2014 Across the Pacific - Marqueses
I sailed solo from Galapagos to Marquesas along with many other
boats. It turned into a race. Malua and I aquitted
ourselves well and came in ahead of many larger cats and most of my
friends. I can get Malua to sail fast 24/7. I did it in
less than 19 days..
I
do not sleep well the night before a start of a passage. I toss and
turn trying to sleep but the to-do list is forefront in my mind. I go
over all that has been done, that which should have been completed but
not essential and finally what I would have liked to do but did not get
round to doing. On this occasion I did not have to think about crew so
I knew I could undertake any task ant any time of day or night just
when it had to be done. On the three previous passages the crew stood
the 8:00 pm to 2:00 am watch so they slept in at the end of my watch
–invariably right through the whole morning and mostly until I had made
lunch and miraculously they woke to hear the lunch being served. Then
again they took a nap before their watch and again woke just as I had
finished preparing the evening meal. Well all that has changed. I
prepare meals when I want and stand watch when I want plus do odd jobs
in the middle of the night. After leaving Sab Christobal at noon
I was well under way through the island chain when the sun set and the
moon soon appeared over the stern. On this evening it was full
andd lit the surrounding sea almost like
daylight then as it reached its zenith a shadow fell over it and the
world went dark again. I was experiencing an full eclipse of the moon.
I
have never seen one of these before but it must have scared the people
of an earlier era when the moon went out during it path on a cloudless
night. I lay in the cockpit and watched the moon move across the sky
then the shadow slowly moved away and we where back in the bright moon
light.
The moon was near the horizon when the east started to glow red as the
sun came up on my second day at sea. I will be watching the sun rise
for the next 20 to 26 days as I make my way across the 3000 nm to the
Marqueses.
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