(Written 4/13, Posted 4/14 We are now largely through the ITCZ) One of our favorite fans commiserated with our lumpy night and then specifically asked how I was doing. So sweet. My feet hurt, my muscles are sore. All of my muscles are sore. And I have bruises everywhere! This all comes from trying to maintain your balance while doing all that you normally do in a day. Okay, so on a boat that is limited, but we still eat and do dishes and laundry and keep things cleaned up. Even Bob is surprised by the confused seas. And you should see this boat rock! I am going to enter a bull riding contest at Cadillac Ranch when we get back. I have all of the moves down. We call this the boat diet or core work out. I was doing some daily exercises a week ago when the waters were calm and I was in need of entertainment as Bob napped. Thank goodness I was somewhat in shape when we hit this area. It is amazing, this movement. To accomplish simple tasks you must now wedge yourself in from several angles to stay secure. With previously incurred bruises this hurts. And still Charisma will react to an odd swell and send you flying. Today I decided I was not giving in to it. For three days I have had a note to make some bread but passed because of the rolling. Today I fought for it. I lost the first batch of starter due to a lurch but the dough is rising and I fully intend to wedge myself by the stove for the full 55 minutes that the pressure cooker needs to cook it. If I don’t stand there it will get launched. I should not be complaining given what Bob accomplishes. I still find myself waking him 10% of the time. He says they are good questions and concerns and is always helpful. It happens whenever the conditions change drastically. Last night he took and extra- long watch due to squally weather. By 04:30 when he woke me up to take over he thought we were past most of the thunder and lightning. Alas, 2 hours into his sleep I had to wake him up and we then ran from lightning for two hours! The exciting news is that Bob has determined that we are well into the ITCZ (so maybe it won’t be much worse?). So Bob checked the weather faxes and wind files and we made the big move to turn south to head straight across it! I would tell you exactly where we are but the GPS is in the oven to protect it from lightning right now. But we are past the half-way point!!! Ignoring yesterday’s rocking and rolling we ended up with a great day. Hit the half-way point, had a nice clear late afternoon to enjoy a “Charisma” to celebrate and we were treated to the squall showers. The water temperature is perfect. Especially because the boat is hot, having to be kept closed up because of the waves. And after the net check-in we got to chat with two other boats and get fun blog responses. As Bob said, I went to sleep a happy girl. I can’t believe I am doing this and really enjoying it. Here on day 13 I can say that there have only been two days that weren’t fun. One of these happened to be the anniversary of my sister, Bev’s passing. I thought being way out here on this great adventure that she would have loved that I would be fine. The whole day seemed to fight me. From spilling some hot water on me first thing in the morning to locking my poop in the bathroom! Yes, that happened. Sometimes it is easier on the plumbing to just toss it overboard (right Cliff?). So I stepped out of the bathroom to get a paper towel to complete the task and somehow locked the door. Of course Bob was asleep. I spent a half hour trying different keys when I realized it’s an easy lock to pick. As I went to go into the bathroom the boat lurched and my hand got slammed in the door. Ouch. It was just going to be that kind of a day. I kept looking for dolphins or fish or something to just let me know it was okay, to no avail. But that night, as I finished dishes and went up to look around for traffic, the 100% overcast sky had parted to show the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper was an analogy my Mom used to show how important all seven of us children were. And there we were. Obviously God is on this trip too! So, after listening to me ramble you now know why Bob also is responsible for writing the blogs!

What an adventure. Through the tough days I remember the words of wisdom I received from previous Puddle Jumpers: “This will soon pass” and “It will be worth the price!”. I’m loving most of it!

What a wild ride. More to come, this is just a quick note for now to say we came out the other side after an April 13 (Friday) that had more rain (as in Monsoon) and lightning than I have ever seen, or want to see from a boat again! Most of the ride was at night with no moon making the ride that much more dramatic. Wow!

We’re currently at 03 degrees, 05 minutes North, 125 degrees, 01 minutes West. Nice weather. I slept all day having not sleep more than a couple hours in the last 48 and Ann’s sleeping right now. Nice to have that behind us. Now, on the equator! We’re working on our costumes to celebrate the crossing and changing from pollywogs to shellbacks and have champagne chilling in the fridge. Expect to cross sometime Monday I think.

More later…

Position: 05 degrees, 58 minutes North; 123 degrees, 20 minutes West

A short post today as it’s too bumpy to type very well. Here’s the highlights: -Squalls for the last 20 hours hitting up to 35 knots. Rain, wind, more wind and 8-10 foot very short period seas. I estimate the period is no more than 8 seconds or so. It’s more like dropping down an elevator than surfing. -Got up at 0400 to drop the mainsail as we were regularly hitting 10 knots surfing down 8+ foot waves. Way too fast for the wind vane steering and just inviting a wipe-out -We’re now sailing under 50% furled jib (or thereabouts) and the storm trysail. With 15-20 knots of wind right now, we’re still hitting 6-8 knots down the seas, but with much less stress on the wine vane. Less anxiety on the Captain as well 😉 -Passed our “half way point” at 1800 local time (whoo hoo!) We celebrated with some smoked oysters with our Charismas before dinner. -Took “showers” in the rain squalls. It rains so hard, you just strip down in the cockpit and soap up. Brilliant and refreshing (and clean!) Must safer than going up to the foredeck in these conditions for the bucket bath/campshower routine. More fun too! -Spoke to friends on the radio net tonight. Everyone is surprised at the bouncy conditions and all are reporting on miscellaneous bruises and bumps as they are being thrown around the boats. That’s it for tonight, hopefully more time tomorrow.

4/10/11 (Not sure if this one posted correctly from yesterday so I’m sending it again, sorry if it’s redundant)

Position: 08 degrees, 36 minutes North; 119 degrees, 11 minutes South

We’re making good time and saw a 24 hour run of 155 nautical miles today. We’re consistently doing around 7 knots (I even saw 11 knots last night as we slid down a good size wave) but we’re paying for it a bit. The wind is up in the low twenties which is no big deal, but there is a very confused sea which is making life a little uncomfortable. Wilson can’t get the boat in a groove because just as we start sliding down a nice swell, a cross swell from a different direction bumps us sideways resulting in a huge roll first to one side, then the other, then back again. This process is almost constant since yesterday evening. It means you can’t stand, walk or otherwise do anything without either grabbing something with both hands or wedging yourself between two parts of the boat, or both in order to keep from flying across the cabin or cockpit. In fact, I’m sitting sideways on my bunk with my back against the wall and my feet firmly placed against the side of the cabin in order to write this.

By the way, we did pass 1000 miles today around 1230.

So, instead of Ann waking me this morning a little before sunrise for my morning watch, I was treated to a splash of water that came through the porthole on a particularly deep roll. Nice sunrise though. Lots of tradewind “puffies”, little cumulous clouds that have flat bottoms at about a thousand feet and rise about another thousand.

Saw a little lightning last night off in the distance. We’re nearing the ITCZ, which right now has been moving around between about 5 and 7 degrees North. Another day or so I imagine and we’ll be dealing with navigating a path through it and on to the equator. In the meantime, ITCZ means we’re going to start seeing squally weather with lightning, wind, rain, etc-oh wait, we’re already getting some of that. 😉

Ann has a cool new boat project; refuse reduction. Or more specifically refuse volume reduction. Organic and paper goes over the side, but plastics, foils and such have to be stored somewhere and our experience has been that they just take up valuable space. Ann has found that a pair of scissors does wonders. I’m sitting looking at a one gallon zip lock bag full of colorful looking bits of plastic that have been cut up. Mostly Fresca bottles (for our Charisma’s!) and juice boxes but when you cut them into one inch squares, they fit in about one tenth the space (maybe less). And they are kind of decorative too with all the pretty colors and shapes! (With the large ziplock bag half full I have “reduced” 5 plastic bags, 2 Fresca bottles, 6 snack wrappers,1 paper towel bag, 5 tea/hot chocolate wrappers, 1 box juice and the preformed lettuce box. Not bad!)

That’s about it for now. No fishing today. I had the line out this morning, then thought; “what the hell am I going to do in these waves if I catch something?” and brought the line back in. Oh, and no bath either. I was looking forward to a bucket bath, but it’s too rough out so I had to settle for a “handi-wipe” bath. Cooking suffers when it’s rough as well. Dinner’s going to be “basic box” tonight since it’s no fun cooking when the boat’s rolling through 60 degrees and you’re getting thrown around the galley (both Ann and I have bruises all over where we use parts of bodies as cushions while trying to keep the hands free for slicing and dicing and such). So, I’m going to sauté some green beans leftover from last night with some bacon bits Ann bought by mistake (the packaging looks like salad with all the pictures of lettuce on it) and the whole bunch is going to get dumped in a pot of Mac and Cheese. But it will taste really good, ’cause everything does out here. And we will be balancing this with our new favorite no lettuce salad – ¼ cubes of a jicama, carrot, green apple and mango. Splash this with the juice of half of a lime and we are scurvy free too!

Position: 07 degrees, 22 minutes North; 121 degrees, 30 minutes South

Wing and wing with the storm trysail. We're still doing 6-8 knots with this rig!

Charisma’s having a lot of fun here in the trade winds, but we’re suffering a bit (we’re hearing the same from others in the fleet on the radio too). It’s gusting into the mid-twenties, whitecaps -actually the tops of most of the waves blown off-are as far as you can see across the very blue sea. I spoke with one boat named Aka who was going wing and wing and broached, completely turned around and was going backward with the main on the preventer and jib on the pole. His boat is an older IOR boat, but he’s cruised extensively and said he’d never seen it happen before, and didn’t want to ever do it again! Wave heights are averaging around six feet, with the occasional ten footer towering above, to get our attention. While Charisma is kicking up her heels and dancing down waves at 8 knots and more, we’re getting slammed around the boat (more than usual). I’ve been trying to slow her down a bit, but we’re down to the double reefed main and the jib is furled about as far as it will go. She’s completely under control; just a wild ride. Wilson is doing an admirable job of keeping dead downwind in the large waves and ample wind. The next step if needed will be to take the main down and hoist the storm trysail. It’s already hanked on the mast on its own dedicated track and in a bag, so all I have to do is hoist it (after wrestling the main down).

Booby Project Discontinued

We want to thank those of you who contributed so thoughtfully to the Booby Guano Aphrodisiac project, but sadly it is being discontinued. Turns out that Booby Guano once harvested and destined for the mass market needs to be refrigerated. Field testing suggests applying cold booby guano has the opposite of the desired stimulating effect. Also, we’ve run out of boobies. We’re well beyond their range now. So, again thanks for you entries and we’ll note that Jerry is definitely the winner with his name;” Booby Blossoms”. Jerry, we’ll save you some of the test product as a prize.

On a more happy subject, we do think we have another idea for a product to keep us funded in our cruising. Flying Fish Mobiles. There’s tons of ’em on the deck every morning. We just dry them and mount them. We’re working on the smell thing…. They will be great entertainment for your cat!

Last night So, it’s dark, around 0100. The moon’s not up yet. The waves are so big, I can hear the bigger ones coming up behind us even though I can’t see them. Then suddenly, in the blackness, the top of the wave explodes just behind us in a phosphorescent, eerie, white glow, breaking to either side of us with an almost deafening roar; white water boiling off the top of the wave, expending itself trying to get into the cockpit where I sit just watching and waiting for the one that might make it aboard.

Around all this, 360 degrees of crystal clear starlight, many old friends from previous passages winking at me, welcoming. But on the far horizon, to the South where we’re headed across the equator, distant lightning flickers in the night sky. Neptune is whispering off in the distance; “Prepare yourselves Pollywogs, it won’t be easy”.

We’re at 07 degrees 32 minutes right now as I write this. According to weather reports the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) begins from anywhere around 4 to 5 degrees. This is where the powerful tradewinds from the Northern hemisphere meet the trades from the Southern hemisphere. Unpredictable weather awaits often including squalls and lightning. Since we’re not going due South, but approaching the equator from an angle (course of 220 magnetic), we actually have about 360 miles or two to three days before we get there.

In paradise, that is.

Position: 10 degress, 18 minutes North; 117 degrees, 14 minutes West

Came on the morning watch just before sunrise and as the sun came up on one side of Charisma, the moon was on the other and a pod of a dozen or so dolphins came over to play. Pretty nice way to start the day, watching dolphins speed under the bow and leap out of the water on the other side with the sun just peeking up over the horizon.

Mostly today was more of the same trade wind sailing. Make 145 miles in the last 24 hours. A solid 15 knots of wind, 6 foot seas and blue, blue water. The only frustrating aspect is lack of fish. I’m going through all my lures but so far no luck. There’s flying fish all over the place (including on the deck in the mornings), but we’re not catching. I even saw a Mahi chase a flying fish through the air, so I know they are out here. I did get a “hit” of sorts this morning just after sunrise. I was lowering the hand-line lure into the water (I’m using a cedar plug on the hand-line and a succession of squid-like lures on the pole off the other side of the boat) off the stern and to my shock and surprise something very large hit it. Big commotion in the water, twice, but it didn’t take the hook. I’ll be more alert tomorrow to the fact that something might be lurking down there following us. I was actually worried because I didn’t have any gloves on, not thinking there would actually be a fish following us. I wouldn’t have been able to hang on without doing some serious damage to my hands.

That’s about it for today. We’re into our second week now and are about done with most of the fresh veggies. There’re still a couple papayas, apples, oranges and limes, but stuff like green beans, broccoli, etc has been consumed. Now it’s on to the root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, jicama, yams) a few last tomatoes and the cabbages. After that, it’s down to the canned veggies unless we get to the islands first.

I almost forgot, today we launched the first Charisma Oceanographic Duck. Through the use of this advanced technology we’ll be able to chart the world’s ocean currents and maybe even discover new people. What is it, how does it work (you may be asking)? Well, at the West Marine party in San Diego we caught four rubber duckies that they throw into the crowd. These four duckies are now our primary research vehicles. I have written the url of our blog on each and numbered it. As we toss them over the side at intervals along the way, I’m charting the Lat/Lon of the point of deployment. When someone finds one (New Guinea tribesmen maybe? You never know!) they will log on to our research site and note the number of the duckie and the location of discovery. We’ll then have detailed proprietary data of the ocean currents and possibly a new market for our booby guano aphrodisiac product. By the way, we need a catchy name for the guano/aphrodisiac stuff. Any ideas would be much appreciated and the reward is indeed worth the effort.

And a final note to Camanoe Dave; We found some cheddar cheese in the fridge and made quesadillas! Yum!

Position: 11 degrees, 55 minutes North; 115 degrees, 24 minutes West Day eight:

Laundry Day on Charisma

Laundry and bucket bath day. Yay! The bucket is becoming almost mild. I think the water must be close to 80F by now. Nice to get cleaned off and great to have clean clothes. Many are drying on the lifelines right now, so we are very colorful.

All that color is what must have attracted the mammals. We’re seen several Pilot Whales who come over to have a look and then disappear. A little while ago we also had a Risso’s Dolphin come over for a look and to play on the bow wave. He surfed Charisma’s bow wake for about 10 minutes before taking off for other waters.

We also witnessed the acrobatic prowess of the boobies. We have not seen they dive into the water to catch fish like they do near land. We were wondering how they were feeding themselves for the long trip they must have to get out here (800 miles from closest land). We finally saw one dive down like a hawk, wings folded, blasting toward the surface right near Charisma. Then a sharp turn and “chomp”, he grabbed a flying fish in mid-air. Quite a feat. So now we know.

The conditions have turned very good. Since setting the pole yesterday morning, we’ve not trimmed a sail or touched the wind vane. Charisma has sailed by herself for about a day and a half now. Today with about 15 knots of wind, we have made 127 miles toward Polynesia. We’re now less than 2000 miles to go (1893 miles according to the GPS as of 0300 Zulu)

Oops, forgot to post today’s position. Here it is:

13 degrees, 27 minutes North; 113 degrees 55 minutes West

Self portrait on Day Seven

Happy Easter everyone!

With dinner and the nightly roll call done, we came up the companionway ladder to find ourselves face-to-face with a blue footed booby sitting on the dodger right above our heads. He was very unconcerned that we were on his boat. As the evening progressed we also gained one on the bow pulpit and one on the lifelines about midship. They all stayed until morning. Alas, my booby deterrent system had one flaw: the boobies snuck in when I wasn’t looking.

At this point, completely outnumbered by boobies, I decided Charisma will now become an international wildlife sanctuary dedicated to the preservation of boobies. I will be applying for grant money. We will also be marketing Blue Footed Booby Guano. Known to be an aphrodisiac by New Guinea tribesmen (who know about these things), I’m sure it will do well. Limited quantities will be available for this coming holiday season, so get your orders in soon.

2200 start of the evening watch. We finally have some wind after two days of very light air. It’s veered around behind us and we’re now broad-reaching at about 7 knots, sliding down wave after wave. Nice breeze, full moon behind us; I just had a funny fantasy moment. I was watching the water go by as I often do sailing back to Berkeley at the end of the day and was thinking; “someday it will be like this sailing to the South Pacific”. Hey!! Wait a minute… Hard to believe we’re really out here doing this.

0800. I’m having fun with the General Ham license. The Ham bands are so much clearer than the SSB. The reception is great. I just finished a morning net I call into called Picante Net. It’s run very informally by the guys in Puerto Vallarta who also ran the Ham tests. Check in is between 0600 and 0700. This morning I was talking with them 500 miles to the East and also talking with one of the other boats who left a month ago, has made the Marquesas and is on their way to Tahiti. They are over 2000 miles to the East of us and South of the equator. Amazing you can do this with a radio from a relatively small boat and with not much power.

So….Message to Jon Eberly; Jon, if you can get on Picante Net some morning, it would be fun to see if we can span from here to San Francisco. Picante Net is on 6.212.0 MhZ at 1200 Zulu every morning except Sunday. I usually check in around 1245Z and catch the tail end of the net. Very informal and they know me as “Charisma” (they don’t do call signs. Funny for a bunch of guys who run Ham licensing). Drop me an email if you think you might be on and I’ll be sure to listen for you (or let me know if there’s an alternate time/freq you might be able to get on).

So, mostly that’s it for today. By the way, we’re now very solidly in the tradewinds. We even set the pole this morning after Ann got up. We’re now wing on wing and nicely sliding down the waves almost DDW with Wilson doing a Fabulous job of steering, making a course of 220 down the rhumb line toward Hiva Oa. We should start seeing some days in the 120+ mile range at this point. I’m starting to plan our crossing through the ITCZ, so spent a few hours this morning getting weather faxes to start plotting where the Zone is and where we might want to “cut through” to avoid the worst of the convection.

Stay Tuned

One of many, many beautiful sunsets at sea.

I can’t believe we have been out here for seven days already. Time is flying! I know that we’ve shared bits of this journey with you in Bob’s evening blogs but I thought I would share some highlights and lowlights. I will share lowlights first.

Lowlights: Light wind! We have had one night and one afternoon where the wind is just not cooperating. That means on watch you actually have to sit at the helm and steer or constantly adjust the Monitor. Not the worst job, just frustrating. Luckily only Bob has seen a 0.00 knots reading. I think my lowest has been 1.7.

Distance to Way Point Reading. On the Navpod at the helm our DTW (Distance to Way Point) indicator is unable to record more than a 1000 miles. So every time you come on watch it STILL says 1000. Can’t wait to see that start going down! (As of this moment, it’s 2049 miles to go out of 2648 when we started)

Poop Deck. Unfortunately as Bob mentioned our pet Boobies are not potty trained. You’d think with this huge ocean right next to the boat they could use it. Alas, every morning includes cleaning the dodger and the deck of poop.

Last of the lettuce. Tonight we will be using the last of our lettuce. Onto cabbage salads.

Lack of Fish. We just had a false alarm on the hand line and hope that now that we are picking up speed we will soon catch dinner.

Constant contact with family and friends. We are becoming weaned from the ready contact we are so used to due to internet accessibility. But we LOVE the comments coming in on the blog. Nice to stay connected. We have lots of thinking time and our friends and family rank high in there. We hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Highlights: Sitting on our “front porch” enjoying the late afternoon sun. We were sitting on the cabin top the other day just watching the waves (the water is so gloriously blue!) and the boobies and the sun. It really is romantic!

Watching the full moon setting as the sun is rising behind your back. I never realized you could see both at one time. I guess you just need enough horizon.

Radio Check In. We have made it our routine to finish dinner and have the dishes done in time to catch the 0200 Zulu (8 pm) radio check in. It is amazing that we can hear boats as far away as the Marquesas! Three boats in the Puddle Jump 2012 Class have already made landfall with a possible fourth tonight. These boats left in mid-March. It’s fun to listen to peoples positions too and hear them crossing the equator. Also fun to listen as the last of our friends jump off and join the fun.

Dinner. Not that I thought that Bob’s great cooking would wane on the open ocean, but we have been eating like royalty. No fish yet, but plenty of good food. And I have contributed too! I have made yogurt every few days and bread! Free Spirit Dave gave us a fabulous recipe that provided a loaf of bread one night and the second half became pizza dough last night! And our lettuce has held up beautifully so we have had lovely salads. Time together. Our watch system is working really well. We are getting 4-5 hours of sleep during nighttime watches and a nap in the day and best of all, early evenings are time to just enjoy this adventure together!

Weather. We are in t-shirts and shorts during the day, sweaters at night. The water is getting warmer every day!