Crossing the Pacific - Twice! Part 2
Although we avoided storms during the trip to Honolulu, Hurricane Lowell took aim at the Islands while Atalanta was waiting to depart on her return voyage to Monterey. We moved the boat to three different slips to ensure she was safe from the storm surge and ultimately decided to delay our departure for a couple of days. This allowed the seas to calm and the winds to reestablish themselves, as the days immediately following a hurricane are ironically marked by no wind - not ideal for sailing!
By the time we left Waikiki on September 13, we were antsy to put to sea and were rewarded with perfect sailing conditions. We enjoyed 10-15 knots of wind from the ENE, which enabled us to sail north from O'ahu and even make some easting as we did. Our goal was to head north into cooler water to get away from the unusually high amount of tropical storm activity.
During the first three days, we were visited by some friendly red footed boobies and enjoyed warm breeze and less wind than normal in the trades, but plenty to get us north in a hurry. We varied between full main and genoa, reef 1 and genoa, and reef 1 and large staysail when the breeze got up to 18 knots.
We jogged southeast for a day to avoid some weather, then headed back north and by day 6 were settling into our offshore rhythm of watches, eating (thanks to Ian’s amazing galley skills!), and snoozing.
Due to the confused wave trains from distant storms, the ride was occasionally uncomfortable as Atalanta beat her way into the chop. The abrupt motion and noise made sleep challenging.
As forecast by our weather router Jason, the breeze eventually died as we crossed the first section of the high, and we motored for a day and a half to reach the westerly breeze and a wonderful spinnaker run as we rode a low that was passing above us.
Around the halfway mark, we picked up some debris on the propeller, which first mate Paul deftly removed with the help of a mask, fins and a sharp knife. Several of us took the opportunity to swim in the 18,000 foot deep blue water and found it to be refreshing, although filled with bits of plastic as we were near the middle of the Great Pacific Gyre.
We also took advantage of the calm conditions to fly the drone and catch up on some repairs. We retrieved an errant staysail halyard and generally put the boat back in order for our second week at sea.
The halfway mark also afforded us an opportunity to pause and celebrate, which we did by sacrificing some delicious rum to King Neptune, followed by a dram for ourselves, of course.
The next day we had a visit from the 1100 foot long Celebrity Solstice cruise ship and a nice exchange with the captain who altered course for us, perhaps not completely altruistically as he may have wanted to give his passengers a close look at the sailors out there a thousand miles from land. On your right, ladies and gentlemen…
We continued to ride the low for awhile and it finally caught up to us. When it did, the weather changed dramatically. We had one night of strong, squally wind and heavy rain as the low passed, followed by a shift to a northerly wind, which continued more or less unabated for the rest of the passage.
Because of the abnormal location of the high this year, elongated northeast to southwest, we did not have to go north of 36 degrees north latitude and basically sailed the last thousand miles due east into Monterey. The final 200 miles were forecast to be windy and rough, and the coast of California lived up to its reputation of being the most challenging section of the entire trip. Winds topped 30 knots and we sailed with a second reef and small staysail, making 9 knots toward the barn.
This leg provided a wide variety of conditions, but in the end we only motored for around 3 days in total, less than normal for a west-east passage from Hawaii to the mainland. We also never saw more than 35 knots of wind or seas greater than 12-14’, those occurring in the final 200 miles.
We were all smiles upon arrival. I’m grateful to this group of folks who braved the open Pacific for the 15.5 day passage, Eric, Victor, Ian, Qianhua and Paul and to everyone who made sure Atalanta was in top form for the journey.
This summer, Atalanta has certainly proven she can go the distance. Next up: coastal passages in the coming months and an exciting sailing adventure in the Channel Islands next summer. Hope to see you on board!
