Miles traveled: 3,165
Days on passage: 24 days 30 minutes
We normally don’t do broadcast emails like this because we hope our friends and family are occasionally checking our website, but this time we want to make the big announcement that we finished our South Pacific passage today! It was a long 24 days and nights underway, but we’re happy to report it was mostly uneventful. The winds were lighter than normal so we spent more time trying to keep sails full and the boat moving as fast as possible.
Rob caught lots of fish and we feasted on fresh Mahi Mahi and Wahoo many days. There was minimal equipment breakage, with the self steering gear being the only real problem. Thankfully the autopilot picked up the slack and we just had to make up for the power drain with occasional engine runs to put back into the batteries what the autopilot needed to take out.
In the end we traveled just over 3,000 miles in a little over 3 weeks. Our remaining transit across the South Pacific to New Zealand is only about a third again that distance – it’s 4,100 miles or so including the islands we plan to stop at along the way. We’re happy to think we have 6 months to sail it before cyclone season will chase us out, which will be a much better pace than we’ve been traveling the last three weeks.
Now we’re anchored on Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. I don’t know if I’ve ever been any place more beautiful.
Teresa, Rob & Maya
SV Yohelah
Lying Fatu Hiva, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia
