Passage Panama to French Polynesia, day 15, Monday 3 Apr:
Monday, day 15, starts at 3am with a rude awakening from my cockpit slumber. Radar and AIS alarms are heralding from both cockpit plotter and the AIS unit at the nav station. Ha! So much for me worrying a collision alarm might not wake me. A quick look and it appears to be a fishing boat 4nm away on direct collision course. But it passes about 1/2mile off our stern without any need for a radio call. First vessel we’ve physically seen since leaving the Galapagos area a week ago. Back to sleep I go, now happier that all systems are working, including my ears.
Later that morning, armed with the latest forecast which now stretches to our ETA @Gambiers, we decide to divert to Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. Yesterday we’d concluded to wait another couple of days before deciding. But when we poled out the genoa (to wing-on-wing) and steered more downwind for a rest bite from the slogging side-on waves, it was so much comfier – it makes our decision easy. “Go with the wind” as they say. Also, the forecast shows that as we would have approached Gambier we would be in very light winds and an uncomfortable swell coming directly at us. Nothing worse than waves and no wind to pin the boat down. And, just as we would have gotten there, a rather ugly looking low-pressure system is forecast to glance the islands. So, all in all, at least unpleasant conditions to Gambier versus constant and more comfortable trade wind sailing to Marquesas.
We continue to chat daily on WhatsApp to our buddy boat, Salty Ginger, who are now a couple of days behind us. Julie enlightens me to a “local knowledge” feature on PredictWind Offshore App. Click on this and it shows all vessels in your vicinity. It’s a great view and, all of a sudden, we can see ALL the other yachts heading across the Pacific. Almost nothing short of an armada! There must be 30-40 within 500 miles of us. Now, you may say: well Glen, Marine Traffic or Ship Finder Apps do the same. Yes, but those apps only use AIS data. And out here in the ocean, our yacht’s “last AIS position” would have been days ago. Whereas this PW view shows iridium tracking which has bang-on the minute positions. Totally real time.
I spend much of the morning looking at each yachts position and more importantly their speed. And happy to report none are going as fast as Cloudy Bay! We can hold our heads high 🙂
Also of note is the ridiculous number of fishing boats, ALL with Chinese names. In fact, in one particular place, near the equator there is a 100×100 mile patch that contains literally hundreds of them. There cannot be more than a few miles between any of them. All no doubt sweeping every possible seafood life out the sea. And clearly no one to stop or regulate them in these remote international waters.
Later in the day we put up the spinnaker. Oh joy, 8.5kts in 13-15kts wind. Perfect, silent sailing. I have a love-hate relationship with this sail. Today it’s all LOVE ❤️!