Crossing the Pacific

Crossing the Pacific

11/27 - 12/8/07
I've asked Doug to write this blog entry, covering our 11-day Pacific crossing, as he visits the bridge daily, talks with the officers and is particularly interested in navigation.

Departing Yokohama on a Tuesday, we set an east-northeast heading as the first leg of a modified great circle route for San Diego, some 5,000 miles distant. It was modified to the extent that we would sail three rhumb lines taking us first up to N40 degrees latitude, then easterly along the 40th parallel and finally a east-southeast heading to Bishop's Rock and finally into San Diego. Three days out, we shifted to a east-southeasterly heading rather than follow the 40th as there was a major low pressure system to the east of us. The system was moving to the north northeast at about 40 knots and, with our altered course and our 19 knots of speed, the hope was it would exit our area before we encountered it. The decision seems to be working as on our sixth day at sea, our heading will take us south of the present position of the system. If necessary, we could duck further south to Hawaii but that would add additional time and distance to our passage. Maintaining our current heading will have us passing Hawaii about 600 miles to the south.

Saturday, 1 December, we had another crew party although the cold weather kept us inside the crew's recreation lounge rather than the after deck where the other parties had been held. While similar in terms of barbecued meats, side dishes, beer, wine and brandy, this party differed from the ones held by the former crew in that we had live music! The former crew sang and danced but it was to to canned karoake music. This crew includes at least three talented musicians of guitar and voice and we sang along to many of the songs but there was no room for dancing so it was a bit more subdued.

On Sunday, we officially crossed the International Date Line but did not change the ship's calendar until Monday. The company has issued a policy that Sundays will not be repeated as they are days off for the crew. The captain informed us that this policy was written after one ship's crossing when Saturday was a Filipino holiday and they repeated a Sunday for a three day weekend. No more of that by dictate of the German management company!

The second day out, the notherly winds, hanging around northeast to northwest, began to build with an accompanying building of the seas. These are not the incredibly sharp seas we encountered twice in the Mediterranean and again in the Taiwan Straits and Yellow Sea, but rather long rolly seas which, while not necessarily uncomfortable certainly require careful foot work and daily walks on the deck are temporarily suspended by us. (Needless to say, Rebecca was unable to paint during this passage. Our days have settled into a routine of meals interspersed with reading, playing Scrabble, chatting with our fellow passengers and watching videos.) The navigation log entries today, 3 December, indicate Force 8 winds (34-40 knots) and a Sea State of 7 which could be anywhere between 5.5 to 10.0 meters of wave height (trough to crest). Our best guess is 7 meters although it's quite a bit different reading wave height from a bridge 70' above the water rather than from the cockpit of a smaller sailing vessel, perhaps 8'-10' above the water.

In 1993, during the morning radio check in of the Caribbean 1500 (a 1500-mile race/rally from Virginia to the Virgin Islands), one of the participants asked how to determine the sea state or wave height which many reported for their local area. The response from another boater was to give it your best estimate and divide by two. It's probably true that the seas often seem higher than they are, particularly as mentioned before from the cockpit of a 35' to 50' sailboat. However, we do remember a passage from Marsh Harbour to Ft. Lauderdale where we had seas breaking half way up our 50' mast. That is probably a reasonable measure of Sea State 7. Also, by looking forward on Rickmars-Jakarta, a reference point of a hatch in the forward crane structure, approximately 2 meters in height, appears to transit through three to four distances in these seas, or approximately 6-8 meters which is consistent with the log entry of Sea State 7.

These conditions seem more extreme than those we encountered when sailing Boutonierre across the Pacific but there are two significant differences. Our 7,000-mile passage from Balboa, Panama to the Kingdom of Tonga kept us within ten degrees of the equator, either north or south. Also, that took place in 1995 and twelve years erases a lot of memories of pain and dampens the adventureous spirit. Nonetheless, we are reasonably comfortable and are able to take fully cooked meals seated properly at the mess table. Extreme weather on an aircraft carrier years ago meant sitting on the deck with an arm wrapped around a stanchion and for the poor lads in the accompanying destroyers, cold cut sandwiches, as cooking wasn't possible.

We did have a one day break on Wednesday, from the extremely rolly conditions, and it couldn't have been timed better. At 0550, the lights in our cabin failed, then after blinking a few times, came on again (I happened to be awake reading). Obviously, some sort of generator failure which was followed by the switching to one of the other three generators. But then, the main engine also stopped and after a period of time, we were "lying to" and rolling in the swells which, as mentioned, were fortunately not as extreme as they had been. When the ship lost electical power, the lubrication and fuel pumps shut down and therefore the main engine. By 0625, main engine power, as well as solid electrical power had been restored and we were back again on course at our usual 18-19 knots.

Our days have settled into a routine of meals interspersed with reading, playing Scrabble, chatting with our fellow passengers and watching videos.

We are slightly behind schedule and while we will enter San Diego on 8 December, it will be at night and too late to go ashore. Therefore, our shopping and meeting with friends will be delayed until Sunday. The captain advises we must depart San Diego on the 10th to make our date with the Panama Canal so just one day in one of our most favorite ports and the first U. S. port since we departed Boston in September.

After transiting the Panama Canal, our next stop will be Puerto Moin, Costa Rica.