Too close...

Lat: 9 deg 15' Long: 138 deg 23' 17.30 local time May 31 2006

At this moment we are only 60 nm from Hiva Oa and Tahuku bay. Local time (UTC -9h30m) is half past five pm and we have had some fantastic sailing today. So we are ahead of schedule and trying to slow down. We don't want to arrive in the middle of the night. The Genoa is down and two reefs in the mainsail and we still do some five knots. I guess we will have to heave to for 5-6 hours later this evening. The night before, when the wind increased, the hull mounting for the wind vane was torn off on the starboard side. I must say that the servo pendulum produces a lot of power. There's no way we could fix this while sailing in the middle of the night, so back to steering by hand. It was a clear night so the twinkling stars made navigation easy. Rather exiting to steer when it's all dark except for the sky. You don't see the waves, you just feel them through the boat and hear them, and sometimes get wet through the spray.
Today the old electric Auto helm was taken back in service again. It had to be repaired, but now it seems to work fine, a nice piece of equipment.
We saw the first yacht today. On the VHF we learned that it was the Horizontal with crew, from down under, coming from Galapagos and heading for Nuku Hiva. It felt good to meet another yacht. They are going pretty much the same way we are so maybe we'll meet them again.
The watches were turned to local standard time today. The sun went down 17.22!!

H�kan

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Almost caught the BIG FISH...

Lat: 7 deg 6' S Long: 136 deg 50' W 18.46 local time May 30 2006

This morning the wind almost died and then changed to north. So we had to gybe for the first time in many days. We've been doing only three to four knots today, but we still hope to arrive Thursday morning. The forecast indicates normal easterly trade winds tomorrow. The only excitement today was the Big Fish. It almost took all line before I could begin to reel it in slow by slow. The reel brake set to near maximum it still began to take line time after time! Fredrik wanted part of the action and after twenty minutes I let him take over for a while. Unfortunately the big one got away. It got off the hook. Perhaps best that way because we can eat only so much and its a waste having to throw so much of it away. It was an exciting fight though. Right now I'm reading Bengt Danielssons book "The happy island" about Raroia, a little island in the Tuamotu archipelago. He went there for the first time as part of the Kon Tiki expedition 1947 and later returned to this remote unexploited island to learn more about it's happy friendly inhabitants. "Aita peapea" is their motto, meaning such is life, don't worry. A good motto I think.
This is the first day I have felt a little bored. I long for a walk, news, a cold beer, the green lush of the tropics, internet, a green salad, meat ... Now it's time to gybe again and to make some dinner before sunset.
We are thankful for all your emails and look forward to everyone of them, so lets get creative out there, and write!

H�kan

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Getting close to the islands

05deg.55.132S 135deg.45.869W 18:55L
Another lazy day in the reality of the never ending sea, wind, swells, and sun. Sometimes it is hard to know if you really make any progress or not, you see the numbers change on the GPS, and you can feel the surging forward motion of Maiken, but the horizon and the immediate surrounding is the same. Some days you feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, same day over and over again, but it is a good day so why complain. I understood from the comments that a few is following our progress on maps and Google Earth, so I will explain a bit where most boats that visit the Marquesas are coming from. When I sailed through the Pacific Ocean on the schooner Tree of Life ten years ago, we came through the Panama Canal, visited Galapagos Islands, Easter Island, Pitcairn, Gambier Islands, and then up to the Marquesas. Most boats that come through the canal don't do that whole trip, but instead only visit Galapagos on their way to Marquesas. That trip is even longer then the sail that H�kan and I are taking, and it is also more prone to bad winds, since it is mostly around the equator. A lot of the boats from the West Coast of US and Canada, sail down to Mexico, and central America before doing the Pacific "Puddle Jump" over to French Polynesia. I decided early on that if I was to sail to French Polynesia I would do it straight from California, it is by far the best sailing angle and distance. If you look on a map over the West coast of US, Mexico, and central America, it is easy to see what I mean, for every mile you sail south along the coast you loose quarter of a mile to the east, since the coastline veers of to the east. Almost all the boats that visit the South Pacific are sailing west through the islands, this obviously because of the trade winds being SE (or even E, like we had so far). We will be in the last fleet of boats visiting, since we set out later then the boats that come from the Panama Canal. How many boats that visit the Marquesas annually, I don't really know, but 10 years ago, you kind of know most of the boats traveling west at different anchorage, since you are traveling at about the same pace. Part of the magic about cruising is really the friendships that you create along the way, in a way we are all in this endeavor together. Many of the people that I meet 10 years ago, are still popping up in articles in sailing magazines sailing around the world continuing their adventures, what a life! Today we did have a few signs that we are not the only ones out here, two Japanese long liners fishing for tuna passed us during the afternoon, it is strange to hear people talking on the VHF radio, in Japanese no less. We still see a movie every night and yesterday it was "Life as a house" with Kevin Kline, H�kan got really into the idea of building a house, so who know what might happen in the future. It is really surreal to sit inside an naturally air conditioned "theater" and then step outside into the cockpit in the pitch black and notice that you are sailing along in the middle of the ocean.

Take care,

Fredrik,

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All night long...

Lat: 4 deg 11' S Long: 134 deg 18' W 01:19 UTC May 29 2006

Good day to U all! Thanks for all nice comments on the blog. Thanks Lars-Arne, (friend and colleague from Umeå) for sharing the latest on water height in Ratan outside Umeå. Yes, low water can be a pain when setting the boat afloat. Hope the latest reading +/- zero centimeter make ends meet. Keep a steady grip on the oars! We're a little bit tired today. Maiken was rolling away all night. Heel to heel, side to side, all downwind. Should have had the hammock mounted! The morning started up with a short squall and then sun, sun and more sun. After some vanilla flavored espresso coffee and Bruce Hornsby I started to feel awake around eight a clock. Up with the Genoa again, and steady we go. Baked bread for lunch. Did nicely with the Västerbotten cheese that we brought (local prestigious cheese from my county, world famous in Sweden) . Power nap in the afternoon. Woke by Fredrik yelling - FISH!! Beautiful tuna that made Fredrik sweat even more before he could reel it in.
I wish you were here to join us for dinner. We've got the fish and the bread! You just bring a smile and some ice cold beer.

H�kan

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Maiken dancing saturday night..

Lat 2 deg 45' S Long 133 deg 6' W 29.25 local time May 27 2006

Saturday evening, the end of the third week at sea. Maiken feels this and she is taking liberties. Dancing with Mr SE Trade in a rather wild manor. And Neptune wants to have his say to. Have to admit it almost makes me dizzy when Mr Trade pulls Maiken closer, just to feel Maiken steers away the next moment. Up and down, faster and slower. Maikens slipping and sliding on the rather steep swells on the port quarter doesn't help. Cap Horn has a problem holding her. It's a fast ride though, up to 9 knots, so leave and let be. We've had another fine day with sunshine and good stabile winds. Wednesday next week we will be in Hiva Oa if everything goes according to plans. Last night we saw strong lights five nautical miles to the east. Hardly visible on the radar and no navigation lights, just strong searchlights so it had to be a rather small vessel. A small fishing boat out here?? It felt strange, this sign of civilisation after three weeks of solitude on the waves. We just took down the genua. We started to surf too fast down the swells making it difficult to steer. Now it's back to normal. Five to seven knots with just the mainsail!
Hope everything is fine with all of you out there.
And a special thanks to John Hughes for his enthusiasm and his nice comments on our blog. He's a real sailor!
Thanks for your support John!

H�kan

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I just cut my hair..

Lat: 00 deg 52.533 N Long: 131 deg 38.340 W 18.30 local time May 26 2006

Yet another very sunny day, 34 degrees Celsius in the shadow. Luckily the sun came with a cooling breeze, after the nights dead calm. And as a result of passing the equator I cut my hair which also help to cool off. Once every hour I pour bucket after bucket of, not so cold, but still refreshing, seawater over my by now no longer patchy red but rather evenly tanned body. I have to admit that the high temperature makes me a bit lazy. But we try to do something in addition to the everyday chores each day. Today we started to put the sea anchor together. Some 200 small cones are to be tied to the anchor rope, six lines per cone and two knots per line makes a total of 2400 knots. After an hour I came to feel like Sisyfos and then it was time for the bucket again. Hopefully we will never be in the position to use the sea anchor. But now I have done that little extra for today. And believe me, the sea anchor will provide us with that extra chore for some days to come. Besides chores there are books to read, subjects to be discussed, music to be listened to, waves to be watched, sheets to be tightened, fish to be caught, dreams to dreamed, words to be typed, muscles to be activated, films to watched, calculation to made and minds to be blown. So here I am, fingers on the computer, ears attached to the Ipod and Dave Matthews Band, body rocking and rolling with Maiken, tastebuds awakened by spicy mexican snacks, replying all lovely mails from my family and friends out there. It's nice to get a lot mail :-) and I love U all!
It is now final that Oskar, my 24 year old son, will join us in Tahiti end of June. I'm so glad! We'll be sailing, surfing, snorkeling, diving, smiling, fishing....
As you can see I'm happy! And I don't think it's because crossing Mother Earths waist, the equator. I looked for the line, but nothing! Well, maybe there was a little bump like crossing an intersection. But I can tell you, the gravity is a bit less here. I think I can feel it..

H�kan

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Well, we crossed over to the southern hemisphere

00deg20.4155S 131deg18.880W 10:55L

We just had the welcoming committee for the southern hemisphere, a group of 50 or so porpoises jumping around on our starboard side. The equator was crossed during the night, and we sailed past the line slowly with light winds from the SE. We celebrated the crossing during the sunset the night before with a good bottle of bubbly and some smoked trout, after having landed a big sailfish (the same family of fish as marlins and swordfish) on our now fairly beaten up fishing reel. It was a long beautiful fish with nice meat, and so far we have caught a wide variety of different fish which is a proof how alive this ocean is. So today it will be fish for lunch and dinner, we can probably feed a family of 20. H�kan and I are having good conversations and reflection about our lives and families, this is one of the advantages of sailing on a long passages like this one, you have the time to just hang out. Our destination, Hiva Oa, is currently 718 nm off to the southwest. Hiva Oa is the second of the large Marquesas islands from the south. The most southerly island Fatu Hiva is one of the most beautiful islands in the world, and is very well described in the book by Thor Heyerdahl by the same name. The problem is that you first have to check into the country at either Hiva Oa or Nuka Hiva, and then it is a hard beat back to Fatu Hiva which is SE of Hiva Oa and against the wind. So, considering that, and that I have already been there, and that our time is limited, and that we kind of want to be following the rules, we will start our exploration of the Marquesas with Hiva Oa and then sail to the other islands in the chain in a northwesterly direction. Hiva Oa is famous for being where the painter Paul Gauguin is buried among other things. The trade winds are blowing nicely today, and they are being more ESE than SE which is great for us. Life can be full of simplified beauty if you just let it happen.

Fredrik,

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Going roller coaster. Yee-haa!

Lat; 00 deg 42.014 N Long; 130 deg 44.886 W 14.00 local time May 25 2006

Breakfast this wonderful morning consisted of sliced eggs on crisp rye bread with Kalles kaviar on top. A delicious Swedish sandwich served with espresso. During the morning hours the sea changes. The waves are building ahead to port. Whitecaps everywhere and the swells seems to be building from two directions, sometimes adding up to small mountains that comes rolling and firmly lifts Maiken to the sky despite her 10000 kg displacement The wind rips of the top of the waves and the sea gets a rugged surface full of white streaks. Maiken gets a lot of showers, but manages to keep her bow out of the waves most of the times.
It's a hard beating on the port tack. The wind is flogging the headsail.
Trying to remember the American terminology; I reckon taking the "head off" by moving the helm to lee would do the trick silencing the headsail. Or "sheeting in" depending on the situation.
As you can see the terminology is a lot about beating and flogging. Makes me associate to the Spanish inquisition, and since Spain was one of the great sea nations back then, there might be a connection (?). I have taken some beatings myself when the sea forces Maiken to do an unexpected move. But most of the bruises have vanished by now and I have learned to be more vigilant. Its three weeks today since we left Oxnard CA.
We're living a life aquatic. Have you seen the movie? I like it and especially Bill Murray's detached character as an oceanografer. Yesterday evening "Cinema Maiken" showed The upside of anger. A sweet lightweight piece I wouldn't bother seeing again. But still, I don't mind looking at Joan Allen, a beautiful woman. I guess you could say that we are pretty much self sufficient here at sea, except when it comes to the opposite sex. Right now Chubby Checker is streaming out of the loudspeaker and I'm moving out on deck to stand on the cockpit seat holding the dodger to go roller coaster. Yee-haa!! Well that's it for now. Hang on out there!!

H�kan

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Heading to the south..

Lat; 00 deg 59.503 N Long; 130 deg 39.880 W 0740 local time May 25 2006

I'm sipping my coffee looking at the sunrise. The sky is red, it's very beautiful. There is even some huge cumulus clouds in the sky this early. I remember an old saying "Red sky at night - sailors delight, red sky in the morning - sailors take warning". Well we've had red sky three mornings in a row. So I guess that we've been warned alright. But for what? See that I can't remember. I guess I'm not much of a sailor not knowing the old sayings. Fredrik, the youngster, is still snoozing. With a happy smile on his face. Of course I can't ask him, because then he will know about the red sky and perhaps be worried. Like me. So this must be my secret. The winds is fairly good though, 15 knots. But like yesterday, it comes from the wrong direction namely south, even if it has shown some tendency towards east. We are close-hauled, beating. See I'm trying to learn the American terminology. The other day I wrote in Swedish, which is my native language, and therefore easier. I felt lazy that day. But unfortunately some of our readers are not familiar with the old beautiful Viking language so.. Well we're close-hauled, beating (beating who?) and Maiken jumps from wave to wave. I tried "head off" (falla av) with the only consequence that Maiken started heeling (kr�nga) more. As you can see I've learn some. But sailors terminology is funny. Head on a boat doesn't exactly mean what you would expect. There's a sign on the boat pleading "please do not put anything into the head unless you have eaten it first". It takes no more than average imagination to figure that out. But seriously, who got this meaning of the word into his head in the first place? Fredrik is showing sign of waking up now from his deep sleep so it's time for breakfast. Isn't there a sailors term for eating as well? Don't turn off the computer, well be back soon.

Take care out there!
H�kan

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På kryss mot jordens midja..

Latitud 2 grader 55 minuter, Longitud 129 grader 33 minuter. 24/5 2006

Klockan är halv ett, det är kolsvart ute. Enda ljuset ett svagt rött skimmer från nattbelysningen vid navigationsbordet. Vinden piper och Maiken kränger. Gasspisen slår till mot skrovet som gnyr saktmodigt när Maiken dunsar in i vågorna. Vindgeneratorn snurrar som en besatt. Ena handen hela tiden på något av vägghandtagen och ena foten mot läsidan beredd, där jag sitter i mörkret och lyssnar. Vi går 7 knop, tungt lastade, på kryss mot Jordens midja. Känslan av svindlande hastighet är påtaglig. En ständig, oavbruten acceleration. Värmen är tryckande och takluckorna stängda mot sprutande vågor. Jag går ut en stund och blir svalkad av vinden. Enstaka regndroppar och en mörk himmel som flyter ihop med det nattdunkla havet. Det enda som lyser upp är "fosforescensen". Mängder av lysande punkter, som stjärnor, i bogvatten och aktersvall. Maiken skapar sin egen vintergata där hon forsar fram. Efter en halvtimme går jag in igen. Kokar en kopp kaffe. En dryg timme kvar på min vakt.

H�kan

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The SE trades

03deg09.341N 129deg19.683W 21:10L
Sailing along in what we hope is the start of the SE trades, the wind is picking up and is turning from S to SE. H�kan just measured the air temperature and it was 31 deg Celsius, and that is at 9 in the evening. There are still some rain clouds around and very humid, but it feels like we have gotten past the converging zone. Today H�kan woke me up to a breakfast of freshly squeezed orange juice, a beautiful omelet and a cup of espresso brewed coffee Life is tough for us sailors. We do our best to cool off during the day with several buckets of seawater showers, and a light rinse with fresh water. We are very pleased to see that we have an audience for this blog, as we didn't really know how it would turn out. Feel free to post a comment, although we can't actually see the blog, we have a system set up so that we can read all your comments. Maiken has proved to be a tough boat, just like the lady she is named after, my grandmother. My longest sailboat passage so far has been crossing the Atlantic years ago, it took 22 days, this trip will surpass that with a few days. We spotted the star constellation "southern cross" yesterday night, and that together with some CSNY on the stereo, well that is a formula that spells South Pacific.

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The Doldrums

04deg.21.139N 128deg.29.400W 21:33L
We are currently sailing along with light winds from the south, after a couple struggling days in the ITCZ. We had a large rainstorm the other night, which dumped rain, heavy winds and confused seas at us for what seemed like an eternity. Like a lot of times in life, bad things like to in clusters, and we had a small tear in the Genoa (large foresail), and a turning block ripped from its support on the wind vane at the same time as the rainstorm. It was a really surreal night with rain so heavy that it was hard to look up, a seabird flying into our sail breaking its wing and flapping around deck, and I saw a Mahi Mahi jumping 3 feet out of the water right next to the boat. The line between dry deck and the ocean seemed blurry, and at times you felt more like a swimmer than a sailor. When morning came and the clouds scattered, we dried out and started to fix the sail and block to be able to continue like before. The converging zone is a belt with very unstable weather near the equator, and the kinds of clouds that we have been seeing supports that. The southernly winds have forced us to slow our progress some, and last night when the wind died, we started the engine and motored through the night. The last weather forecast suggest that we finally have passed the zone and the SE trade winds will fall into place. Tonight we had our dinner sitting outside at sunset, things were back to normal, the sail fixed and the new block epoxied in place. I guess if this is the last of the ITCZ, we came through pretty easy, with only one night of motoring and one rainstorm. Now the new waypoint in the plotter is set for Hiva Oa in the Marquesas (1040 miles to go), and we shall not forget that we are crossing the equator in the next few days.

Fredrik,

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We are steaming along on a flat ocean

So we have entered the ICTZ, the converging zone that separates the northern and southern hemisphere trade wind belts. I was on watch last night when the wind died (we have had great winds the last few days), a small rainstorm with strong SE winds appeared and for a moment I thought we might be seeing the southern hemisphere trades. That would have meant that the converging zone was almost non existing, but we were not that lucky. We have used very little fuel so far, so it is ok to motor for awhile. I have been surprised how much life there are in these parts of the Pacific, a lot of different seabirds, flying fish all over (several on deck in the morning, this morning also a squid), and we have caught two different kinds of tuna and one beautiful Mahi Mahi. On almost every night watch, I have spent some time just checking out the phosphorus glowing in the water. Especially in our wake after the boat, it is almost mind blowing the kind of performance these glowing dots makes. Last night we had taken some water over the side and there were a lot of glowing dots on deck, flowing around like a Pac Man game. The cool thing is if you put your finger on one dot, you can squeeze out and pull the glowing stuff all over. I have no real understanding on what the particles are, but they are wickedly cool. The heat is definitely slowing us down, and the most comfortable part of the day is at sunset when the wind cools your skin a bit. Both me and H�kan have begun to study the guide books for place that we want to visit, when we hit the islands. The anticipation of landfall is starting to take place.

Fredrik,

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Another lazy day at sea....

Lat: 7 deg 11.695 N Long: 128 deg 07.446 W 13.30 local time May 20 2006

Only 436 nm to the equator. A couple of hours a go we entered the doldrums and the wind just died so now we are motoring.
Hopefully we will be sailing before evening. The noise from the Yanmar diesel is a little bit annoying when you are used to the soft whisper of the wind and the bubbling sound of water against the boat. But at least we get to recharge our batteries. Tonight we had the first rainfall showering off all the salt from sails and deck. We still have plenty water so we didn't bother gathering rainwater. The temperature is 28 degrees Celsius and we feel rather lazy around noon. But then again cloud and wave watching doesn't take much energy. We try to cool off by pouring seawater over ourself's but it only helps a little while. Water temperature is some 25 degrees. I look forward to crossing the equator and entering the southern hemisphere. The southeast trade winds seams to be a little stronger and very steady. Crossing the line for the first time usually means that you have to do something stupid like shaving your head. Of course Fredrik doesn't have to do that since he has passed the equator before. So far everything has gone well, fair winds most of the time. There have been quite a bit of fixing and trimming to make the best out of Maiken and her gear. We have had good luck fishing. Right now I have no hurry to get Marquesas. In a few minutes we will have "inlagd sill (pickled herring , kn�ckebr�d (crisp rye bread" and potatoes. A god day to U all.

H�kan

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Two weeks at sea

12deg15.828N 128deg14.674W 04:20L

The miles keeps on adding up on the GPS, and today it will be two weeks since we left southern California. The days kind of run into one and another, and it is the small tasks that needs attention, the culinary attraction of the day, the ever changing sky, the interaction of the sea life around you, and the personal contact between H�kan and me, that shapes the day. I woke this morning with a beautiful thought of a certain marine biologist in Monterey, whom I had the fortune to meet briefly during our visit there (how did the knee surgery go?, please send me a line "yacht-maiken@hotmail.com"). The fact that we can email family and friends has been a pleasant addition to the trip, both for them and us (I hope). It is warm enough now to just have a pair of swim trunks on even during the night. The feeling of standing outside at night, swaying along with the rhythm of the boat with a warm breeze on your skin is heaven.

Fredrik,

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Never a dull moment...

Lat; 12deg 29.242 N Long; 128deg 16.549 W 0130 local time May 18 2006

Yesterday a couple of flying fish came to lunch. Very tasty, a little like herring. In the afternoon, repair of the self steering. Forces greater than expected on the lines from the wind vane to the rudder, threatening to tear away the block. No match for Fredrik, who really enjoys fixing, adjusting and mending things.

H�kan,

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On the "road" again...

Lat; 14deg22.501 N long; 128deg18.113 W 0413 local time May 17 2006

At 38 minutes past two the night before the wind came back with full strength just like that, and we have had 15 knots from the east since then.
It feels great to do 7 knots instead of two to three. We still have 1700 nm left, so speed makes a difference even if sailing is more about the journey itself and not primarily about getting to the destination. This morning we caught our second tuna, bigger this time, about 5 kilogram. So for lunch we had homemade sushi; nigri and sashimi. Delicious! My son Oskar has taught me how to do sushi "the right way", he's very into Japan. And then for dinner grilled tuna in two different marinades served with lime aioli and cocked potatoes. I have a feeling it's going to be a lot of tuna on the menu the coming days. At least we don't have to resort to canned fish. I hope we catch a Mahi Mahi some day soon. Well enough about our diet.
I'm beginning to get hang of the celestial navigation. By just establishing the time for your local noon and the suns altitude at that point you are actually able to tell your position! I got pretty close to the GPS reading the other day. There is a problem using the sun at days with overcast though, and navigating by clouds haven't been fully looked into. But seriously, weather is interesting. A couple of days ago the weather fax forecast stated "possible tropical cyclone" west of Mexico not far from our position. That made the weather extremely interesting until next forecast. By then the alert was gone.
Tonight it's cloudy but instead of stars you can look at the phosphorous light in the water. They are bright spots glowing in the water near the boat, like stars. Fascinating! But you can't navigate by them either. It's been a week since we saw a boat. But we don't feel alone. There's some birds flying around out here and the other night I saw, or mostly heard, a whale. Flyfish is legio. So you see, all is well onboard Maiken. May the sun shine on all of you out there.
Bye. H�kan.

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We tried everything

16deg39.873N 128deg11.388W 02:00L May 15
Still not much wind, and the wind we have is either light N or NE, which makes it a slow downhill slide. Today we tried several different sail configurations, to see what works best in these conditions. Up with the new Gennaker, it looks nice and it does pull us gently, but the drawback is that we need to hand steer the boat because of the light winds. Change to the Drifter and pole it out, looks cool sailing wing in wing with the mainsail and it is stable, but it actually doesn't contribute that much more speed. Back to just winged out mainsail, which is a good compromise with these light fluky winds. It stays put, the wind vane steers it easily and it produce steady speed without all the flapping of collapsed headsails. Despite the light winds, the mood on Maiken is good. It is only so much you can do, so you might as well enjoy the nice clear sunny weather and the deep blue color of the ocean. Tonight's sunset was the best so far, and we have fallen in to the routine of eating our dinner while admiring it. The communication using the SSB and Sailmail works great, and we get both weather faxes and gribfiles everyday. We had our first real saltwater shower session the other day and I must say it does look a bit funny trying to hold on while soaping up and filling the water bucket over the side. After a final rinse with fresh water, we are back in the world of the cleanliness. I am amazed of the amount of small seabirds this far from land, they fly very close and very fast to the water, swerving side to side avoiding the wave crests, like Luke Skywalker avoiding asteroids.

Fredrik,

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The wind is back, for now at least.

19deg06.033N 127deg40.661W 23:14L May 13
We are slicing our way through the moonlit night in an easterly breezy, steering south. I hope that we will be able to keep the wind we have now, since we are starting to get tired of the light to non-existing winds that we have had lately. We had the last of our fresh meats today, a nice pork loin on the BBQ. That means from now on, we will have to dig into our cans and bags for dinner highlights. I have started to read all the books that I stashed away for the trip, just finished the Da Vinci Code (yes, I know that I am way behind). I saw the first flock of flying fish today (maybe you don't actually call it a flock, but they were airborne at the time), I have been telling H�kan about how they used to land on the deck of the schooner I used to sail on, the Tree of Life. We eat a lot of eggs, as we had the fortune to be able to buy 100 of them from a farmer that actually went out and picked them while I was there. The trick is to get eggs that haven't been refrigerated or washed, as they tend to keep a lot longer.

Fredrik,

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Sail without wind..

Lat 20 deg 47161N long 127 deg 30.987W 2000 hour May 12 2006
Last night we "ran out of wind". The sea was completely calm and it wasn't a nice experience. Without wind Maiken rocked from side to side more than ever. I had a hard time sleeping,even though I usually sleep like a child onboard. In Sweden the Pacific ocean is called "Stilla havet" meaning the Calm Sea. Perhaps our Swedish ancestors had some insight into the matter. Today we have light breeze and sunny. I lost my shadow completely at noon today. We have passed south of 23,5 degrees. Very nice to sail slowly like this. Almost no swells. Fredrick and I had homemade pizza and a glass of vine during sunset. It's funny but the boat really feels like home, and when I look out I immediately recognize my surroundings. Blue water every where, very safe, soothing and familiar. You don't get the impression of being on a large ocean, of course sight is limited to 5 kilometers, but you get the feeling of really knowing your backyard.
I very much hope that my beloved son Oskar have the opportunity to join us in Tahiti for some fine sailing, snorkeling and just enjoying life.
Now Fredrik is waiting with blue Castello cheese and crackers. Got to go folks. See Ya!

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Slowly drifting forward under a moonlit night

23deg24.740N 127deg11.971W 22:06L
It is just after 2200 and we are drifting along with only the drifter sheeted back to the winged out main boom. Very little wind, maybe 5, 6 knots from the North. With this setup, we are at least doing some headway dead down wind, which is where we want to go. We had some NE winds earlier, which is what we want, and hope to get more of later. The sun is getting warmer and we starting to spend more and more time outside. We had another fish on today, but it slipped away. H�kan is really getting into the celestial stuff, going around counting out the precise time and cursing all the calculations. My plan is just to wait until he perfected it and then let him explain it and show me the way it is supposed to be done. Maiken slides forward without much effort, which surprises me a bit since she is heavily loaded with all the water, fuel, and supplies. We had to use the engine to charge the batteries today, which I don't really like, but since we have had fairly light winds lately and a bit overcast sky, the solar panel and wind generator can't keep up with our demands. We sat outside while the sun set, and had a philosophical discussion about how absurdly civilized our existence is out here on a small boat far away from any coast. We eat well, read good books, sleep, and do small chores to improve the boat. I am finally starting to get into the habit of actually just stop what I am doing if I feel like it, and sit down and read for a while or just sit and relax, there is always time to get back to whatever I was doing later in the day.

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Getting warmer

Lat 24deg31.942N long 127deg16.210W May 10 05.56

It's getting warmer and my shadow is constantly getting shorter day by day, so I guess we are on the right course. Instead of studying your shadow you can study celestial bodies trying to figure out were you are. Last night 19.59.43 local time the moon was 35 degrees and 24 seconds above the horizon. This gives one line of possible positions. If you have another intersecting line (from another celestial reading) then you can figure out were you are. You would need a nautical almanac with tables of the celestial bodies position of course. Much easier then to look at the latitude and longitude on the GPS navigator, but then again nothing compares to looking at a moonlit sky filled with twinkling stars. And you've got lots of sky-watching time, sailing silently thru the night. Rocking and tilting, listening to the sails discreet flutter, the water splashing against the boat and an occasional moaning from rig or boat.
The only thing needing attention this hour is Cap Horn, the wind vane. And looking out for other boats of course. It's almost two days since the last sighting. Now it's morning and we hope for some change in winds today. We need to go straight south at this point, and not so much west.
We have done roughly one quarter of our trip to the Marquesas at an average speed of six knots. That's the speed I usually have when I run. Not very fast you might imagine, but given time it will take you anywhere. For comparison, starting in my hometown Ume� we could have been in Milan Italy by now. Provided one could sail straight to Milan, that is.
It�s time to wake Fredrik. Bye for now. H�kan

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We caught the first fish

26deg07.960N 124deg43.736W 21:52

Another great day at sea, and to top it off, we caught a small tuna at sunset. We have experienced lighter winds from the North today, so light that we dropped the big Genoa and replaced it with a lighter drifter sail. We still haven't experienced the NE trade winds, but according to our latest grib file (weather forecast), we should see it later tonight or early tomorrow morning. We are sailing a bit West of our track, but as soon as we hit the trades, we will sail more or less due South. Our big flexible water tank on deck hasn't really performed like we thought it would and today we discovered a leak at the seam. The thing is that we have so much water, so after filling all the tanks, we dropped our clothes and had a shower in the cockpit, and we still have over half the flexible tank left. The good thing is that since we emptied it some, we could tie of the leaky spot. We are really trying to conserve power, since the overcast sky and light winds are not good for the solar panel and wind generator. Now it is time for me to hit the sack, since H�kan's watch is coming up next. We takes turn sleeping up in the bow, since it is a bit more private and the person on watch don't really need to be concern about waking the other person up accidentally.

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Sailing along in the dark night

27deg30.593N 123deg29.620W May 8th 00:45

The moon just peak out between the clouds and startled me a bit. The night gets really dark when the clouds hide behind the moon and stars, and the only light you have is the tricolor navigation light at the top of the mast. I have the 22:00 to 02:00 watch now, we have decided on a watch schedule that divides the day and night as follows: 0600-1200, 1200-1800, 1800-2200, 2200-0200, and 0200-0600. Since we don't really steer the boat (the Cap Horn self steerer is doing that job), what we do on our watch is pretty much that person's choice, as long as we keep some kind of lookout. Our life sailing along has been almost too good the last few days. Good wind, fast sailing, good food, and even a DVD movie in the evenings (saw Crash last night). It takes a few days to really get used to rhythm of the watch schedule and the constant movement of the boat, but it has been going surprisingly smooth. H�kan has discovered the magic of the Ipod, so now you can find him swinging along with the white headphones popping out of his ears. The weather has been mostly overcast, but as we are sailing almost due South, you can feel a slight warming trend in the air. We have had a good salad accompanying every meal since we started, as the salad is the first that goes bad of the vegetables. If we keep on eating snacks like we do, there will be some expansion issues in the midsection to be concerned about. We have started to fish, although we had a bit of bad luck loosing the first set of lures as it snapped off even before we were properly setup. Don't know if it was a fish that was just a bit too eager, or a snafu on our end.

Fredrik,

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Champagne for Maiken

31deg.56'N 121deg00'W 2100 Local Time
The sun was shining and the winds fair leaving Channel Islands. The windvane works well after some adjustments, so we decided to give a toast to Maiken and the Pacific ocean for a safe and happy journey. We rounded San Nicolas Island at midnight and turned south for Marquesas. Today it's cloudy and wind West 10 knots. The forecast shows expected NW winds 5-15 knots the coming days. Fredrik and I are in a good mood. Right now Fredrik is preparing our fishing reel,
Durado (mahi mahi) for dinner?

H�kan

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So we went to Oxnard for a couple of days to fix the self steering. We have made almost 700 nm and tested Maiken in rough weather. This afternoon we set sail again for the Marqueses.
There were some traffic along the coast but very few sailboats.
Then came the night with cold air and as the hours went by it became a little chilly. Sure wish that windvane were working. Wind 25 to 30 knots and by early morning we decided to heave to (dreja bi) and Maiken behaved very well, so we could rest for a few hours.
A beautiful sunset while we had our dinner, fresh tortillini and a Caesar salad.
I look happy steering, but in fact we have had some trouble with the wind vane selfsteering. And there was some problem fixing it while sailing, partly due to strong winds.


Here Fredrik makes his last telephone call for one month as we leave Monterey.