Day 10: Pacific Crossing from Mexico to French Polynesia

So thankful the seas are more reasonable throughout the day.  We are trying to make our way south into the ITCZ at an area with fewer squalls.  Seas are behind us and on our beam today, rolling us as we go along, and we are hitting some currents; making for a slower day.

Emil, crew commentary on genoa furler:  We’ve spent some quality time tinkering with the genoa furler over the past few days (the genoa relies on a couple bearings that need to spin smoothly with the furling line to pull and wrap the sail around the forestay). What should have been a smooth operation to furl and unfurl the sail had been getting steadily more annoying to the point of being unsafe, as when we need to reef or drop the sail it often needs to be done quickly. When we furled the sail something on the upper end was binding and it only went in jerkily and with some back-and-forth tension and release on the furler to make it rotate at all. We dropped the entire sail to the deck, re-lubed the bearing, and shortened the halyard connection but only saw minimal improvement. The manual however (the what?) neatly diagrammed our problem and we ended up shifting the entire sail up higher to better align all the parts by increasing the angle to the halyard. It’s not perfectly smooth but it did better, and we’ve got more confidence in its operation. We were lucky to find something of a lull in the wave action to work on it.

Cora was very determined to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  She gathered all her ingredients down in the galley, but the wave action on the port side and the closed port in the galley (due to waves hitting the window) made a stuffy area to work without turning a bit green.  She gathered up all her ingredients and brought them into the cockpit, where she mixed and prepped her cookies, the wind gusts fluttering flour and salt into the air.  Two hours after the start of her process, we all enjoyed delicious cookies made by Cora.

Calder’s Wahoo Fishing Story:  We have been trying to catch fish for days with handline and rod to no avail, except sharks, until today. We hooked the smallest Mahi-Mahi and released him, but it gave us hope that there were fish in the itcz. We deployed both fishing rods and a half hour later a fish struck. It got off the first rod and then moved to the second. He put up a good fight but then got off. I reeled in to check the lures and to my great dismay both lures had been chomped off, leaders and all. One of these lures was the legendary red/white cedar plug which has caught everything from Spanish mackerel to 6-foot-long sharks. May it rest in 13000 feet of water. With more determination than ever, I rigged up two lures with cable leaders and chucked them back over. 15 minutes later and the fight was on again. This was one of the best fights I have had. It screamed line off the reel on full drag. For every 10 feet of line I gained, it took 8 back. Eventually, I hauled a 52-inch Wahoo within striking distance of the gaff. This Wahoo was a gift from the ocean as we had been hoping to catch one of these open-ocean predators since this trip was first planned.

Overnight, we changed back to our genoa.  We are using the radar to look for squalls common to the ITCZ.  The Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ, is the region that circles the Earth, near the equator, where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres come together. The intense sun and warm water of the equator heats the air in the ITCZ, raising its humidity and making it buoyant. Aided by the convergence of the trade winds, the buoyant air rises. As the air rises it expands and cools, releasing the accumulated moisture in an almost perpetual series of squalls and thunderstorms. 

On last night’s watch, we spotted “something” on the radar; got the crew up, the sail down and watched it…dissipate.  So this radar blob was likely just rain and we experienced a drizzle.  Thankfully no squall, but we are ready.  We spend about 2 hours daily looking at weather – winds, rain, currents, satellite imagery, live lightening maps, and CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy).  And we also spend all day looking around at the ocean and sky. The awesome folks from Totem call CAPE “squall food.”  We check in with Jamie and Behan from Totem twice daily about our route, navigating all these forces. We are beyond grateful for their knowledge and support; they are truly committed to cruisers having a safe and positive experience.

On last night’s watch, a flying fish flew into the side of my head!  I gathered him up and put him back in the ocean; likely surprised us both!  We also looked out at the Southern Cross together for the first time.

Total miles over the last 24 hours:   125.3 nm

Average speed in last 24 hours:    5.2 knots

Total miles of trip so far:  1,276 nm (almost to half-way)