Baie de Taiohae, Ile Nuka Hiva, Iles Marquises, French Polynesia

Hello Everybody,

I am writing to you from Baie de Taiohae, Ile Nuku Hiva, Iles Marquises, French Polynesia, which means Taiohae Bay on Nuku Hiva Island in the Marquises Group of Islands in French Polynesia. So I am around 530 Nautical Miles South of the equator 3600nm due west of Peru, or 3600nm from home. I will tell you about my passage here in this letter and send another letter before I leave telling more about the island and people here. I will try and not be too nautical for those who aren’t familiar with sailing terms but I know some people are very interested in the sailing aspect, well I know my dad is, so I’ll try and find a happy medium.

Good sailing is steady winds from a consistent direction, you set your sails and the self steering and make from 100 – 150 nautical miles a day. For the majority of the passage this is what happened much to my delight, very different from sailing the Straight of Georgia or the Gulf Islands. There were times when I did not touch the sails or windvane for a week at a time. As far as sailing was concerned all I had to do was plot my position from the GPS at noon and figure out where I was and how far I had gone. These are the trade winds and they are awesome. It took a little bit to reach them and for the first days it would blow a gale and I would reef down the sails, then shake them out when the wind died down, had a couple days of near calms, but soon enough I reached them and had amazing sailing all the way to the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone, (ITCZ.)

The ITCZ was just north of the equator, this is where the northeast trade winds meet the southeast trade winds and make for calms, and squalls and it sucks. For about two weeks prior to the ITCZ I was averaging around 125nm a day and then for 6 days I averaged about 30nm a day and it was maddening. Just because there is no wind does not mean you do not move, you move every way except forward the ocean still rolls along. You want to leave the sails up so if some wind comes you can sail but when you are not making way they slat about and make a racket. It would seem this would be a good time to get stuff done but I found myself discouraged and lethargic. When a squall would come I would have a rain shower, other than that I watched movies and read. There was one lightning storm and I am not too proud to admit I was a little scared with my mast being the only metal object for hundreds of miles. I have no idea what would have happened if I got struck and was glad to not have to find out. After the six days I found the southeast trades and the remaining 8 days of sailing actually flew by.

There is really nothing to see except water and sky, some days its cloudy and some days its sunny, I preferred the sunny ones. I seen one whale on my second day and then no sea creatures for days until one day I found 2 squids and 3 flying fish had come to their demise on my deck. I really enjoyed the flying fish, the live ones, they were fun to watch. My forward hatch was usually open to allow for airflow and I even had two flying fish land in my cabin, apparently they are good eating but I wasn’t brave enough to try them. There were usually sea birds flying about and I wondered where they laid their eggs. One evening I was ghosting along at around 3 knots the seas were unusually calm and it was a clear night so lots of stars but no moon. I heard a unfamiliar sound so I went on deck to check it out, a pod of dolphins had come to play around my bow, I figured there was around a dozen of them, I couldn’t really see them except for a dark shape when they breached. I could follow them by the sparkling trails of phosphorescence they left behind. It was absolutely magical and I decided that moment was worth however long it was going to take me to get there.

I am not going to sugarcoat it 37 days at sea by oneself on a 27 foot boat is a long time, a really long time. It is by no means comfortable or exciting, to sum it up you are either lying down or trying not to fall over. There are many things that could make you go nuts, the vastness, the constant motion, the solitude and above all fact that you cannot change any of it. I think I handled it very well and although my opinion may be a little bit biased I am as sane as the day I left, not that that says a lot. I did not feel lonely or have any emotional break downs, I was my usually overly calm self taking it one day at a time. Physically I think I may have lost a few pounds, mostly pounds I could afford to lose from drinking too much beer and eating at Wendy’s prior to my departure. I am proud of myself for accomplishing what I set out to do, there are not many people who can say they have completed a 3600nm ocean passage under sail solo. That said I should like to keep my passages under two weeks now and would prefer 5 days or less.

I am done writing for now but please, if you can find the time, reply to this letter. I long for news from home, I want to know what normal people are doing, I want to know the pender gossip. I miss everybody very much and it is hard to not know when I will see people again so please keep me informed. If anybody has any questions about the passage please ask, especially children. I know there is lots I didn’t even touch on, if you ask questions then I can be sure to write about what people actually want to know, makes it easier for me. If I was on Pender time before I am on tropical island time now so be patient but I will keep writing.

Looking Forward to Your Replies,

Jonathan