So, we’re leaving to sail across the Pacific today. Well, more accurately we’re going to sail across about half the Pacific and about 4000 miles. Then we’ll be roughly half way to Oz hopefully in French Polynesia.

The 4000 miles is divided into a few sections: firstly from Panama towards Galapagos which is the first thousand; then across the equator and into the southern hemisphere; finally west for 3000 miles to French Polynesia and the Marquesas.

Right now we have good winds for leaving Panama, with 15 knots (perfect) pushing us out into the sea. The winds are the trade winds coming across the Atlantic at the time of year and they spill over the isthmus of Panama into the Pacific. Sadly that also means they are likely to weaken after a few of sailing south west. At that point we’ll do what we can to keep on sailing and save our fuel for when it really gets light.

After around 7-10 days we should pass Galapagos, it’s not clear if we go north or south as it’ll be wind dependant but we’re not planning on stopping unless there is a really emergency or the crew are about to mutiny. The reasons for not stopping are a bit long winded for this post but we’ll talk about them nearer the time.

Next is about 500 miles of doldrums stretching from about 5 degrees north to about 5 degrees south. We don’t have the fuel nor the desire to motor for many days on end so we’ll be trying to find a narrow point to cross and then motor due south looking for the wind on the other side. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep this to a day or two of motoring but we won’t know until we get there.

Assuming we haven’t reenacted ‘Dead Calm’ by the time we get south of the equator and back into the wind then we’ll turn westwards and hopefully have some nice sailing to the islands of the Marquesas. Our first stop will hopefully be Fatu Hiva.