Trish's take on the Pacific Crossing
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Wed 19 May 2010 03:56
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The next dreaded Ocean
Crossing
So now it is the story of how we crossed the
Pacific Ocean. I must say that I had a few tears and said on several occasions
that I did not want to do it. As I really did not enjoy the Atlantic Crossing
purley because I got very bored at sea for so long and did not find that I had
very much to do on board a boat with five men (one of which is a wonderful chef
and keen seaman,another one of which loves to look after everyone and a great
seaman, another great seaman and special friend, my wonderful son who kept me
well amused on the voyage and my wonderful husband who tried his very best to
keep me in good spirits and kept us all safe and on course for Antigua -
well - as much as he could with the winds not playing our game and blowing
from the wrong direction for us to go straight to Antigua (but that is another
story). Again I must say that I was not keen to go to sea for what was expected
to be 18 days -and with only Stewart and Angus on board this time.
As it turned out the passage only took 14 days and
the wind did play our game and sent us in a much better course for the
Marquesas. The boys spoiled me with not having to do any night watches
- for the trade off of I did all the cooking. I did get a little help with
washing up as we did stay on the same tack the whole way across the Pacific
and this meant that there was often very little for the boys to do on
their watches. Hence a lot of crosswords done and Scrabble being
played in beautiful sunshire all the way across.
On two occasions we saw whales. The first was early
one morning Stewart called me up to see a large whale as we passed it. It
appeared to be sleeping on the surface with a regular slow spray from its blow
hole and it seemed to be just lolling around on the surface with no apparent
realisation of our boat passing close by. It was amazing to finaly see
a whale up close, thought I didn't see much of the whale just a mountain of gray
and what looked like its tail, with a fountain of spry every couple of minutes.
Then a few days later we saw just the spray of another whale off our
port side but we were not close enough to really see much else. You just new that it was a whale. Not as exciting as I thought
it would be. Maybe that exciting encounter is still to come.
Then there was all the fishing excitement. It was
quite funny looking back at it now. The pure excitement of the boys when they
got hugh fish on the rod. First there was the long loud whizzzing noise of the
reel running out at very high speed. Then we all jumped into action to try to
slow the boat down so the fish would not be ripped off the line before
we could try to get it in. We had some very high dramas trying to get
the big ones landed, we could see them dancing on the surface. These magnificent
Marlin or sword fish trying with all their might to get away. And every
time we caught one we were getting better and better at the routine of stopping
the boat but we still did not manage to land the very big ones. I must say that
the boys really did love the excitement of the whole thing and the adrenalin was
really pumping and tensions were high.
I myself was very happy with the smaller fish that
we landed because they were just the right size for a good meal for the three of
us. ( I woundered what the heck we would have done with a 200lb fish if we got
it to the boat - give me a 5 to 7 lbs Dorado any day).
So that is how my second ocean crossing went. I was
in much better form for this one as I felt that I was more involved and the wind
was being kinder to us which meant that there was not the same mind games being
played about us not heading in the right direction. Stewart just pointed us in
the right direction and we stayed pretty much on that course the whole way.(
Much to my delight.)
Arriving in the Marquasas at the Island of Fatu
Hiva was a beautiful sight for two reasons, the first being that the long
passage was over and the other is that it really has to be seen to believed how
beautiful the scenery was. The rock formation of the bay with its spectacular
peaks and all the green vegitation, lush fruit trees and palm trees
everywhere a small paridise with extremely friendly people to make it a
wonderful experience.
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