Sailing for Three Thousand Miles

Sailing for Three Thousand Miles

What is it like to sail for three thousand miles, or two thousand nine hundred eighty, to be exact? Now having clarified the mileage, being in a sail boat we never sail directly to our destination. So we covered a greater distance than the three thousand miles.

The planing that goes into a three week trip, give or take a couple of days, is extensive. The food has to be purchased according to meal plans. At home a trip to the local supermarket and you are all stocked. Here in the Galapagos, nothing is easy. Between the three of us, we probably made four or five trips ashore each, with different objectives. We never were able to buy Brian's Diet Coke. Fueling the boat was also difficult. We had to estimate how much fuel we would take on, pay an agent $5.99 per gallon in advance, then wait for over half a day for the fuel to arrive. The boat that carried the fuel was a skiff with ten or so, fifteen gallon barrels of fuel. He then would pump or siphon the fuel. I would have to holler stop before the tank would over flow. This was repeated for each five gallon container we had on the rail along with the ship's tank.

Final under way and out of the Galapagos. This was relief as the regulations were burdensome but worth the visit. We only carry enough fuel for a thousand miles. This requires us to sail for at least two thirds of the trip. The Galapagos are located near the doldrums. As we left we had wind for the first day but were overtaken by the doldrums as they moved south. We purposely sailed south of the rumb line trying to stay ahead of the light air, but alas that didn't happen. So the motor went on and we motored for two days. A day of relief under spinnaker and back to the motor. We finally reached the trades on the fourth day and the sailing began.

“So what do you do all day?” a quote from an Eileen Quinn song. The day is mostly routine. Watches begin at nine PM and end at nine AM. With three of us, we get six hours sleep between watches unless something comes up at night. It seams that if anything is going to come up, it will come up at night. A new saying to add to the list from the movie Captain Ron.

The day starts with breakfast, dishes and cleanup. If there are any repairs to make this is the time to begin those tasks. Please bear in mind that anything one does on a boat at sea takes longer, much longer than on land. Another quote from an Eileen Quinn song is “The life of a sailor is of perpetual motion”. We are moving left, right up and down, all at the same time. Just going to the bathroom can be an ordeal with the motion of the boat. Just think of taking a shower, soaped up and slippery, trying not to fall. We also write our logs during the day,which take a couple of hours. At 11 PM Galapagos time, or what is called start time, we have the World ARC radio net. Each boat gives their latitude and longitude along with the wind speed and direction. Then at 8 PM we have an informal role call with the status on the boat. This has become a looked forward event each day. After the net, we have radio faxes to try and receive. Some times they come clear, and some time not at all. The SSB is an AM radio with all the benefits and pitfalls. In between the tasks we take a nap in preparation for the nights watches. Sleeping can be difficult. Just about the time you does off, a wave set from the north hits the boat and we rock side to side like a carnival ride. So it adjust your position and try to fall asleep again.

During the day, we fish, look for sea life or just sit and look at the water. Each wave looking similar to the last until you look up and see the ten footer rolling in. The boat lifts and pitches, accelerates down the wave and settles back in. The larger waves usually comes in sets of three, forcing you to look up at the next two, repeating the lift, pitch and accelerate. There the occasional dolphins that parade in front of the boat for extended periods of time, riding the bow wave to save energy. Occasionally there is a siting of a whale or something bizarre. We watched a shark jump about fifteen feet in the air, and repeat the feat five times.

The days start to pass and three days turn into a week, then two weeks and on to almost there. For us there were three milestones. When we reached one third of the way, half way and under a thousand miles. As you start to count the days instead of weeks an excitement grows on the boat. Then finally there. One mistake we made was to decide that the trip would only take nineteen days, which caused a disappointment when it became obvious that it would be twenty, maybe twenty 21 days. For out next long crossing, we will assume the worst and be glad if we get in early.