Now that we’ve had a few days to settle in to Ensenada,
sleep, eat a few tacos, clean the boat and do some laundry (yay for clean
sheets!), I’ve got some time to reflect on the voyage. Overall, it was a great voyage, mainly
because we had no major problems. That
seems pretty rare for a month long voyage.
There were challenges, mainly to do with dealing with the weather, and
lack or abundance of wind and seas.
But we feel fortunate to have
made it here safely. One of our world
cruising books recommends that sailors only undertake to sail from Hawaii to
Mexico ”in extremis” because it is against the tradewinds and ocean
currents. Making this passage at this
time of year, you are really subject to the whims of the High Pressure system
that moves around all over between Hawaii and the mainland. In the center of this high pressure system, there is no wind! It did seem as though whenever we thought we
might break free from the high and get some wind, it caught up with us again,
until the very end of the voyage. In any
case, we made it! And I was only seasick
for the very first day at sea (probably because there were no seas to speak of
for most of the trip!). Here are some
stats:
Distance sailed: roughly 3,300
nautical miles (nm)
Distance from Waikiki to Ensenada (straight line) 2,293 nautical miles
Total travel time: 31 days 8
hours (May 12 – June 12)
Average Speed: 4.4 knots (this
includes all the nights drifting!)
Number of nights becalmed or hove-to: 3 nights
Number of ships we passed: About 20?
Number of Sails we used: 8 (all
the sails we own!)
Total engine hours: 126 hours/
about 52 gallons of diesel fuel
# of fish caught: 2
Gotta love sailing.
We traveled an extra 1,100 nm to get here. At our average speed of 4.4 knots that’s an
extra 10 days at sea! We can’t imagine
what a different trip it might have been if we’d had wind, and if the wind had
been from the right direction! Here are
a few pics from the passage, including the chart with our track highlighted.
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| Our track from Hawaii to Mexico. |
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| Comfy seat for the person on watch in the cockpit. This was before Tim put up even more tarps so you couldn't see out that side, but now wind or seas could get in either! |
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| Rainbow! |
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| Capt Tim tries to nap - often unsuccessfully. |
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| Sunrise. |
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| Got all my layers on - thank goodness we bought that long underwear at Patagonia in Hawaii! |
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| Finally a nice warm sailing day, using the BIG jib. |
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| Tim cleaned both fish, first the little Mahi, then the Albacore (below) a week or so later. |
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| A nice albacore tuna! Amazing how the canned stuff has the same flavor :-) |
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| When the wind filled in we were sailing well! |
As for wildlife, it was pretty quiet most of the way across,
with the exception of one pod of dolphins that found us one day when we were
motoring through some glassy water.
Throughout the trip we had a black-footed albatross that would show up
and circle us for a while, and then reappear the next day; we named him Alby. When we were 2 days out of port, we had 4 albatrosses
following us! And then we passed by
several large (hundreds!) pods of dolphins – so cool when they surrounded the
boat. Neither pod stayed with us long,
just stopped by to catch a quick bow ride and greet us. And then coming in to Ensenada, we saw gray
whales (close enough to make us change course!), flocks of pelicans and many
sea lions! The sea lions actually wake
us up with their barking throughout the night here. Here’s a few more pics.
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| One of the several glass balls we passed. |
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| A Huge school of dolphins and loads of birds greeted us on the way in to Ensenada. |
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| Sea lions abound in the Ensenada harbor. |
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| Entering Ensenada harbor. |
We’ve started making our summer plans. First it’s off to Vallarta to say hi to some
friends, then we will make our way east – to see family in New York. From New York it’s down to the St. John
(Virgin Islands) where we’ll check on our rental homes and do lots of
maintenance! We’ll leave the boat in the
marina here in Ensenada for the summer.
Luckily it seems like a pretty safe place overall, and we’ve got some
friends that will be here and can keep an eye on things for us.
