some pictures and words sharing my experience sailing across the Pacific Ocean on a 48 foot sailboat in August of 2016

1. A Sailing Voyage
from Maui to Vancouver
August 1-17th, 2016
2500 nautical miles
by Suze Cumming

2. Our daily progress from Lahaina
Maui to Vancouver BC.

3. We left from Lahaina Maui at
3:15 pm August 1st with
Sunny skies.

4. Provisions: Food for
10 people for up to
20 days.

5. Feeling
excited and
optimistic.

6. A Happy
Hour Beer
before
severe sea
sickness
hit most
of the
crew

7. As we rounded
the point at
Kaanapali, the
wind picked up
to about 20
knots, the seas
got rough and
we were
beating to
windward.
Ideal
conditions for
sea sickness
and much of
the crew
suffered. This
continued for
several days.
Misery!

8. The Cliffs
of
Moloka’i.
Our last
sight of
land until
16 days
later
when we
entered
the Juan
de Fuca
Strait.

9. Grey days and 360 degree
horizons. This view was
repeated over and over again.

11. The crew of 10 was
divided into 2
watches. This is my
gang. There are
five shifts per day.
6am – noon
Noon – 6pm
6pm - 10pm
10pm - 2am
2am - 6am
This means you
have different shifts
every other day.
The oncoming
watch prepares the
meals and the off
going watch cleans
up.
It’s a whole new
perspective on
living!

12. We all get
together for
happy hour
and dinner
around 6pm
weather
permitting.
Ration is one
drink per day
except when
we find an
excuse for
double rations.

13. Another
meal
together.

14. The light was incredible.
Always changing and
offering new
perspectives.
The sea is humbling and
subtle. It earns a place
in your heart slowly
amid the discomforts of
living on a small boat
with 9 other people -
damp with sea water,
humidity and sweat.

20. We had a mix of heavy
wind, moderate and of
course, the doldrums in
the high pressure.
I wasn’t able to take many
pictures of the heavy wind
as the sea spray would
ruin the camera.
Several times we had 25-
30 knots and the sailing
was exhilarating.
Our Beneteau First 47.7,
String Theory, performed
brilliantly.

23. The weather was mixed. As you can see from the
weather charts included, we sailed through several
lows and in and around the big high.
The southern stretches were hot with water
temperatures at 82degrees F but as we got further
north the nights got cold and damp.
We had a couple of calm sunny days to dry out
sleeping bags and clothes and we were glad to have
the engine on those days to continue our progress
towards Vancouver.
The discomfort came from the dampness. We often
had 100% humidity and between that and the salt
water splashes, we were wet much of the 17 days.

24. My
watch,
very
early
morning

25. Life below
decks was
crowded but
we did a great
job of keeping
things
organized.
We lived
much of the
time on a 22
degree heel.

26. Home sweet home

27. This is my
bunk, shared
with Eric –
on the
opposite
watch. Like
ships passing
in the night.
It was most
comfortable
on
Starboard
tack which
luckily, was
most of the
trip.

29. We plotted
our
progress
daily.

30. As did the
tracker for
friends and
family at
home

31. Christof at the Navigation Station. We
had weather information coming in every
day and a cool program called Expedition
to help chart our path home around the
huge high pressure system (aka no
wind).
In the end, the program helped but good
decisions by Christof, Dave and the rest
of the crew kept us in wind most of the
time with very few engine hours and an
arrival in Vancouver on the short end of
our estimated range.
We used AIS and radar to keep track of
other boats. We had several encounters
with fishing boats and Ocean freighters
but always from a safe distance.
It’s nice to see other boats when you are
1100 miles from land in all directions.

32. Dave, watch captain on my shift, had
always wanted a coveted Japanese
glass fishing float so we were pretty
pleased to find this on one of our few
days in the calms of the high pressure
system.
Happy man!

34. Tracking the high
pressure system
was a daily thing.
Traditionally,
sailboats go above
the high and sail
east but the high
was big and far
north and we
considered sailing
under it.
In the end, we
went through a
narrow bit of it,
got above it and
had amazing wind
all the way to
Vitoria.
String
Theory

35. Eric
celebrating
his birthday
at Sea.

36. Doing what he loves.
We fished for the first 12 day
and not a bite. Very
disappointing but the other
boats we communicated with
had the same results.

38. Our fearless leader.
Christof Marti, of
Simply Sailing is an
excellent leader,
teacher and all
around sailing guru.
If you are thinking of
learning to sail,
Christof is definitely
your answer.
Contact him at Simply
Sailing in Vancouver
http://www.simplysail
ing.ca/

43. Health Food

44. Egg
McMuffin

45. Eric has scooped up a
bucket of Velella
Velella. A small
hydrozoan that lives
on the surface of the
open ocean.
They each have a
small stiff sail that
catches the wind and
propels them over
the surface of the
sea.

46. Here are the Velella
Velella by the
thousands.
For other wildlife, we
saw Orcas, a
Humpback Whale, a
pod of what we
believe were Pilot
Whales, and several
Dolphin encounters.
Unfortunately no
pictures as sightings
were short and often
at night.
We were kept
company on a regular
basis by Albatross and
other sea birds – 1000
miles from shore.

47. Velella Velella

49. Happy
Hour

50. Half way
– double
rations!

55. String
Theory

56. Super
Calm

57. Albatross and
the wind is
picking up.
Celebration.

58. It’s a big treat to
see a ship at sea
when you are over
1000 miles from
shore in every
direction.

61. Finally, some
downwind
sailing. As the
wind veered on
the top of the
high we were
able to set our
asymmetrical
spinnaker. The
wind built
slowly over
many hours to
25-30 knots.
We were flying.
In the end, we
kept the
spinnaker up
too long and
blew it apart.
Back to the
white sails.

62. Randy in the
Galley. We
ate very
well. We
had a fridge
and freezer
on the boat
so we even
had ice
cubes for
happy hour.

64. String
Theory

67. Repairing the
rip in the
mainsail. Nice
catch Dave!

68. Me on the helm!

70. Fresh
cucumbers
day 15

71. We ate a
bag of
chocolate
bars every
night.
Really!

72. That’s more like it.
Wind is back.
We took shifts on
the helm.
Sometimes a half
hour sometimes an
hour – depending
on conditions. At
night with no light,
it was extremely
challenging and
exhausting to stay
focused while
steering by
instruments.

77. Arriving in
Vancouver

78. Picture from the dock at Coal
Harbour Marina in Vancouver.
We were met by friends,
family and the String Theory
race team.
Brenda and Marguerite threw
us an amazing welcome home
party. It was a special finale to
a very cool experience.

79. Christof
backing the
boat in with
a huge
audience.
Well done!

80. After a couple of happy’s
at Happy Hour back in
Vancouver with my
daughter Ali.