly more eastward today. That's good, because if we'd had to keep going in the the same direction, we'd have missed Tahiti altogether. That would have been a serious waste of time.

We've laid some equatorial ground rules:

1. For the purposes of celebrating, swimming, photographing, or otherwise marking the occasion, we have agreed to consider any position between Zero Degrees, 59 Minutes North, and Zero Degrees, 59 Minutes South, as "The Equator."

2. For the purposes of saying "We've crossed the equator," we've agreed to consider any latitude south of Zero Degrees, 0 Minutes.

Of course, that technically means that we're allowing ourselves to still be on the equator after we've crossed it. Our trip, our rules. (Our justification for this is that we all want to swim on the equator, but none of us wants to get up in the middle of the night to do so!)

We saw some birds today, but no other living creatures. It was the first day we didn't see a rainbow. Our cabin reached the coolest temperature its seen since we arrived in Honolulu: 87. We're wondering if we should dig out our parkas tonight.

We have an exciting supper planned: boiled hot dogs in tortillas with cream cheese and sriracha, broccoli on the side.

Latitude: 3.1000 N
Longitude: 154.9279 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C3.1000,-154.9279

Bookended with fun

Grace here. Mama and I are taking turns writing.

Last night we experienced something we didn't even know was possible. We were in bed when Papa called us outside. We all ran up and saw a stroke of pale white light in the sky across from the moon. We call it a moon rainbow. It was beautiful. I've never seen anything like it, and unfortunately, it doesn't show on camera.

Today started out incredibly yucky. No joke. Yucky. It was gray, it was squally, it was raining, it was yucky. Mama and Papa had gotten up multiple times in the night to deal with no wind and then lots of wind and back to no wind. Nora and I woke up and ran outside once in the pouring rain to trim a sail, and then we went back inside and didn't resurface until much later in the afternoon.

Mama, Nora, and I were lolling about in the cabin when Papa started yelling about a dolphin. So far, the only living things other than ourselves had been flying fish, one lonely dolphin, and some birds, so of course, we ran up to the cockpit. We looked around and saw that it wasn't a dolphin but some sort of small whale. Papa's guess is a false killer whale. Everyone was so excited and then we realized that there were three of them!! They swam right next to our boat, and we could see them while they were underwater and then skimming the surface. It was absolutely surreal.

While the three of us were down in the cabin avoiding the on and off rain, Papa did multiple boat repairs and chores such as taping a piece back to the swim platform and replacing the water pressure something-or-other. He says that he cannot imagine being the ship mechanic on anything bigger because it would be an endless job.

During the time that I was down in the cabin (time being all day), Nora and I realized that right now we're in summer but in a few days, once we cross the equator, it will instantaneously be winter. I mean, technically there's always a day when winter ends and turns to spring and all that, but to skip straight to winter in a matter of seconds is just kind of weird.

Mama is going to make some videos of the boat and how we do things here that we won't be able to send, but you can see when we get home. It sounds crazy, but even boring jobs like simmering sauce can be really hard.

P.S. Tahitians speak French so Papa was teaching us what he remembers from school and Nora and I decided that we sounded so authentic that we would go up to someone on the street in Seattle and say, "le petit dejeuner dejeuner" just to see how they react. This should be accompanied with a hair flip.

Latitude: 4.5492N
Longitude: 154.6917

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C4.5492,-154.6917

One week

We tackled some boat-keeping chores today. We tidied up a little, did basic equipment maintenance, and hung some lines to dry clothes and towels. Boat life is always wet. Obviously, we're on the water, but it's more than that. We don't have air conditioning, of course, and the inside of the cabin is constantly 95 degrees or higher, so we're constantly trying to balance opening a window to let some air in and then rushing to close it when waves splash over the boat or it starts to rain. The result is that everything is always damp. And it's still 95 degrees inside.

We go through little squalls pretty often. We'll be sailing along, happy and free, and suddenly, the wind will change direction and double in speed, it'll begin pouring rain, and the waves will go crazy. That lasts 15 minutes or so, and then everything just stops. No wind, no rain, flat water. A few minutes later, we'll be back to normal sailing. During the day, we can see the storm coming and prepare for it. At night, there's no warning.

Right around midnight, it felt like Pensive started spinning around in circles, so Jason and I both ran up to the cockpit and found that we were entering a squall and Wendy had broken! The constant vibration of the boat had worked a screw loose, but it was windy and pouring rain, and of course, dark, so fixing it was a bit of a challenge. We ended up taking her apart and turning on the standard autopilot long enough to make it through the night and take another look during the day. She's now back in service, thanks to Jason's excellent mechanical skills.

Later today, we discovered a tear on the bottom of our headsail, so Grace and I made our way to the bow to repair it. That's actually more of an adventure than it sounds like it would be. We have to put on life jackets, tether ourselves to the boat, and walk/crawl to the bow. There, we stay tethered, balance ourselves in a position to reach the sail, and brace ourselves against the wind. That's on a calm day.

The changing weather is pretty cool. It keeps things interesting. We've seen rainbows every day, and watching a squall coming across the ocean can be pretty fascinating.

No picture today. (Will someone let us know if they're coming through?) We're making a couple of little videos to show what things are really like, but we won't be able to post them until we're back in a place with wifi.

We're still making good progress. If things continue this way, we expect to be crossing the equator in three or four days.

Latitude: 6.1856N
Longitude: 154.7906W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C6.1856,-154.7906

Nice day in the doldrums

Hi everyone! This is Grace.

Nothing really exciting happened today. There was a squall this morning at about 4:00, when the wind went from 15 knots to 30 in a matter of seconds, going in all different directions, that woke us up before daylight and made for an action-packed early morning! As you might imagine, that means running around frantically, adjusting sails and closing hatches. The whole thing was over in less than half an hour.

After that, we did our usual things and nothing stood out. One weird thing is that we are having great winds and water even though we're in the doldrums. We should have little to no wind and even our weather router (our personal weatherman :) is confused. It's great to have such nice conditions but pretty odd.

This afternoon, Nora and Papa put out a fishing line behind the boat but caught no fish. Papa decided to only put out one line because last year, we untangled more than enough lines from having two or three out at once. While waiting, Nora and Papa got so bored that they began making shadow puppets on the ground and then had a dance party with the one working speaker in the cockpit. Someone is going to go crazy soon.

The photo is of our dinner setup. The water in the background is horizontal but the boat is the one that is tipped. Think on that for a minute...

Bye!

Latitude: 7.9685N
Longitude: 155.2931W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C7.9685,-155.2931

Jason's BFF

Today was good. We had great wind (averaging around 15 knots all day -- definitely not typical for the doldrums), and our new drifter sail did its job perfectly, speeding us right along at the pace of a brisk walk. There are, of course, any number of things we could do to go faster, but we're not a racing crew. We're just out here for fun, so we want the trip to be as comfortable and as enjoyable as possible, seasickness notwithstanding. (Also, in case anyone was inclined to take it literally (Hi, Mom!), I don't have bronchitis, pneumonia, or tuberculosis. Just a cough and a sore throat. I'm trying to keep it to myself -- no community cup for me right now -- but I'll be pretty surprised if I'm successful.)

We had sunshine all day and got to do a little teak surfing this afternoon. We kept an eye out for sharks and didn't see any. We didn't see any jellyfish either, but a lot of them saw us and found us worth investigating. They cut our water time a little short but I don't think they'll deter us from trying again tomorrow.

Provisioning for this trip was a completely different experience from last time. We were doing it in Hawaii, of course, at a great distance from home, but we were also doing it at the last minute. It really just means that we're having lots more prepared and convenience foods than before. Grace and I did the shopping and planned for a couple of special occasion meals, like Father's Day. We didn't get to have the ice cream bars we'd planned yesterday, so we pulled them out today at lunch and discovered that they were more like salted caramel flavored foam. Whatever. We poured them into bowls and drank 'em up. It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't recommend it. The girls have also now had their first experience with Velveeta (they gave it two thumbs down), and today we introduced them to Chikin in a Biskit crackers with Easy Cheese. Even I thought it was gross, and I used to love that stuff. Needless to say, it also got two thumbs down.

Tonight, Nora prepared a family comfort food favorite, garlicky scrambled eggs and bacon with rice. It was perfect. We finished it off with some chocolate bars that had melted and re-formed. We're experimenting with alternative textures.

We had an election at dinner last night to name our windvane, Jason's new best friend. I lobbied hard for Marshawn, but the girls both voted for Wendy. Boring.

We have lots of minutes left on our satellite phone subscription, so we're going to try to send photos occasionally. If it works, here's a picture of Wendy.

Latitude: 10.1602N
Longitude: 155.7230W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C10.1584,-155.7218

Sabrina Jones / A: We haven't done any fishing yet, but maybe tomorrow. I'm excited to hear about your trip to Alaska!

Stormy weather

Hi, this is Grace. Today was a crazy rollercoaster day. It started with a super wet cockpit that no one wanted to be in, then Nora and I washed our hair on the back of the boat, and Papa tried to wash the one pair of pants that he's been wearing this whole time. He did not remove the pants to wash them or dry them, though. He sort of hosed himself/the pants and then decided that holding the pants away from his waist and doing a weird leg thing would efficiently dry everything. I'm so glad I'm the only one who witnessed that.

Shortly after that, the sky let loose and tried to drown us in rain. The rain stopped, the rain started. We relaxed for a little while, then we entered the doldrums and the wind died almost completely. We climbed around the foredeck (front of the boat) and put up a lightweight drifter sail and went back to sit in the cockpit. Almost immediately, the wind picked up and gathered speed, so we climbed around the foredeck to take the sail down. The wind picked up tremendously while Mama made dinner (veggie pasta and the surprise of a hot loaf of sourdough bread for Father's Day). It was very exciting. The best thing for me was washing my hair. Try taking a shower, braiding your hair, dumping salt water on your head, spraying it with sunscreen, and repeating the process for 4-5 days in a row. Now wash your hair and tell me you don't feel like a new person. Also, happy Father's Day, your daughters look like homeless people bathing with a hose! After the rain silliness and the wind's quick shifts, we knew we were nearing the doldrums. (The official name is ITCZ, but Mama likes the name the doldrums because it "sounds more romantic and less like a sci-fi film.") If you don't know, the doldrums is a place where the wind stops and starts, squalls disappear and appear, and the swell grows and shrinks. In short, no one really knows what will happen here. Papa was really excited to use the new drifter sail for light winds. It was fun to put up while the boat was vigorously rocking side to side (no sarcasm there) and then watch it for all of 10 minutes before we reversed the process. While we were putting the sail up, Papa and I managed to tie our tethers and a couple of lines all in one big knot. If Nora hadn't fixed it, we'd still be stuck on the foredeck,

As for our health, everyone is pretty much over the seasickness but Mama has a yucky cold. (She says bronchitis, pneumonia, and possibly tuberculosis, in addition.)

Kelly King: we're getting there. We did see a couple of rainbows today, so maybe they're leading us along!

Daughter Izzy: Thanks for your note. I think your turtle saved us!

11.8939 N, 156.0639 W

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C11.8939,-1560639

Real Food

We're all feeling quite a bit better today. Thanks to our former marina neighbor, Marie, we had some real food -- beef burritos -- for dinner last night, which seemed to lift everyone's spirits. Our diet of crackers and more crackers with an occasional apple was getting tiresome.

We've been having strong winds, about 27-30 knots, and big, unpredictable swells, up to 15ft or so, which are a big factors in our shared seasickness. I was hit the worst by it, but everyone felt it this time. Last time, Nora and Jason were pretty much immune to it. We're all getting better now. It only took four days! It has definitely been warmer than last time, so at least we were sick in swimsuits instead of multiple layers of ski clothes. Today it was around 95 degrees most of the day.

Because of the strong winds, we've ben making what we consider to be really good time, averaging about 6 knots. That feels fast on our boat, but I know a lot of my friends could easily outrun us. I try not to spend too much time thinking about that.

We saw a lot more flying fish (Jason found one this morning that tried to fly over the boat and didn't make it) and a couple of frigate birds. No garbage so far. We did encounter another boat, though, a Japanese fishing vessel. We managed to avoid it.

We have a handy-dandy new gadget on the boat now, a windvane. It's sort of like a manual autopilot. You set it to hold to a constant angle of wind to water flow, and you tie it to the steering wheel, and it just keeps turning the wheel as needed to stay on the course you've set. That's MY explanation. It's very basic. Jason can explain in much greater detail. The electronic autopilot used a ton of our limited power, so we're happy to have this as a different option. It seems to be working perfectly. We're expecting the wind to die off a little tomorrow, which will make for more comfortable conditions.

We're getting closer to the ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, also known as the doldrums), where we should expect to get a little bit of every type of weather every day. We've heard stories of boats lingering there for a month of more due to a lack of wind, so we're not going to hesitate to use our engine a little. Call us cheaters if you want. We're okay with it.

What we ate today:
Breakfast: Saltines and apples!
Lunch: Bean burritos (one can of refried beans, spread out onto tortillas and passed around
Supper: macaroni and cheese with peppers and pepperoni

I can't get the little map to show up at the top any more. What worked last year isn't working now, so we're just going to have to give our coordinates here and you can plot them if you want.

Latitude: 13.9372 N
Longitude: 156.666 W


https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=600x300&markers=color:purple%7C13.9372,-156.666

General update

Well, the first day was absolute yuckiness. Everyone was seasick and we didn´t eat anything and the water was super rough from saling through channels in between islands. Yesterday was a little better but we were all pretty sick still. Thank goodness for Nora because she was our saving grace and made Top Ramen for dinner. Today got better for most of us. Mama is still sick (this is Grace writing) but she´s slowly feeling better. Everyone had a little bit more food and water which is starting to show in our energy levels. As for marine life, we haven´t seen a whole lot except for tons of flying fish and a couple sea birds. We´re so glad that we´ve only had two bad days instead of last summer´s two bad weeks.

Because nothing exciting has happened (unless you count throwing up and walls of water coming at you exciting), I think I´ll lead you in some Thompson sailing vocabulary. The first one, is the frequently used "gully washer". This means that the floor is just too hot and we need papa to get his 5-gallon bucket full of sea water and drench the decks. An example of this term in a sentence might be, "the soles of my feet are steaming! Gully washer, please!!" The gully washer´s other job is to get rid of ¨gook". Gook seems to consist of salt slime. various small debris, and fish scales from wayward tuna in the night. Speaking of tuna, we really hope to start fishing tomorrow. We can always throw them back if we can´t eat them. Another term is "sucker hole". Nora came up with this as a name for when a small hole in the cloud cover appears and the sun peaks through. Normally, we get all excited and sunscreen up just to have the hole close while Nora reminds us that we´re the suckers for falling for the sun´s trick.

Weather wise, there have been a couple small squalls along the way that bring cleansing rain and shifty wind. The swell is irregular right now which means those walls of water I mentioned earlier were no joke. You see the horizon disappear as an enormous wave comes at you and the boat then floats up and over it and you can literally look down at the people on the other side of the cockpit.

That´s all for today. Au revoir.

P.S. Here´s our position as of now.
Latitude: 16 degrees and 16 minutes North
Longitude: 157 degrees 12 minutes West.


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Barf-O-Rama

We're all alive. We're all seasick, even Jason, for the first time ever. Fun times.

Towards Tahiti

We're ALMOST gone.

We'd set today as our goal to leave, but we'd really expected to leave tomorrow, and that's what's going to happen. We're ready to go, but it's too late to head out tonight, so we're planning to cast off at dawn tomorrow. We have a great weather forecast for the next few days, and I think we're all ready to be out on the water. I don't love hanging out at a marina. I do, however, love our marina neighbors (I don't know how it happens, but we are the luckiest family ever when it comes to having wonderful neighbors, in a marina or at home!), experienced sailors who invited us for dinner on Sunday night when we arrived in Hawaii and gave us their advice about our next voyage, including how to deal with roaches, the best ways to store plastic garbage, and what to do when we get to Tahiti. We're sad to say good-bye to them.

We've spent the last couple of days shopping and making final preparations for the trip. Planning and buying enough food for four people for a month is a fair challenge. Planning and buying enough food in Hawaii for four people for a month is a bigger challenge. There's a limited amount of everything in any given store. We visited multiple stores multiple times and bought out the entire stock of MULTIPLE THINGS. Finding a place to store enough food for four people for a month on a boat that already feels stuffed with spare parts and emergency equipment is really almost impossible. We try so hard to find the best locations for everything, and invariably, the thing that we want most at any given time is an obstacle course away.

Want a peanut butter sandwich? The peanut butter is stored under the seat where you're sitting, so get up, move the cushion, slide the wooden lid out of the way, move the plastic bin with the next four evening's worth of meals, open the bin below it, and grab the peanut butter. Put everything back. Don't forget that you'll be doing all of this while balancing on a wobble board at turbo speed. Wheeee!

Despite that, I always feel extremely triumphant when everything is finally stowed away out of sight. We were packing away the Borax and condensed milk that we got at our neighbors suggestion (roach poison), when we discovered that we'd be needing those items sooner than we thought. I hate roaches. They terrify me. My reacion to them can be somewhat dramatic. I did not enjoy seeing two of them on our boat. The thought of setting sail, just the four of us and some roaches alone in the middle of the ocean, is not a thought I would describe as comforting. I have to forcibly wrench my mind away from the scenarios it tries to create. Snakes on a plane. Roaches on a boat. Fabulous. I would say that we remain undaunted, but it would be a lie. I am definitely daunted.

But we do persevere. Numerous traps, both homemade and store-bought, are now in place. I refuse to consider the possibility of their not working quickly.

The food is stored. The sails are prepared. The roaches are dying. We leave tomorrow.

Chapter two

An update: we made it to Hawaii, handed Pensive off to the crew we'd hired to bring her home, and flew back to Seattle. Jason got daily updates from the captain until about nine days after they left Honolulu, when all communication ceased. The weather router Jason had hired didn't hear from him, and neither did the captain's wife. A couple of days later, Jason got a call from the Coast Guard, asking about his boat. Because the captain had lost communication with everyone, the Honolulu sector of the Coast Guard decided to send a plane out to search for him. When they located the boat, it was 800 miles north of Hawaii, headed south, back towards Honolulu! They made it safely back, and the captain and crew all flew home. We've visited Pensive since then, and taken her sailing, and we're still not really sure why the hired crew didn't get her back home. We can only assume that we weren't the only ones who wanted to sail to Hawaii on our boat. But, hey, we decided to make the most of things, so for the last year, she's been moored at a lovely marina on Oahu, we've had a second home in Hawaii, and we're leaving in June to sail on to Tahiti.

We've been told that the SCUBA diving in Tahiti is some of the best in the world, so as part of our preparation for this journey, we decided to all get certified as divers. I don't really know why, but I found the whole idea extremely frightening. Whatever. I said I'd do it anyway. I promised Jason I'd make it through the certification process, because our girls wanted to do it. We did all of our classwork online, but we decided not to try to do any of the water training in Seattle, because I'm a wimp about cold, so we made plans to do that part in Hawaii. It turns out that was a good idea, because I got cold on the pool dive, even wearing a wetsuit, and got hypothermia the first time we went out in the ocean. That was a fun day. The second time we went out, I wore a full, heavy wetsuit and a diving hood. I looked like a complete freak -- we're in HAWAII -- but I was warm enough. I was, however, also absolutely terrified. The girls were like beautiful, graceful little fish, naturals at everything, and Jason was cool, calm, and comfortable. I, on the other hand, had to remind myself to breathe, I had to remind myself not to hyperventilate, I had to convince myself just to stick it out for a few more minutes about a million times, I got the hiccups underwater, and I threw up. That was ONE DIVE. After all that, we finally got out of the water, took apart and re-assembled our gear, and then...we went back in. I still had to remind myself to breathe and tell myself that it wouldn't last forever, but I didn't get the hiccups or vomit, so that was an improvement. On our last dive, I actually managed to relax enough to see some fish. I'm told there were some in the water for all of the dives, but I definitely didn't see them. Anyway, we all passed, and I might dive again. Someday. Maybe. 

This was before hypothermia and vomiting. I'm trying hard to hide my panic.

And now that that particular trial is over, we're heading to Pensive to get her ready for her next voyage. We'll have some different challenges with provisioning, because of course, we don't live near the boat, so it would be hard to prep our meals in advance. Other than that, it should be an easier trip than the last one (famous last words!), or at least one with warmer weather, which will be nice. There are a variety of smaller islands between Oahu and Tahiti, so we might even get to go ashore some along the way. We're expecting the trip to take somewhere between three and four weeks, and we're tentatively planning to push off around June 15.