Pacific Crossing - Panama to French Polynesia

Plotting our progress across the
eastern South Pacific Ocean

A lot of boats sail from Panama to French Polynesia via the Galapagos Islands, but we decided to sail direct, making ours a non-stop trip of about 4,000 nautical miles.

We were quite a bit slower than I had anticipated, with frequently light winds from right astern - a slow and inefficient way to sail. I had raced a similar distance in Naga in the Route du Rhum a singlehanded transatlantic race in 1982, and it took me about 19 days. This trip took 25.

The trip also offered a number of surprises, like the very unreliable character of the Southeast Tradewinds - frequently weak and variable in direction - or how surprisingly cold it could be at the equator! We found that we had indeed been spoiled by Caribbean weather and didn't realize the the South Pacific Convergence zone can sometimes give days and weeks of overcast and rainy weather right across large areas of the tropical South Pacific.

We had beautiful weather, and less-than-beautiful weather.
The clouds sometimes made for dazzling days and unimagined sunsets.
And they often formed into a generalized overcast with showers,
weather that sometimes lasted for days and whcih we could only describe as "gloomy,"
a term that accurately described much of the weather on this passage.

We were surprised by how COLD it could be at the equator! Chrissi suited-up to keep warm in the middle of the day. Amazing what a cold current from the South can do.
It felt a bit historic when we sailed across "the line" into the southern hemisphere.

It was a good time to do it. Conditions were mild and we were sailing with main and genoa.
So, first the mainsail came down, then Chrissi went up. She took this photo from the
masthead in mid-Pacific when she was up there to clear a little conflict between an
antenna and the Windex. That's her booted foot in the upper left.

Landall! After 25 days at sea, we sighted Ua Huka in the Marquesas group
in French Polynesia. It was a slow passage, but a pleasant one.
And it was the beginning of our delightful exploration of the northern Marquesas.

Pacific Crossing Panama to French Polynesia

Pacific Crossing
Panama to French Polynesia