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rebel heart · 15-03-2014, 10:40

- Long term provisions loaded.
- Rig checked.
- New chain plates, fasteners, mainsail.
- Other sails are in good condition.
- Engine good.
- Emergency gear / plan good.
- Produce order picking up a few days before hand.
- Hydrovane (wind vane) has ~800 miles on it at this point.
- SSB, Iridium, AIS transponder.
- Paper charts, sextant, handheld GPS receiver.

It looks like there's a decent weather window in the tail end of next week, we're going from Bahia de Banderas (Puerto Vallarta) to the Marquesas, Polynesia. 3,000 miles, we're giving ourselves 3-4 weeks.

The longest passage we've done on our boat so far is 4 nights, La Paz to Bahia de Banderas.

It's going to blow my mind to be at sea that long. We've done so much prep but if you needle every thing to death you never leave the dock, it's crazy.

robert sailor · 15-03-2014, 10:54

You'll have a great trip...did that one myself years ago. Put away your storm sails and get out your light weather stuff as you get closer to the equator. Once the first week is behind you your sea legs will be well developed and time will mean little. You live in a 3 mile bubble, everything that enters of leaves you'll notice.
Are you tied in at all with the puddle jumpers? If not get daily net freq and join in, it helps the time to go by plus you'll look forward to meeting many of these folks that you talk with daily. Its a wonderful adventure, have a blast or get a spot and the armchair quarterbacks can second guess everything you do on your crossing.

sparrowhawk1 · 15-03-2014, 10:56

Awesome! The fact that you have food on the top of your list shows me you have some understanding of long distance traveling. Besides food and having the ability to fix whatever breaks 4 weeks is the same as 4 days just done over and over again. And actually easier cause once you get the boat all set up get the bugs worked out you can actually do some relaxing

Mark1977 · 15-03-2014, 11:19

Will you guys have a spot on your journey? Us armchair warriors would love to watch.
Have a great trip Eric and stay safe.

P.S is the wife and kids coming for the sail?

**atoll** · 15-03-2014, 11:27

good luck!
after the first week you get into a rhtym,and suddenly time doesn't seem so important!
your biological clock adjusts to a day/ night routine,though with kids they are going to be up as you are ready for bed!

should have good winds till the equator,then lots of rain for a week till you hit the SE'lies
bon voyage

SmartMove · 15-03-2014, 11:51

Fair winds and safe travels. We hope to be making the same crossing this time next year.

Robyn

rebel heart · 15-03-2014, 11:53

Thanks everybody. There are times when cruisersforum drives me up the wall and has me questioning my account on here, but I have to be honest and say a lot of good information and smart ways of addressing things came from here. Even if I don't agree with everyone's opinion it's been helpful just to understand all the opinions, especially from the folks with 100k+ miles under their keel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark1977

Will you guys have a spot on your journey? Us armchair warriors would love to watch.
Have a great trip Eric and stay safe.

P.S is the wife and kids coming for the sail?

The home page of our website has a map that should update. I wrote the code for it and need to do a couple of fixes before we split. It should have the current location and then a little trail line of where we've been (sort of like it does now).

It's free to use, so anyone else can grab that if they like and embed their own map in their blog/website. The Keel You need to be able to send an update in via an email somehow (uuplus/mailsail/whatever).

But yeah, the wife and two kiddos are going on this one. We did the four day stretch a few months ago and that worked out fine so hopefully since this is offshore it should be even easier, albeit 7x longer.