March, 2012:

We are on our fifth straight day of sailing, which is certainly a record for us and Wondertime. We are not quite to the mystical tradewind “we didn’t change sails for a week” sort of sailing. Every hour or two we have to reef or unreef, furl the genoa, put out the staysail, spinnaker up, spinnaker down, on and on. We’ve had wind from 0 to 20 knots this past day but at least it’s mostly been from a NE to NW direction. We are still surrounded by rain squalls and the sky is mostly cloudy. When the sun does peek through, oh my is it bright and hot! We even had enough rain to use our new catchment system (essentially a small thru-hull installed in the middle of our cockpit awning). I was happy to test the rainwater that filled our sunshower 1/4 full by washing my hair. It is indeed good water.

I was talking to a friend on the SSB last night and she asked how the girls were doing. Did they get up with us in the middle of the night? Or do they sleep through? Maybe you are wondering this too. We have actually kept them on pretty much the same schedule as when we are not on passage. Around 8 pm it’s time to brush teeth, then we snuggle in bed together and read some books, then it’s lights out and they are asleep just about right away until their normal wake up hour around 8 am. The motion is better today thankfully but it’s been pretty bumpy the past few days and we’ve spent a lot of time in our big bed reading, coloring, and, ahem, playing iphone games (all educational, of course). They’ve also been coming up with marvelous imaginary games together that’s oh-so-fun to spy in on.

We’re all feeling pretty good now and are in a 3-meal-a-day groove after a few days of only snacking. It’s a good thing because there’s a LOT of rapidly ripening produce onboard.

Total miles at noon: 484
Times becalmed: 2
Number of persons onboard brave enough for an ocean swim: 1
Whisker poles broken: 1
Cup O Noodles remaining: 0

I had the midnight-4am watch last night. It was a very dark watch as there were mostly clouds overhead and no moon. We’re not convinced we’re in the tropics yet, despite being at 19 degrees latitude: the wind is quite chilly and we are still wearing fleece pants and foulie jackets at night. So last night I got out our sleeping bag and wrapped it around me in the cockpit at 2 am. My sleepiness faded as I put on my favorite Ulrich Schnauss album and got lost in the music and the motion of Wondertime charging along in the phosphorescent-lit waves.

By nearly 4 am however, my eyes were getting very heavy and I’d feel them close for a few seconds before they’d pop back open with the memory that it wasn’t time to sleep, just yet. Then suddenly, through the blurriness I saw streaks of light beside the boat. I was immediately up and wide awake; dolphins had come for a night visit! As they swam along with Wondertime, darting this way and that they left trails of light behind them. Simply awesome. I yelled down at Michael and Matt to come up and watch too, and they did. I watched the amazing dolphin light show for another ten minutes, then went down to sleep. As I tucked myself into an empty berth I could hear their squeaks through the hull as they continued to play. The perfect lullaby.

Total miles at noon: 374
Rain and wind squalls passed through: 3
Rainbows seen: 4
Super-ripe cantaloupes eaten: 2
Squashed and moldy tomatoes tossed: 7
Loaves of fresh sourdough bread baked and eaten: 1

We are still sailing along happily today at a nice clip. We’ve had 15-25 knots all day and the miles have been rolling under our keel. We’ve been rolling around inside the boat, however, as the wind has veered more to our aft quarter and we have quite a swell coming down from the north. We’re sailing with our poled-out genoa and mizzen, our downwind setup.

I had the sunrise watch this morning and when the sky lightened I could see ominous dark squall clouds all around us. We passed under some and had a few drops of rain but luckily no crazy wind increases.

We’re passing the Islas Revillagigedos now, too far to see, but it will be our last closest land for weeks….

P.S. We are checking into the Pacific Seafarer’s net nightly; check pacsea.net (I think that’s the URL) as they have internet audio of the net. Of course if you are a HAM make contact with us – N7UDM!

Total miles at noon: 249
Actual meals eaten today: 3!

We’ve been underway for over 24 hours now and all is well onboard. We motored in glassy seas for several hours out of San Jose del Cabo but once we were near the cape, excellent wind from the NW greeted us. It was a little rowdy for a while with winds gusting up to 30, but by midnight the wind had moderated to about 20 knots and have hovered in that range all through today. We were expecting to struggle in light airs in this area and are thrilled to be making great progress, even if life is a little bumpy on board. Our boat speed has been between 5 and 6 knots which astounds us considering all the extra food onboard and full tanks.

The girls have made our rectangular, enclosed bunk their little nest, filling it with their blankets, books, and favorite stuffed toys. Michael and I have had turns stuffing ourselves into there to sleep with them. We even broke the “no crackers in our bed rule” which I think I’m going to regret tonight. We’re all pretty tired and don’t feel like doing much but looking out at the sapphire-blue waves and snacking on saltines. Appetites are slowing coming back though so I don’t think our sea legs are much farther behind. Even through the grogginess, we are all giddy with the fact that we are sailing to the South Pacific.

Total miles at noon: 114
Casualties: one solar shower flew overboard that we’d forgotten to tie down on the aft deck.
Favorite food item I’m glad I stocked up on: Cup O Noodles