Position: 11 degrees, 32 minutes north; 148 degrees, 38 minutes west 135 nm day (current assisted)

Wow, has it been a tuna fest on board Charisma. A nice change from our pre-prepared meals. Tonight was the fourth night in a row and we had tuna sashimi on a bed of couscous and peas with wasabi soy drizzled over. Really good. That tuna just melts in your mouth it’s so nice.

Today was a beautiful trade wind kinda day. Just blue skies, blue water and puffy white clouds. About 12 knots of wind and pretty flat seas rounded out a very comfortable day. The only problem is that the wind is coming from the north. Very unusual. Probably due to some combination of the tropical storm to the north of us and some of the lows hanging around the area. At any rate, we’re pointing 50 degrees to the wind and with the north wind, that means our heading is about 310 degrees – except it’s not. We also have a 1 to 1 ½ knot current boosting us to the northwest, which means our best course right now is more like 295/300. As I look on the chart, this has us missing Hawaii to the south. I’m hoping the winds shift into the east in the next day as that’s more normal AND it lets us point up toward Hawaii. Cross fingers.

Some perspective. Showing our route versus Mexico on the right.

This whole “being pushed west” thing is why as we left Tahiti we actually angled northeast and sailed about 500 miles east of the direct route. We knew at some point on this passage we would get pushed back to the west. Now the hope is that we sailed far enough east. The next couple days will tell.

That’s story today from the North Pacific Ocean.

Position: 09 degrees, 55 minutes north; 146 degrees, 53 minutes west 153 nm (motoring)

Happy day! Despite a very heavy rainfall during Ann’s watch last night, most of the rest of the night and morning were squall-free and we’re now officially through the ITCZ and enjoying light NW tradewinds. We’re now into segment three of the passage. The North Pacific Trades to Hawaii. From here we’ll “lean” north to give ourselves room should the wind turn northerly. Mostly we should have east to northeast winds, but you never know. We will also still have to watch for squalls and such, but everything is much more predictable in the trades versus the craziness of the ITCZ. Glad to have made it through there. We must have lucked out and found a “seam”. (Ann says its angels on our sails!)

A picture of Charisma motoring through the doldrums (taken by our friend Perry on Felicita)

One more from Perry showing Charisma with a squall in the background.

An interesting thing about the equator is the cross-equatorial current. Just below the equator it goes west and above the equator it goes east. As we got north of the equator we found our compass and GPS were in wild disagreement owing to the almost 2 knot cross current. This morning somewhere after we passed 08 degrees north, the current stopped. I looked at the instruments and they had come into agreement again. Compass and GPS once again agree on which direction we’re going.

Since we’re just barely out of the ITCZ, there was still a little “drama” right around sunset/twilight. It was a beautiful sight. We were in the middle of what I can best describe as an “amphitheater”. Charisma was in a clearing and 360 degrees around us cumulus clouds were towering from less than 1000 feet from the water up to 15,000 feet or so. The sun was setting under them on one side and a number of them were exploding with dark shafts of rain out the bottom. Very dramatic. One such cloud right in front of us just sort of stopped and started dumping rain just before dinner. So, we furled the jib, slowed down and watched it go in front of us while we enjoyed dinner of fresh tuna sushi on a bed of cabbage with sesame soy vinaigrette. Tough life out here sometimes.

Right now the stars are amazing and again we see the Big Dipper right in front of us welcoming us back into the north while the Southern Cross is right behind us waving goodbye.

Wow!

Position: 07 degrees, 32 minutes north; 146 degrees, 16 minutes west 118 nm day

THIS (the ITCZ) is why we carry fuel. Normally we prefer not to use the engine. It becomes a challenge to see if we do make a passage without using it – just sailing. In fact just yesterday afternoon Ann and I were remarking over lunch how lucky we’ve been on the passage so far. Eight days or so of stunning sailing and then from the equator to almost five degrees north (300 miles) we’re had a SW wind pushing us north instead of the more usual no wind and even catching a tuna in the process!

Well, during last night all that changed. First, a squall kicked up the wind and we went down to just a double reefed main. Then, when we were expecting to really get hammered…nothing. The wind quit completely. The wind indicator on the top of the mast was spinning around in circles. “Swirling wind” would be the more exact description. Charisma rolled in the four foot waves and with no wind to counter, she rolled 20 degrees to one side, then in less than two seconds, snapped back 20 degrees to the other side. As the mast and sail arced through the air a sort of whiplash would occur. KerrrrrAPP! A wave of Dacron sail would start at the top of the mast and come whipping down as Charisma rolled to the 90-some pound boom, that makes a sound like a boom, or rifle shot. Back and forth, forward and back. Blam, blam, slap, slap. It not only makes you want to scream, it’s very hard on the rigging and sails.

So, we motor. Probably for the next two days straight. The grib reports are showing zero wind at this point, but there are squalls and thunderstorms just waiting to pounce. Our strategy? Forget about sailing, just get the hell through here. As straight north as we can manage and as fast as possible. We started last night around midnight and we’ll likely continue through tomorrow night. We’ll see. According to the forecasts we have about 120 miles to go before we leave the ITCZ and enter the northern trade winds. Cross fingers and knock on wood we get there soon.

On a different note: It’s been a bit perplexing – at a glance – to watch the compass and GPS. They are in significant disagreement by as much as 30 degrees! I think we’ve discovered the west to east equatorial current. Today as we turned due west to motor around a huge thunderstorm, our boat speed and GPS speed were different by one knot! That’s a pretty big current.

On a last note, I was surprised today when I looked at the GPS/chart plotter and found – out here in the middle of nowhere – an AIS signal. Yipes! I jumped up and looked around and lo and behold, the other boat we’ve been talking with on the radio was just three miles away. It’s a J-120. They left Bora Bora at the same time we left Papeete. We’ve had a radio call each day at 1700 local so we knew they were in the area, but it’s pretty surprising that after two weeks of sailing we crossed within ¼ mile on the way to Hawaii. Another definition of a small world.

"Felicita" suddenly showed up on the AIS...

...I looked around and there they were!

Position: 05 degrees, 05 minutes north; 146 degrees, 44 minutes west 120 nm day

Tuna!

Poisson cru day started at sunup. As soon as there was some light, like the seabirds that fish in the early dawn, I let the hand line slip out with a blue and pink squid lure on the end. I read that if you aren’t catching with one lure, sometimes it’s because you need to go with lighter tackle. Fish, tuna in particular can see really well. I was using a lure I’d made up that used wire as a leader, so I thought, “why not go lighter?”. The leader was only about 60 lb test, but I recently put a really long bungee on to absorb shock.

So, I’m sitting in the cockpit watching the clouds form, forgetting about the fishing line, when; “SLAP”, I heard the clothespin hit the deck. That’s our signal. I reached over to test the line and sure enough something heavy was out there. Now my conundrum was do I wake Ann two hours before the end of her off-watch or try and land whatever it is by myself? What the heck. So, I took my time setting up the gaff, knife and the rope I use to tie the fish so it won’t get away once landed. Then, on go the gloves and I start pulling in. At first it wasn’t too hard, but then the fish sensed what was going on and started to run out. Good thing for the gloves! Got him to the boat and…a tuna! Ann adores tuna – she’s kinda like a puppy with a new tennis ball when she sees one. Boy is she going to be excited! (And I was! – Ann)

Anyway, the hardest part was gaffing it by myself to get it aboard, but I finally did that and the rest, well, the hard work starts after landing it. Cleaning and filleting a large (about three foot, twenty pound) fish on a very rolly deck is a lot of work, but after about an hour we had a small bucket full of fish. Then down in the galley to finish cutting it into steaks and bagging them into portions and we’re almost done. Ah, the poisson cru. Cut the tuna into small ¼ inch pieces, chop whatever veggies you have – in our case we still have a few tomatoes and a cucumber – chop half a red onion then mix it all, add coconut crème just so it almost covers the fish and squeeze a little lime juice. Yum! We had a couple crackers with it at lunch and are going to have more at Charisma time tonight.

The other event of the day is we entered the ITCZ. For the first time in over a week, the sky has clouded over and we have cumulus clouds and rain building all around us. Looking around you see all these mushroom shaped clouds surrounding us like so many small atomic bomb blasts. So far just some rain and bumpy waves. Hope it stays that way.

Position: 03 degrees, 33 minutes north; 146 degrees, 54 minutes west 125 NM day

I don’t know who was more surprised late last night. Ann when she stood up in the cockpit to look around for traffic or the seabird who decided to roost for the night on top of the dodger.

As Ann stood up, she literally came face to beak – we’re talking about 6 inches here – with a very large seabird (might have been a Shearwater) who decided Charisma was just the place to rest for the night out here in the middle of no-where. Of course, I imagine the Shearwater was equally startled to see Ann suddenly appear from below its new found habitat.

If you said “both” were surprised, you’d be about right. Faced (pun intended) with the startling discovery Ann shrieked, the Shearwater shrieked and both retreated temporarily to sort things out. Clearly neither were expecting to have company on such a lovely night.

After the initial shock wore off, both Ann and the Shearwater decided Charisma was probably big enough for the two of them. By the time I came up for my watch, Ann was reading her book under the dodger and the Shearwater was relaxing on the stern pulpit about eight feet away where it stayed through my watch on to first light when it took off, no doubt to do some morning fishing.

Our other animal encounter was at sunset. Just as I was making Charismas, Ann yelled down that there was a whale 50 yards off the starboard beam. It turned out to be some Risso’s dolphins, which are quick large and were fishing. They would jump clear of the water and splash down hard presumably to startle the fish they were hunting. The big splash initially looked like a whale. Anyway, they hung nearby for almost half an hour as our evening entertainment doing high jumps and big splashes.

On the boat work side, early this morning, around 0530, for some reason I decided to have a look at Wilson, our Monitor wind vane. Good thing I did as there was a major chafe issue in the making on one of the steering lines. I waited until Ann was up for her watch at 0800 and together we furled the jib, hove-to (i.e. stopped Charisma) lifted the vane paddle and I disassembled the steering line, pulled 8 inches through so the chafe point would move and reassembled everything. I think that will hold it until we get to Hawaii and I can buy a new set of steering lines.

Just finishing up adjusting the wind vane steering lines.

All in a day at sea.

Position: 01 degrees, 30 minutes NORTH; 146 degrees, 38 minutes west 119 nm day We’re back – so to speak. Last night at 0015 we crossed the equator!

We're at "zero, zero" latitude crossing from South Pacific to North Pacific.

This is what the equator looks like...on the GPS 😉

Since it was late, we were in the middle of our respective watches. I was asleep, Ann was on watch, but we had agreed to celebrate, so with great difficulty I got up to recognize the momentous occasion. As the degrees and minutes of latitude counted down, I was in the cabin with a camera to capture the nav instruments showing the “zero, zero” latitude. Ann was in the cockpit with the iPad (which is connected wirelessly to the GPS and other nav stuff) ready to take a screen shot of the chartplotter at “zero, zero”. At the designated moment, we both took a picture and it worked! Now it’s time to celebrate.

We had a bottle of champagne in the fridge and made up some cheese and crackers. Then sitting under a beautiful starry night you could hear the “pop” of the champagne cork. A substantial “tot” to Neptune and then a glass each for Ann and me, we toasted coming back across on what has been an amazing adventure. Of course it’s not near over, but this is a milestone that needed to be recognized.

So…We have now almost completed “Part One” of the second leg of this journey from NZ back the US. This part was the positioning segment from Papeete to the equator. We needed to not only get north to the equator, but also make enough east to have a good angle to Hawaii from here. I think we have achieved the easting we need. “Part Two” starts in a day or two. It’s the crossing of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone or ITCZ. The dreaded place where dragons and sea monsters live; it is the boundary between the clockwise rotating winds of the northern hemisphere and the anti-clockwise rotating winds of the southern hemisphere. You can almost picture the chaos the can occur when the two meet. We get to sail through it. Thunderstorms, swirling winds, heavy rain, you know all the fun stuff. We enter this point at about 5 degrees north and exit about 9 degrees – or a total of about 240 or so miles. Roughly two days sailing – or motoring if the wind doesn’t cooperate. We’re not going to wait around for perfect conditions. If it’s not windy enough we’re turning on the engine and getting the heck out of there. Then, as we exit the ITCZ, hopefully as forecast at about 9 degrees north, we enter Segment Three, which is the final push through the trade winds into Hawaii.

The good news is there is a low pressure system up to our north and it seems to be pulling the wind up right through the equator and the ITCZ. The result appears to be a squishing of the zone – it’s not as wide as it was a couple days ago – and the fact that we actually have a consistent wind right now. It’s SSE at about 15 so we have a nice ride in a practically cloudless and very starry night sky.

The bad news is the low is turning into a tropical depression, which in turn is going to become a hurricane by Thursday. Although it’s due north of us, we should be far enough away to not be affected. Looks like we’ll be at least 300 miles south as it develops and then moves NW toward Hawaii. Hey, that’s here we’re going! “Follow that hurricane!” Haven’t you always wanted to say that?

Anyway, we’re slowing Charisma down a bit and watching the weather reports very carefully to make sure we don’t run up into it.

Position: 00 degrees, 24 minutes south; 147 degrees, 04 minutes west 130 nm day

As I write this blog Bob is below getting dinner and we are just 29 miles south of the equator. Wow. This is an emotional point in our journey. We just watched the sun set and the first of the stars arrive. We have been watching two planets chase each other across the sky during this passage. Jupiter and Venus are so bright they are always the first to greet us after sunset. But tonight we had a special treat.

If you click and enlarge this you can just see the two planets in the upper left third of the sky.

As the sun’s glow dimmed we could see the Southern Cross directly behind us. Such a sight will forever be in our memories. But as we mentioned last night, we are nearing the Northern Hemisphere and that means the Big Dipper. And sure enough, as the Southern Cross saluted us from the south we looked north and were greeted by the entire Big Dipper welcoming us to the Northern Hemisphere. We can’t quite see Polaris, the “North Star” as it is still below the horizon since we are south of the equator.

One of the symbols on my tattoo is a stylized star. Three years ago, I asked Fati, the tattoo artist in the Marquesas, to create a design that encompassed both the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper. The Southern Cross is an obvious request…we crossed the equator, we saw the constellation. The Big Dipper is a special constellation for me. I am one of seven kids. In fact I am the middle child. It is hard to make seven children feel special and unique. I am sure it was exhausting. My mother took me outside one night when I was feeling like just one of many and pointed to the Big Dipper. “Do you see the Big Dipper, Ann? How many stars are there?” Seven, of course. “But look again,” she said. “Do you see the middle star? Do you see how it connects the pot to the handle?” Sure. “It is the most important one. That’s you, my middle star.”

I have wonderful memories of life in the South Pacific. Amazing friends in New Zealand, wonderful cruising friends and memories of a specific, very special village in Fulanga. But I LOVE seeing the Big Dipper again. We will celebrate as we cross the equator (not quite seeing it in the dark) but we will put a note in a bottle, drop it over the side and count our blessings. Hello Northern Hemisphere!

And, here’s some pictures of 4th of July aboard Charisma

Dinner was hot dogs - sort of. Ann put Vienna Sausages in our mac and cheese to come as close as we could...

...then we topped it off with s'mores cooked over the stove. Yay!

Position: 04 degrees, 45 minutes south; 147 degrees, 48 minutes west 127 nm day

And dolphins are about all we have to report on today. It’s another warm, flat, not too windy day. About 8 knots ENE all day and 4.5 knots boatspeed.

Dolphins.

Looking ahead, we’re tracking a tropical depression at 10N, 155W and we’re looking to stay away from that. So, with that in mind, we’re glad we have tracked east and are continuing to angle more east if we can to stay away from that thing. The good news is that it looks like we’ll catch the edge of it where it’s pulling 15 knot south winds through the ITCZ, so instead of motoring through the doldrums, we may be able to sail through. We’ll see.

As I type this at 1945 hours after dinner the wind has filled in for the first time today at around 12 knots. A veritable “blow”. AND, more importantly instead of the ENE we’ve had it’s more like ESE which means we can adjust sails out (“crack off”) and enjoy a smoother ride paralleling the waves. OK, I have to go adjust sails now.

Position: 06 degrees, 49 minutes south; 147 degrees, 59 minutes west

Just another stunning day. Could use a touch more wind, but we’re rolling along at 5 to 6 knots with 10 or so knots of wind so can’t really complain. Hardly any clouds all last night, today and now this evening. Ann and I just spent half an hour sitting on the cabin looking out over the ocean watching the full moon rise. Just beautiful.

So…JHam, your comment yesterday comparing food selection on Charisma with that of “sailors of yore” was classic! We were in hysterics rolling on the cabin floor. Further to that, I guess the British Royal Navy would frown on tonight’s proposed fare: Smoked salmon on a toasted crouton with cream cheese, beetroot chutney and home grown sprouts.

I should ask the yacht Arnementia what real British sailors would say about this. Is it hard tack, spotted dick and a glass of port to toast the queen or does Jon (an exemplar of the Royal Yacht Squadron if there ever was one) secretly yearn for cream puffs, French cheese and a glass of chardonnay whilst on passage? What say you?

On to other business. It’s now 0400 on my watch. Could tonight actually be perfection? If not, it’s actually about as close as you can get. It’s a balmy and very comfortable 75 degrees Fahrenheit right now. There’s a stunning full moon illuminating our path – so no lights required to move around. The sea is softly whispering to me as Charisma effortlessly slides due north through the night. There’s just enough, and not too much, wind to push us gently along at a comfortable pace. Pinch me!

And, a surprise meeting at around 1300 today at 07 degrees south and 148 degrees west. We sighted another sailboat! Over a period of a couple hours we caught up with them and they eventually closed the final mile with us by sailing over to say “hello”. In the middle of the south pacific. Cool. Keely and Nate on the Hans Christian 33, “Insouciance” from Canada were on board. They are bound from Bora Bora to Hawaii. Whereas we’re looking to cross the equator between 147 and 148 west, they are headed more east to around 142, so after chatting a bit across the water, they “sheeted back in” and our paths diverged. What a nice surprise.

Is that another boat on the horizon?

Turned out to be a nice Canadian couple on the Hans Christian 33

Position: 08 degrees, 37 minutes south; 140 degrees, 29 minutes west 120 mile day

As my mind was wandering last night, as it does on a six hour watch during the dark hours of 0200 to 0800, I got to thinking about what the difference between being “out here” versus “back there”. Other than the obvious physical differences of being in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, the real difference is the fact that we’re pretty much disconnected from everything. It’s lovely. So, if you want to experience what it’s like to be out here, you can! Turn off your Google, shut down the TV, radio, cell phone and email. Disconnect the internets. Can you do that for a few hours? Get rid of all that stuff and let your mind wander. It’s wonderful. You will find yourself actually thinking instead of just processing.

So, after my watch ended and I got my mid-morning nap, I came upon deck to find the wind had eased down to about 8 knots, the seas flattened and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. You could look around 360 degrees and see the same horizon where blue sky met blue water and a dark blue line. On the one hand total isolation. On the other, total freedom. Hmmm. And not to get too philosophical, I should mention that we both also took baths today. Warm weather, not too bumpy – we didn’t even need to heat the water. Heavenly!

We also had a pleasant encounter out of the blue (so to speak) when our friends the dolphins came to play. A couple dozen came by for 10 minutes or so and danced around the boat. Ann danced for them as well. She and they seem to enjoy that.

And now the moon has risen in full glory. The reflection on the water is like a special path direct to Charisma. The moonlight is so bright it makes our headlamps unnecessary. (Of course we look very cool wearing them so we wear them but have no need to turn them on.)

Well that’s our story for this July First. Ann has announced that we will have a celebration aboard Charisma on the 4th. Stay tuned to find out what it is. Also, we have a bottle of champagne (from our friends back in NZ, Mary and Dave on Kismet) going into the fridge for the equator crossing in about 8 degrees (a degrees equals 60 nautical miles).

And…why not, we’ll put a note in it and toss it over the side.