Bye Bye America (N, W), Hello the Marquesas (N, W)!

One last hiccup – Whilst arranging customs clearance for our boat to leave the US, we were informed that both we and the boat were illegally in the US. Our options - do a runner to Mexico or admit fault to US Customs and potentially pay a number of hefty fines. We chose the latter and thankfully the US Customs were in a good mood!  Now with our papers in order, we celebrated our good fortune with Australian Delivery Captains – Paul and Sherilee who successfully got us drunk the day before our departure!

20^th Mach – 10^th April – We leave San Diego with hangover thanks to farewell celebrations. The first day was marked by good winds, big swell (enough to make Nikki seasick – unfortunately a reoccurring theme!), beautiful sunset and sunrise. The next few days were spent getting use to Ocean sailing. Land vanishes and then it's just the Ocean, the sun and the moon, a few albatross, infrequent visits by porpoises and later dolphins, to keep you company. We travelled quickly in the tradewinds – 15-25 kn of winds NE. On the roughest day of our passage –day 10 in 4m swell, we caught our first and only two fishes of the passage. Our prize benito and Mahi Mahi made fantastic sushi and tasty barbi dinner! Day 11 we crossed the midway point, another 1400 Nm to go! A few minor squalls mark our entry into the Doldrums on Day 14 – latitude N 04. For the next six days, we have gorgeous weather – sunny days, clear nights, and very light winds, 0-10 Kn NE/E. We spent the days sunbathing whilst  watching the cummulus clouds build, the magical sunsets, the rise of the full moon and the shining of the stars. Despite the lights winds we made good progress with our Code Zero (very large front sail)! Day 17 – Hello Neptune! We uneventfully crossed the equator just before sunset and a full moonrise. Day 20 – We wake to squalls and lightning storms – one bolt struck a few hundred metres in front of the boat, a bit too close for comfort! A couple more uneventful days sailing and on day 22 we see landfall in the early morning! We did it! 2800 Nautical miles (3222 Miles/5186 

Kilometres) in 22 days! 

 

First day out and it feels good to be on our way finally. 

Some nice fish in the middle of the ocean.  

The sun, moon and squally clouds of the doldrums.  Luckily we were not becalmed for long.  

Some drinks to celebrate the equator crossing followed by beautiful sunset. 

Land ahoy!