Time: 23:00 UTC. Position :9.05 south, 120.46 west, heading 244
\ndegrees at 6 knots.<\/p>\n
We have not had another stormy day,but continue to have a lot of
\nswells which make the boat rock from side to side. The swells
\nare rolling in from the south, and we are heading west
\nsouth-west ( mostly west), so they hit us at an angle that makes
\nit, well, rolly. It is not terrible, just not the smooth,
\neffortless sail we were expecting. Apparently the sailing
\nconditions can differ by just very small distances depending
\nwhere on this huge ocean you are en route to the Marquesas- I
\nmean we have friends on boats just a hundred miles away who are
\nhaving strong winds, but smooth, flat seas. Other people, 100
\nmiles away in another direction seem to having worse swells than
\nus. Since the conditions are constantly changing it is hard to
\nknow what to do, except just to keepdownloading weather reports
\nand hoping that each day ( or hour) brings about the changes
\nthat we are looking for. Today it seems to be pretty good. It
\nis amazing how used to it we have gotten – I mean we can read
\nand we can write e-mails- something I am sure we could not do
\nunder these condtions a few months ago. We have a fun
\nrelationship going on with another boat – Intiaq- with Karin and
\nJean-Francois on board. They are a French\/Swiss couple –
\nhandsome, articulate, friendly a little older than us. They
\nhave a big catamaran, a 47 foot Catana. A 47 foot Catana is way
\nbigger than a 52 foot Amel, by the way, because they are about
\n25 feet wide, whereas we are only 15 feet. Makes them a very
\ncomfortable and roomy boat. Catamarans handle swells much better
\nthan monohulls like us because of the broad footprint they have
\non the water – makes them very smooth. Anyways, we met Intiaq
\nin the Galapagos and left from the same harbour in Isla Isabela
\nat about the same time on April 11th. We were in radio contact
\nwith them for the first few days, but then they pulled too far
\nahead of us to get reception. The other way to communicate with
\nother boats at sea is by SSB ( single side band radio). Intiaq
\nhad set up an arrangement with a few other boats ( all French
\nspeaking) to check in with each other twice a day – just to
\nreport positions and to make sure no-one is in trouble. There is
\nsomething wrong with our SSB radio so we can hear them everyday,
\nbut can not transmit to talk to them. Since we are in e-mail
\ncontact with them as well, I wrote Karin and told her our
\ndilemna. So now, every day, after their standard SSB check-in
\nwith the other boats – which I listen in to – Karin gets on the
\nradio and just has a one way conversation with me – telling me
\nthe days news – how many fish they have caught ( many), what
\nthey have seen ( a bird), how the weather is, what great food
\nshe she prepared on board, etc. It is really nice. Then I will
\ne-mail her back some news from Sabbatical III. It is very
\ncomforting to have another boat to talk to like this. There are
\nat least 25 other boats en route to the Marquesas who also share
\ncontact information on the radio via SSB. We are able to keep
\ntrack of lots of other boats – some of them we recognize from
\nseeing them from other harbours even if we have not yet met the
\nfolks on board. We know of three boats who are sailing
\nsingle-handed – one Turk, one Canadian and one Austrian who are
\ncrossing as we do. Can’t imagine how they do it – it is a very
\nvery long journey – and even with two people it is hard to rest
\nenough. I guess they must just close their eyes, cross their
\nfingers and go to sleep on and off during the day. We have not
\nactually seen another boat for 12 days now – but expect that as
\nwe all converge on the same island in the Marquesas we will
\nstart seeing other boats. That will be fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Time: 23:00 UTC. Position :9.05 south, 120.46 west, heading 244 degrees at 6 knots. We have not had another stormy day,but continue to have a lot of swells which make the boat rock from side to side. The swells are rolling in from the south, and we are heading west south-west ( mostly west), so … <\/p>\n