Pacific Crossing
Pacific Ocean – March 23rd 17.46 N – 114.5 W
We are finally settled down to the rhythm of making a 16 day nonstop trip to the Marquesas in French Polynesia, and just passed our last bit of land being 3 small Islands four hundred miles SW of Cabo, and belonging to Mexico.
Somewhere in the Pacific. Image source: Google Earth
As our major game plan is to conserve as much fuel as we can, we are now burning, and never before experienced by SKIE, half the usual fuel consumption at 3.5 gals per hour, giving us a tick just under 7 kts in speed.
My original calculations were that we should get to the Marquesas with 30% of fuel in reserve (about 700 gal or 2,700 lts). Our full capacity is 2350 gals or 9000 litres.
I need to emphasise that if we don’t get this right we will be in a spot of bother as there is nowhere to get fuel along this very lonely route, in fact nowhere to get anything, even help.
A fellow Nordhavn 46 Puddle Jumper, Stormhaven, with Don and Paulie Grover on board, took 8 x 50 gal deck drums to supplement their existing tank capacity.
It’s just great to meet other Nordhavn owners who bought their boats to go seeking adventure, and instead of using them as floating caravans as most I have met in the US, but then different strokes for different folks I guess.
We are concentrating on eating the perishables first, and when we can see some room in the fridge, planning meals will become easier.
If I’m not reading South Pacific guide books, I’m scanning recipe books, and really can’t see myself getting into a real book until this epic stage of the journey is over.
We have had two fishing lures out for the past 3 days and snagged something big as all we could retrieve was a shredded wire trace. Our aim is to catch a nice Wahoo or Mahi Mahi and try out some of the recipes I have been collecting.
Sail fish were not on the agenda, and we had a couple dancing in the air on their tails which was a great sight, but unproductive for the freezer if we could land one (not).
SKIE has been humming along just beautifully, but will need to close the main down soon and check the oil level, so this will give us some badly needed hours use for the wing engine while we wait for the oil to cool down a bit.
Our main engine burns a bit of oil which the experts like Bob Senter says should be expected as being normal, so half way across we only needed a 1.5 litres top up.
I have just switched the Auto pilot over to WORK mode for the first time ever. This means that any course adjustments that needed to be made due to current, wind, etc, that takes us off course will be done automatically.
In the past we have always made a hand adjustment to keep on track, meaning we have to be on our toes all the time, but with 2200 nm still ahead to go and no land to hit, we should be OK to relax on this one.
Leaving Mexico