Author: Mel

Living aboard a sailboat, blogging about the places we visit and the adventures we have. Love hiking, cycling, scuba, animals and adventure.

Lessons From our Longest Passage

After taking a few weeks to catch up with the world and clean and fix up ourselves and the boat, we’re reflecting more on our voyage across the Pacific. We learned some lessons from our longest passage, and know what we will do – and not do – again.

Map voyage Passage Panama to Nuku Hiva
Our track from Panama City to Nuku Hiva French Polynesia

Convenience is Key

Cockpit Snacks

Some days, going down below to scrounge up a meal was beyond my capacity. Having a handy cache of nuts, granola bars, crackers, and ginger snaps made life easier on those rough days. We put them in the storage compartment of our cockpit table, where we usually keep sunscreens, and it was very handy.

French Press

Our Aeropress could not cut it in those rolly seas! Fortunately, Brian had the foresight to buy a stainless French press which became part of our morning coffee ritual. We still had to set it in the sink and pour carefully, but it was the best method of safely getting our much-needed morning joe.

No Shoes

One of my favorite things about passages is not wearing shoes! The downside? Since returning to daily shore visits, I’ve sprouted a few blisters, even wearing my trusty Keens.

In addition to no shoes, we were very casual on Sava’s long passage. I thought I’d be in bathing suits the whole time but it was too cold! Instead I wore pajamas plus hoodies, especially after dark. Surprisingly, we still had a full laundry bag when we arrived, but that also included dish towels and bed linens.

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Thirty Days at Sea From Panama to Polynesia

Our longest passage yet will likely be our longest passage ever if I can choose. I expected the voyage from Panama to Polynesia to be a mix of bad and good. I was correct. Compared to others who did the journey, thirty days at sea from Panama to Polynesia was average. I’m happy it’s over.

Passage Problems

Even on a short sail problems inevitably pop up, so with a 3800 mile+ passage, we knew anything could happen! Since we arrived in Nuku Hiva unharmed and with no major boat damage, we count ourselves lucky but the sail from Panama to French Polynesia was far from perfect.

No wind

Leaving Panama, we expected to have very little wind, and we were right. The first few days of the passage we crawled and we covered very little ground. In fact, many followers noticed our boat do a big circle on our map tracker. It wasn’t a mistake. With no wind and trying to conserve fuel that early in the trip, that was our actual course that day! Fortunately, that section of Panama was the lightest wind we had on the voyage. Unfortunately, it was the end of the warm weather. We were in hoodies soon after!

No Sun

Even worse for us with our new lithium batteries and upgraded solar panels was the absolute lack of sun. While we didn’t have much rain and only a couple minor squalls on the trip from Panama to Polynesia, the clouds followed us for weeks! Fortunately we brought a lot of gas for our generator because we used it! We had to run it early and often to keep our battery – and autopilot and chart plotter – running at night. Which leads us to another problem!

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Prepping for Our Pacific Crossing

We have a big trip ahead of us from Panama to French Polynesia (FP). The sail of over 3000 miles will take us around a month. Can I repeat that? Since we’re not going to The Galapagos, our sail will take about a month. Which is why we’ve spent most of our time prepping for our Pacific crossing. We want to do this right.

I had numerous checklists (I am that type) and our preparations fall into a few categories: making Sava ship-shape, getting everything we need for the passage, and mentally readying ourselves for the longest trip of our lives.

We are leaving today, so we’re done prepping for our Pacific crossing. We’ll see in a few weeks what we did right.

Getting Sava Ship-Shape

We’ve been pretty good about keeping Sava up-to-date, including our most recent lithium battery upgrade. But boats are like houses: something always breaks. Before we set sail, we want to make sure everything is in working shape, and that we have backups of our backups. It’s an important part of prepping for our Pacific crossing.

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Wildlife in Panama

The wildlife in Panama is amazing. In our travels around the country, we saw many monkeys, slews of sloths, and a lot of birds and marine life. Saw? We got close to lots of cool animals. Here’s what we saw and where we saw them.

Monkeys Everywhere

We saw – and heard – monkeys all over the Caribbean side of Panama. Even in populated areas, we communed with monkeys, like in Bocas del Toro when the howlers were hanging in the trees right next to the road.

Howler Monkeys hanging together in Bocas del Toro Panama
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We Aren’t Going to Galapagos

We aren’t going to Galapagos on Sava. We thought we would go but plans change. Fortunately, we flew and ferried to some of the islands in 2015, and loved our time there. The photos in this post are from that memorable visit.

Domino

It’s a new rule but Galapagos doesn’t allow cats, and we have Domino. Galapagos is a protected National Park with endangered indigenous animals, so they won’t admit potentially invasive animals.

Blue footed booby
Blue footed booby in The Galapagos

Since Domino is a respected crew member on Sava, we have no choice but to skip it and sail somewhere else. Domino is 13 years old, and she’s spent more time on the boat than we have since she doesn’t leave it.

cat lying on freezer on a boat
Domino is very comfortable on Sava
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