Mandy

Greetings from Nuku HIva, Marquesas of the French Polynesian Islands!!! We happily and safely arrived Saturday early morning. It was a 39 day passage none of us will ever forget. You could say it was a mixture of pleasure and work but overall it was enjoyable and something I am quite excited and proud to add to my list of life accomplishments. We had a relatively easy trek, with no major problems or major scary weather. Personally, the first 2.5 weeks were the hardest mentally, but after that the time started to pass and it all became routine. The hardest part was having four people. As couples we took two 6 hour shifts each day so there was constantly someone awake and alert. This eventually wore down on us all as you become a bit sleep deprived. But now we have caught up a bit on sleep and are very happy about our voyage and happy to be soaking up island life. Stepping on land again for the first time, I felt like a conqueror, well a conqueror that had maybe had a few beers as walking was a bit difficult with sea legs. Anyway, I could go on and on but our internet isn’t great. During the crossing I kept a daily log of little thoughts and feelings to post. Hopefully the pictures will upload to. Enjoy!

Day 1 Tuesday March 4^th, 2014

Nervous, excited and anxious to endure our 4-6 week adventure across the Pacific Ocean 3,600 miles to the Islands of the Marquesas. FINALLY here we go!

Day 2 Wednesday March 5^th, 2014

Yay, sailing is awesome! Full sails and happy people! Love the night sky of constellations stretching horizon to horizon.

Day 3 Thursday March 6^th, 2014

Morning workout routine commenced! Project “can’t sit still” underway.  Whoever does more push-ups can have the last scoop of rice! (just kidding, but I thought about it) BONUS excitement of the day,  We CAUGHT a SAILFISH (aka Tuna)! Well, kinda. We had a line out and suddenly heard the line reeling out. JT grabbed a hold of it, trying to reel it in but the fish must have been about 4 feet long. We battled with it for a bit as the line kept getting further and further away, and sadly to say eventually that stinker snapped our line. Then to rub it in our faces, the fish was about 200 feet off the stern just jumping out of the water multiple times as if to say nah nan a na boo boo.

Day 5 Saturday March 8^th, 2014

Well the inevitable finally happened, we have no wind. But on the bright side it’s the weekend!!! Time to make those big weekend plans with…the dolphins?

Day 6 Sunday March 9^th, 2014

No wind, again. BUT we do have rain, humidity and glassy water! That only means one thing, golf practice time! Nothing better than swinging a few balls off the stern. Followed by taking pictures of ourselves making funny faces (no we aren’t going crazy, it’s only day 6) and then refueling with homemade pretzels!!! What weekend plans, who needs those dolphins anyway??!

Day 7 Monday March 10^th, 2014

Wind? Nope. Heat? Yes. Current taking us the wrong direction? Yes. Attempting to catch some bait fish using cornflakes? Yup.

Day 8 Tuesday March 11^th

Wind? Some!!! Better yet, made a bird friend we named Cliff. After flying into Jenna’s hair and deciding that wasn’t the most ideal napping spot, Cliff moved just next to our table as we munched on some dinner. ONE WEEK DOWN! Only…5 to go?! L

Day 9 Wednesday March 12^th 2014

What am I doing out here? Why is the wind so inconsistent? Will it be like this all the way to the Marquesas? Where are these big rolling waves coming from that make me want to jump ship? The realization we’ve only gone 285 miles in 9 days hits a little hard.

Day 11 Friday March 14^th, 2014

Barometric pressure drops! Stormy, ominous clouds on all sides of the horizon surround us. The wind is being temperamental and we reel in and out the sails a few times thinking we should start motoring. Then LITERALLY ALL THE SUDDEN, boom the winds builds from 10 knots to 15 to 20 and the Tradewinds is keeling over so far it’s scary. The boom is practically in the water. The head sail (the big one at the bow of the boat) is flapping all over the place. The rain starts dumping. In a reasonably calm manner we all quickly scramble to lower the sails and save them from hitting the ocean. By the time we finally got everything reeled in and ok, of course the wind died and the squall passed. Cool mother nature, really cool.

Day 12 Saturday March 15^th, 2014

Night watch. In need of new activity as we float in calm water. A red-footed boobie lands on stern. He starts to get a little to nestled in. Somehow poking a stick at him only makes him squawk and nestle in more. So how about a sling shot and macaroni noodles to do the trick? (JT’s idea, I swear!) The bird doesn’t seem to care about the pasta grazing his feathers. Oh well. Thanks for the bird poop buddy!

Day 13 Sunday March 16^th, 2014

Just broke 3000 miles to go!!! And we end the day with making 120 miles all on wind power, baby! That almost beats Tradewinds record for most miles in a day at 134. All this means we should be there in 30 days if we can average 100 miles a day from now on, fingers crossed!

Day 15 Tuesday March 18^th, 2014

TWO WEEKS DOWN! Booya. Started the day with a gorgeous sunrise. But felt extra stir crazy today. Could really enjoy a nice run, in the RAIN followed by a COLD glass of CHOCOLATE milk (not powdered) accompanied with fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. Then maybe a fresh fruit salad, or even just an apple. OR even better some double fudge chocolate brownie ice cream. But really, we’ve started to consider different shapes of pasta as different meals.

Day 17 Friday March 21, 2014

Out here in the big blue there is something called the doldrums. This term refers to an area that extends north and south of the equator about 325miles total that more often than not, has little to NO wind. Today we hit them. While it is particularly beautiful out here, we can’t afford to sit and float for a week so we will be motoring til we make it through them.  I’m looking forward to crossing the equator and entering the South Pacific.

Day 18  Saturday March 22, 2014

Crossed the equator last night! It was really cool seeing the big sign in the middle of the ocean saying Lattitude 0 °0” Longitude 0 °0”! It was written high in the sky just like the word gullible. Our main event for this accomplishment was sending our message in a bottle. We are racing it to the Marquesas.

Day 19 Sunday March 23, 2014

WE CAUGHT A FISH!!!! FINALLY!!! We caught a Bonito, a type of tuna. Tasted quite yummy and fresh with our rice and beans.

Day 23 Thursday March 27, 2014

FISH #2!!! Same kind but this time it weighed about 30lbs. We feasted for about 2 days on fresh sushi, baked fish and grilled fish. We couldn’t eat it all before it went bad, back to the ocean!

Day 30 Thursday April  3 2014

Now that we’ve crossed the equator we’ve found the SE Tradewinds that blow a consistent 10-20 knots of wind. We are now under a 1000miles to go from our destination as we move into our fourth week at sea. We are all definitely ready to be there, but time seems to pass a little quicker each day. Luckily with the winds we are making 120-150 miles per day!

Put in sunset pic

Day 33 Sunday April 6 2014

ARE WE THERE YET?!?! GESH. These past few days we’ve had a consistent 20-27 knots of wind with some of the biggest swells we’ve seen. It’s all ok as we make good speed but it makes it harder to cook, sleep, eat and relax. We now have 549 miles to go and our ETA for Marquesas is next THURSDAY!!! I’ll have to refrain from jumping ship and swimming to shore once we get close enough J  

Day 35 Tuesday April 8^th, 2014

Well it’s been 5 weeks at sea. It’s now April. Where did March go?! We caught two fish the past two days, a Dolphinfish and a Yellow Fin Tuna. Both awesome looking and even better tasting! We have 550 miles to go and have officially started day dreaming about fresh coconuts, a fresh water shower, maybe a hotel room, clean clothes and air conditioning. Yes we can! We will make it.

Day 38 Friday April 11^th 2014

The seas have calmed a bit and provided a nice 12-knot wind making our speed slower and only teasing us further as we are about 40 miles from Nuku Hiva! We spent all day staring at the horizon waiting to see that speck of a land mass and finally around dinner time there it was! An island in the Marquesas we would eventually go to but not check in at. Nuku Hiva was still another few hours away. Around 9pm we saw it! The dark landmass of Nuku Hiva, the largest island of the Marquesas. You could make out the mountainous terrain and the deep ravines from the moonlight. We were being welcomed by a pod of dolphins who liked to show off by jumping fully out of the ocean. We followed the coastline for about 5 miles until we reached the entrance to Taiohae Bay. The bay opening was about a quarter mile wide, leaving us plenty of room to navigate safely into the bay. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we turned the corner. There were so many lights and signs of civilization I got so excited. You could see cars driving along the shoreline. You could suddenly smell land! Yes, land has a scent. There were even wafts of flowers. After the mile trek into the bay we released the anchor, turned off the engine and cracked open a celebratory drink before residing for a calm, and long nights sleep. We had done it! The four of us had sailed across the largest body of water on Earth. And while there were moments of questioning if this would be worth it, once that anchor hit the sandy ocean bottom and the wave of instance relaxation hit you, it made it all worth it. It was finally time to start fulfilling a dream of endless time amongst the coconut trees, white sand beaches, uninhabited islands, and any adventure that would come our way!

Things I learned while crossing the Pacific:

-       Life without social media is refreshing

-       “Refrigerate after opening”, ya whatever (we don’t have a refrigerator, or need one I guess)

-       Hairy legs are hot

-       Different shaped noodles count as different meals

-       Patience comes in many forms. With yourself. With others. With mother nature. With time. With those annoying flapping sails that won’t stay full of wind.

-       The words “chocolate cake” at sea will get me jumping up and down like a 3 year old, I guess I really am a chocoholic.

-       I’ve been playing the card game UNO incorrectly my whole life!

-       You can play UNO for 3.5 hours straight!

-       Sitting at sea for weeks gives you way to much thinking time

-       Your body eventually considers the constant motion and rocking to be normal

-       JT is still a great guy even after spending 24/7 with him J

What’s next? We hang out here for a few days! We treated ourselves to a nice Bungalow Resort with DELICIOUS FOOD, FRESH SHOWERS, AIR CONDITIONING, CNN AND BEDS! Wednesday our friends Kate and Grace arrive, making our crew 6. We plan to start sailing around to the different Marquesas Islands. There is the 2^nd largest waterfall in the world here, an island filled with lobsters to be caught and old ruins. Our next stop will be south of here in the Tuamotu Archipelago, which contains mostly atolls. From there we will head NW to the Society Islands which include Bora Bora, Tahiti and others belonging to French Polynesia. We don’t know how long it will take, and it doesn’t really matter as long as there’s wind in our sails and coconut in our bellies!

Feb 25th 2014

Land ho! It’s been 11 days since we’ve stepped foot on land and to be honest there was a moment (or two, or three or four) when I began to question if I’d even be able to stand up straight and handle the uncommon sturdy ground beneath my feet, that is if we were to even see land in the next year. Okay, okay, that’s being a bit dramatic I will admit. But I will say this. Having never sailed before in my life, always getting seasick on any type of previous open water boat adventure and just having no clue what to expect the moment the sailboat pulled away from the dock in El Salvador, I can proudly say I did it! I survived the stretch of nearly 600miles of open water and don’t’ want to call it quits. I’ve spent many hours trying to think of a way to really put you as the reader in my shoes and explain just all that has happened in the first 11 days of this adventure so here goes.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about being a sailor it’s you really can’t plan for everything so perhaps it’s best to expect the unexpected. There was a far share of unexpected things we dealt with on the voyage. The first lesson came about an hour before we were supposed to leave and make our trek towards Coco Island. As we were doing last minute boat things and downloading as much free TV as possible, we were told the immigration person who was to check us out of the country wouldn’t be in his office til Tuesday!! News flash we aren’t in America anymore so why would this be a total surprise. Long story short, we were very disappointed but we worked it out and left the following morning. Nevertheless it was a perfect reminder of what I said a bit ago.

We pulled the line in from the dock, releasing the Tradewinds for its next adventure. As soon as the boat came free, a wave of pure excitement and nerves ran through my body, my mind alternating between an excited state and a state of doubt.  We followed our escort towards the open ocean, until was passed the potential dangerous sand bar. And bam, all the sudden, hello Pacific Ocean. Nothing but blue to the horizon. We slowly sailed away leaving the volcanoes and coastline of El Salvador behind us. Our destination was Isla de Coco, an island about 200miles off the coast of Costa Rica, one of the top snorkeling and diving sites in the world. Cool fact, but even better was it is uninhabited and it is strictly forbidden to step foot on the island.  It was a paradise all eight of us couldn’t wait to see.

Leaving El Salvador!

I don’t think it had been more than two hours before both JT and I were feeling quite seasick. I had put on a seasickness patch the previous day hoping I would somehow be immune to the nausea, dizziness, discomfort and rather delusional state the seas put you in but that proved wrong. I’ve never had a problem with feeling the side effects of any medications but on land the patch made me feel nearly seasick with a side of blurred vision. It was freaky. Let’s just say that patch was ripped off from behind my ear and tossed into the devilish ocean. Anyway, for the next THREE WHOLE DAYS I was, to be frank, miserable. The first 24 hours I refused to go below deck as I felt instantly nauseas and as if the world was spinning a million miles an hour. I slept between my body waking me up to only dry heave over the side of the boat as it rocked around in the 20 knots of wind and 10 foot swells. I felt better knowing JT was also struggling as well as some of the other crewmembers who had already been sailing for 5 months. Apparently these seas were pretty bad. And turns out there was reason, we were crossing through a stretch of water known as the “Papa Galleos”, only known to make your stomach turn inside out. That first night I’ll never forget. I was topside, it was about 4am and the wind suddenly was blowing at least 20 knots, a fair gust especially to a new sailor. The boat was keeled over to the point where the waves were coming over the side of the boat. I think about it now and how usually that probably would’ve freaked me out a bit but luckily the seasickness took care of that fear. I believe it was the beginning of the third day of being miserable as I watched and felt the boat plunge between each big swell that I started to question if this was for me. I mean should I have taken all those crazy looks I got from family and friends more seriously when I told them about this adventure? What was I going to do when we crossed the Pacific and had over 2000 miles of this? Would it all be worth it?

Four is my new favorite number. On that fourth day at sea my nerves were calmed. The winds died down, I could stand up, I think I even ate something and slept in my bunk. It was like someone flipped a switch. All worries and doubts gone. Thank goodness cause I really want to make it to Bora Bora one day.  I’ve come a long way, I’m even typing and staring at this computer screen as the boat gently rocks side to side. Self high five! After those rough three days of solid wind, we have been struggling to have much wind at all. I can’t decide what I prefer, wind and nausea or no wind and feeling stir crazy at times.

Everyday on the boat felt like a new adventure. Would we have more dolphins following our bow today? See another Eagle Ray come jumping out of the water? What about a Marlin? Birds? Merchant ships heading to the Panama Canal? Would we jump off the boat into the jolly rancher blue raspberry colored ocean for a ‘shower’? It was more of a fun expect the unexpected scenario if you will. Here’s something that wasn’t a fun expect the unexpected scenario, running out of propane on day 5 with at least 6 more to go. We immediately broke into our stash of MRE’s and just as quickly put them away realizing they should be saved for a true emergency. We tried to boil pasta in the sun during the day. It definitely cooked it but made it very starchy. We broke in to cans of soup, heated topside. Our snacks were gone. We started eating about 1.5 meals a day. It wasn’t terrible seeing how we really aren’t doing much to need the calories plus the heat wipes your appetite. We remembered we had camping size propane tanks!! So we could make pancakes, mac and cheese, etc. I wouldn’t say we were starving it was just a bit uncomfortable.

Ian cooking some pasta! 

Dolphins off the bow!

Sunset!!!

After a week at sea, I woke up to the view of a pristine mass of beautiful green foliage and rocky coastline. Buenos dias, Coco Island!!! Crew morale boosted, check! We pull into a protected bay and were soon approached by the park rangers. They come aboard looking slightly serious and semi intimidating. It doesn’t take long to learn we are not allowed to engage in any “tourist activities” as we were supposed to check in on mainland Costa Rica to pay our park fees and immigrate. NOOOOOOOOOO! We had thought about this possibility before heading to the island but had heard it didn’t matter. So we sit, anchored in this gorgeous bay, knowing the hammerheads are nearby and can’t do more than imagine it all just as before. We ask if we can get in the water and clean our boat aka sneak some snorkeling in. They say sure. So once they are out of sight we take turns in pairs, scraping barnacles off the keel while seeing the sandy bottom and a few foot long nurse sharks feeding on the ocean floor. While it was a huge disappointment to travel a week and only be teased by the thought of swimming with sharks it was still a good unexpected lesson.

JT and I at Isla de Coco

Isla de Coco from a distance, picture doesn't do it justice

We now had a decision to make. Keep with the original plan and travel 590 miles SE to Ecuador or go 290 miles NE to Costa Rica. With our food situation and I think feeling like we needed a good refresher we picked Costa Rica. That leg was spent mostly motoring for the 5 days. For me the highlight was the nighttime sky. It would start with the sun melting into the horizon. Once the sun was completely set, the night was dark enough to where common constellations like Orion and the Big Dipper became difficult to identify. You can even see the Milky Way. Perhaps my favorite was the presence of the bioluminescence in the ocean and the moonrise. Never would I have expected to see the moon, orange in color, come creeping up over the horizon to provide the night light til morning.

Now we are here, at Banana Bay Marina, the “best value in town” with “clean fuel, wifi, bar and restaurant”. The marina resides in the small, authentic town of Gulfito, located about 16 miles deep inside Gulfo Dulce (Sweet Gulf). Most of the visitors at the marina are fishermen.  The town has your standard fruit and vegetable stands, bigger supermarket, soccer field, marine part store, different colored houses along the road. There is also a 1994, 116 foot, $43 million sailing vessel moored here. We all can’t help but stare and admire it. Apparently its’ waiting to be taken on a ship across the Panama Canal to be sold in Florida for a reduced price of $19million. I have to say while slightly jealous it is fully equipped with a gym and full crew, I think having something so luxurious would take out half the adventure of such trip we are enduring.  So I’m thankful for Tradewinds. Here on land, it’s been wonderful to have some space, a shower, burgers and stable ground. We even got to play ultimate Frisbee yesterday and finally get some exercise after 2.5weeks of nothing. Oh and fun fact, I lost 10 pounds in 10 days. Other activities have included a hike up the hill where I saw wild toucans, macaws and a beautiful sunset over the gulf. We also took a small boat to a nature sanctuary, home to macaws, spider monkeys, toucans, sloths and other Costa Rican animals.  Pictures below definitely describe this better than words.

Banana Bay Marina and the $43 million sailboat on the left

View over the Gulf from our hike

Beach outside the sanctuary 

Sloth inside the sanctuary. They are called lazies in spanish. 

Enjoying our time together

Wild Tocan spotted!!! 

There was a spider monkey named Sweetie who really liked JT

What’s next for us????? CROSSING THE PACIFIC OCEAN! We have decided to head directly from Costa Rica to the Marquesas, which is a casual 3400 miles, on Friday. This should take us anywhere from one month to 6ish weeks of nothing but blue water.  Hopefully the trade winds will be blowing in our favor to help us make good progress each day. It is going to be a LONG trek but all worth it once you have the beautiful Marquesas on the horizon.  And for everyone’s peace of mind, our gas tank can get us 2000miles just motoring. So if an emergency happens we will be able to motor to land.

PS Turns out we had propane the ENTIRE TIME!!! Guess the pipe was just clogged with tape. Guess we need to start triple checking people. 

Feb 9^th 2014

As I sit here in the shade, avoiding the heat and more red skin, I reflect on how I really even got here. I stare off into the distance filled with various Salvadorian volcanic peaks, palm trees and an estuary that is deceivingly blue. The El Salvadorians aren’t the best with recycling any type of material, nor do they care if all the human waste flows through the estuary and out to the Pacific. Anyway, I know that’s gross.  But I think after these initial nine days of sunshine and boat life, the reality and true excitement of this adventure has finally set it. Yes, I am actually in El Salvador. Yes, we will actually start sailing tomorrow. Yes, I will most likely get seasick. Yes, I’m sharing a very small space for eight people. Yes, I will live off of canned food and ramen and yes, JT and I will truly share this adventure of a lifetime together.  IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!!!

As many of you may know, this time last year I was about half way through my year teaching English in Spain to high school students. When I began my Spanish adventure I wasn’t sure when the next opportunity would arise to be able to have the time and money to travel again. Travelling is a passion of mine and I believe it teaches you to be a better, more grateful, and well-rounded person.  Teaching English was fine as I was able to make money to travel and enjoy my first year out of college.  However, now all I have is the travel bug. Sorry family! With that said I’m very thankful to be living young, wild and free! The best part is now I get to share it with some good friends and JT. The more days that pass as a sailor the more unbelievable it is that JT and I are here sharing this once in a lifetime opportunity together.  I couldn’t be more excited to learn about sailing, continue to grow as a person and sail the South Pacific Islands.

So where are we actually? We have the boat moored at Bahia del Sol Hotel. It is the only marina located on the Costa del Sol, which is a long stretch of black sand beach filled with locals.  Many locals come to the hotel for the weekend, but locals that have money to spend as the whooping rate of $69 per night per person is considered pricey here.  You can’t complain about the cost of living here. You can eat for two spending maybe $10 per person with drinks.

During our nine days here JT and I have spent a majority of the time soaking up the sun either poolside or at the beach. He’s also teaching me how to fish, which I find exciting. Especially when our motivation for catching little fish is to use them as bait to catch BIG fish out in the open water.  We did venture to the capital city, San Salvador for a day trip. The city was very busy filled with honking cars, beggars, old run down buildings and random street markets. Definitely a contrast from Europe. You see, El Salvador has its few points of interest but there is very little tourism so when you’re trying to venture around the city it makes it harder. JT and I both agreed the bus ride back to the marina was the highlight of the day. The country has many old American Blue Bird yellow school buses, that have been converted into vibrantly colored busses with random American stickers and phrases on them. Some even have spoilers on the back. Cool…? Sure is. During the 2.5hrs (by car about an hour), in which we paid $1.18 each, we watched locals of all ages get on and off of the bus without it stopping fully, local vendors coming aboard to sell any local goodies, and we even swerved away from a giant cow just cruising down the center lane. It was a good day nonetheless and provided some good cultural insight.  

We were supposed to leave today to head about 500 miles Southwest off the coast of Costa Rica where Coco Island lies. Coco Island is one of the top ten snorkeling and dive sites in the world.  It is an uninhabited and very well protected land so we won’t be setting foot on land unfortunately. Our plans had to change as the immigration people have to check us out of the country before leaving and they weren’t open this weekend I guess. It was a bummer as I think we are all anxious to start sailing and get “on the road”.  But it was a good first lesson that sometimes these third world countries aren’t quite on top of their game all the time. But its’ ok cause no one here has a job or official life off the boat J. The plan after Coco Island is to head another 500 miles to Ecuador where fuel is $1.10 per gallon!!! This means we will have over 2 weeks of not setting foot on land. Oye. I think I’ll be broken in quickly before our crossing across the Pacific Ocean that should be happening one of these days.

One more thing, it has been fun speaking and listening to Spanish again. The people here are very friendly which only makes it easier to feel comfortable talking to them in Spanish. I’d like to say I’m the boats official communicator/translator!

Well, that’s all for now! Not sure when I’ll have wifi again, but hope all of you are well!

Mandy

The sail has a tear in it from use, so we sewed it back together! 

 Can't wait to see more of these!

 JT and I's bunk room!

That's the boat, oh and JT too!