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Two Fish - Day 54 - Mega Passage



As the first day of our long voyage drifts into the record books, I see in sharp relief life onshore versus passage mode. We had our last ice cream, our last laundry, bought as many carrots as we thought might last, weighed anchor and cut our final tether to land, cell service. We are now in the big blue ocean. The earth's largest ocean. Our 3,000 mile crossing has begun.

El Nino has reduced the trade winds and the weather files encouraged us to fill up every jar with extra diesel. We can motor at 6 knots for 1,100 miles yet still have enough reserve fuel to run the genset to produce drinking water. Like on all passages, the Captain's job is never formulaic. Sometimes we are fighting current, sometimes dodging weather. But this leg is about conserving resources. Diesel and food are finite. As I write this, I am eating a freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Gail, who usually stops all galley work while under way, has announced that tomorrow night will be chicken stir fry assuming the weather stays calm. Dishes with fresh vegetables will only be offered during the first week of the voyage.

We are using WRI as the weather router for this leg. Their emails are very colorful but only time will tell how they rank versus Commander's Weather, Chris Parker and Jennifer "Gulf Stream" Clark. WRI respond quickly to emails but their detailed PDFs take forever to download via Iridium. The file is only 230 kb but this can take an hour to receive.

The rally fleet has broken into three parts. The "long haul truckers" are staying close to the rhumbline in hopes of saving miles and enjoying a more favorable current. My view is they will run out of diesel, never see wind and eventually be eaten by sea birds. The second group are the "dreamers". They are heading very far south. South of the Society Islands and south of New Zealand. They are going to the South Pole. I trust they will find breeze in the roaring 40s but they will eventually be eaten by a polar bears. The third group are a reasonable, humble and erudite collection of boats. They have perfectly weighed the pros and cons of the potential route and are heading south to find the breeze, knowing the cost is giving up the favorable current. I refer to this group as the "winners". We are in this third pack.

In my previous life, I flew Singapore to New York in the longest commercial flight, non-stop for 19 hours. In the same seat without touching ground for almost a day. My body clock would slow down, I would read, watch movies and sleep. So far I am employing the same strategy on this three week trip. Make sure to visit our facebook page and place your prediction on our arrival time.

You may be having trouble reading this over the noise of a huge party on Two Fish. We have now sailed 15,000 miles since she was splashed. In those early days, 15,000 miles seemed impossible. Heck, just making it out of the River Plate seemed a major effort. Over time, skills increase and perceptions change. We now look forward to short four night passages. The vastness of the Pacific can be understood when traveling at 6 knots for 3,000 miles.

We enjoyed the wildlife in the Galapagos and upon our exit from Eden we have seen little. We had a wasp in the cockpit and I swatted it; instead of dying it transformed into a moth. It was amazing. At one moment my eye is tracking the wasp while the rolled up paper came crashing on him and the next moment the moth was dancing about. It turns out that the moth had been hiding in a crevice and woke up at the wasp's death. Optical illusion or a new species? Our other wildlife highlight were birds that spent the evening circling our steaming light. Their bird droppings are bright green. A color so vibrant I would have thought food coloring was involved.

Where are we now? You can check our tracker, but here is another way to track our progress. Imagine we are doing a road trip from NYC to Miami and across to LA. This works out to the same distance as our sail from the Galapagos to the Marquesas, 3,000 nautical miles. Now, imagine that our car is slow. Very slow. Yesterday we averaged 6.9 nautical miles per hour for a total of 166 miles. However, we are only 112 miles closer to Miami because we headed off course to look for wind. What town did we reach on the US East Coast after 24 hours of driving? Cape May, NJ. We visited Cape May on Two Fish and cursed the strong current. This is going to be a long trip.

We press on to the Marquesas and spirits are high aboard Two Fish.

Jason
www.twofishcat.com




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