07:47S 98:47W

 

miles covered past 24 hours – 165

 

For years people have been telling us that we will really enjoy the Pacific crossing.  It’s even called the “Milk Run” because it is meant to be so easy and calm - day after day of kind seas, sunshine and gentle trade winds.  It’s one of the best oceans to cross, they say, and why so many cruisers make it their first rather than the mean old Atlantic with its fearsome reputation.   So for ages we’ve looked forward to the Pacific passage and the first bit, our seven day trip from Panama to the Galapagos, proved every bit as magical as people said – flat seas, gentle breezes and the kind of blissful sailing you never want to end.  But end it did.

 

Not quite sure what went wrong when we left the Galapagos. In fact I checked the charts and skipper’s navigation to make sure we were actually heading west across the Pacific and hadn’t somehow ended up somewhere else because we haven’t had one day of flat seas with gentle trades.....this is NOT what we expected.  Today, so far, has been pretty miserable and I can’t think of much positive to say!   Yesterday it calmed down briefly and we even put the fishing lines out and hooked a mahimahi.  It was an hour or so before dinner and as we were contemplating how to cook him he obviously got wind of our plans and threw the hook and swam away.  Lucky mahimahi.  Fellow cruisers north of us hooked a 7ft kingfish which also got away. Guess the ones that get away can be as big as you like!

 

The wind increased all evening and before nightfall we partly furled the genoa which was a good call as by midnight the wind was steady at 20knots.  Just after dawn a nasty squall appeared and I woke David so we could put another reef in the main which was just as well as the winds gusted to 25, seas increased and got more confused and we started getting the odd wet wave.  I got woken from my morning nap by a huge wave slamming into us and as we were having coffee the entire aft deck got hit – thank goodness we don’t have an aft cockpit....we would have been very wet bunnies.

 

So – the Milk Run?  Not yet. It’s definitely wet and wild out here and while not as bad as the Atlantic crossing, it’s not one of our better passages – so far!  But there’s plenty of time for improvement.