Velella Cruising Log

We arrived in less time than we were expecting it would take us for such a long distance across the doldrums, and the journey was more pleasant than we anticipated. We had days of perfect sailing conditions, during which we would putter, much like we would around the house on a Sunday, doing little projects, cooking and reading. We passed the time sleeping, cooking and eating, navigating, reading, listening to the radio nets, making the French flag, and making sail changes or repairs as needed.

Needless to say, there were other times when the journey seemed like an endless test of endurance. We did our best not to whine "Are we there yet?", the often heard cry in the backseats of many a vehicle summer vacationing with kids. (Realize that we are generally traveling at the pace of a slow jog.) The toughest times were the endless sting of squalls that brought torrential downpours, sometimes along with huge gusts of wind, and trying to cook and serve meals while the waves sloshed us around like we were in the agitation cycle of the washing machine. There were many times that I swore that dinner the following night would be "Power Bars" instead of chicken stir fry with rice or other similar meals. We did resort to canned ravioli or chili on a number of occasions when cooking conditions were challenging. (Athough chili was next to impossible to find in Mexico, I did manage to find a few cans for a little more than we'd pay in the U.S.; Chili is not a Mexican meal.)

Here are the statistics:

• Departure: Saturday, March 30, 2001, 11:45 am, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
• Arrival: Monday, April 23, 2001, 9:30 am, Atuona, on the island of Hiva Oa, in the Marquesas in French Polynesia
• Miles sailed: 2,800
• Passage Time: 22 days, 22 hours
• Time motored: 2 hours (to charge batteries when weren't moving enough to get our towing generator to generate enough power to keep up with our refrigerator)
• Average wind speed: 8 knots
• Average boat speed: 5 knots
• Highest boat speed: 10.2 knots
• Lowest boat speed: 0.0 (Are you surprised?)
• Average daily run: 118 miles
• Highest daily run: 167 miles
• Lowest daily run: 56 miles
• Equator crossing: April 16, at 5:18pm, at 129 degrees, 26.5 minutes West
• Equator Celebration: Sharing a bottle of tasty Blackberry Wine with King Neptune and a Sea Nymph (Thanks Mary and Joel!)
• Highlight: Mid Ocean rendezvous with sailing vessel "Queen Jane", passing books and ice-cold cokes and ice across the water via a boathook in dry bags
• Casualties: We broke our spinnaker pole and shredded our asymmetrical spinnaker in a big squall
• Repairs: Garth got 3 opportunities to disassemble and reassemble the head, retying a windvane block after a lashing broke

We left ahead of a big pack of boats and we tended to have less wind than they did. We were surprised we didn't have more wind after all we have heard about the tradewinds, but then again, we also were surprised that we didn't face days trapped in the doldrums, where there is little wind and numerous squalls. When we saw the lush green mountains of the Marquesas, we had our reward. Asked whether we would do a passage like this again, we would heartily say "yes!" as the sense of accomplishment we felt and the wonder at the beautiful scenery and culture makes it worthwhile.

Cheers,
Wendy Hinman and Garth Wilcox
S/V Velella (Wylie 31)