Day 14 Date: Wednesday, April 26th, 2018 Time: 17:00 UTC Location: 00° 26.7’N 127° 18.1’W COG: 230° T SOG: 5 knots 24 hour distance traveled: 151 nm Distance to the Marquesas: 954 nm
Well, the water-maker is back on line! SHOWER TIME!!! I have a feeling that we were just going too fast the last few days and the turbulence below the boat wasn’t allowing a good flow and the pump was challenged to stay primed. On other mechanical failure news though, two of our three computers are dead and our chart plotter is getting even more finicky. Cameron’s laptop mysteriously was giving him some issues in La Cruz but now it won’t fire up and my laptop took an unexpected wave through an open port hole. They are both unresponsive. The main bummer about the chart plotter is the use of the radar to detect squalls. Although, we have heard that south of the equator, you can’t really avoid them anyway as they are so huge (not scary strong winds, just large in diameter). Other than that, we are all working very hard to stay in a positive frame of mind. It seems fairly unanimous with the other three boats around us; day 13 was a new mental barrier needing pushed through. I love being able to communicate daily with our friends who are all still in a radius of about 150 miles from us. The shared experience is powerful and helps so much to know that we are not the only ones out here. We haven’t spotted another boat since day 3 or so, but we get positions daily from our friends and can see how close they are in our navigation program. Cameron is still on the SSB net so we have some contact there and he chats with Jeff on Luminesce daily on SSB as well. Today is supposed to be fairly light winds, but after that, we have good forecasts for strong winds blowing us to the Marquesas. Cameron’s comment was “Time is going to fly!” I was a little less enthusiastic, although I am trying and it does help to see the “Distance to the Marquesas” below 1000 miles. I have to admit to hitting the wall pretty hard this time and having dark thoughts like; “What are we doing all this for? Can’t we just settle down somewhere?” I’m going to assume that this is a normal feeling at this stage in the game and once we see those green mountains rising up in the distance, I will remember the fun parts of cruising
it’s not all passage making. Next milestone – THE EQUATOR!! We should cross the equator sometime this evening and become “shellbacks”, the official term for people who cross the equator at the pace of a fast walk on their own boat. The sparkling apple cider is on ice and I’m going to bake a cake! This is SV Banyan, signing off.
Awesome!!! You have some sparkling apple cider and I’ll have a glass of champagne for you. I’m sure it is going to be tough at times. Love reading your daily updates to the girls and keeping us all in terrible jealousy!!!
Miss you all
Crossing the Pacific is a dream I never fulfilled but it’s wonderful to chart your progress. Congratulations, shellbacks
Wow – the equator! So cool. What a relief that your water is back in action! I have no doubts that those moments of frustration and doubt are to be expected… but, you’ll never look back with regret! I’m trying to imagine the excitement on board when you see land – it will be a sweet moment, for sure! Much love from us all! xoxo
The equator! How exciting! And I am so glad to hear you have those other boats to communicate with! I have started sharing your posts with my husband. We are both praying for your spirits to stay up and for those computers to come back on-line. He was wondering what you all do to keep fit (physically). We missed the first week of posts, so there’s probably a lot we don’t know. I saw that both Mary Pifer and Jennifer Cunningham are on your e-mail list, so I will ask one of them to forward the early ones to us.
Kathie
Hang in there AnneCamFam! I can’t imagine what it’s like to be doing what you’re doing, I know I probably wouldn’t be too comfortable with it but I’m proud of you guys for doing it!
I love your sharing of all your challenges, big and small. Just know that we are proud of you and your amazing adventure and hold you in our prayers.
Less than 1000 nm to go!! Love reading your honest + raw daily updates. Glad to hear the water Akers is back on.