Tuesday, March 14, 2017

2017 Pacific Puddle Jump

Shindig is setting sail across the Pacific to make landfall in the Marquesas!

Nuka Hiva.  Our first planned landfall.  2700+ miles away

This new chapter takes us from our comfortable second home in Mexico to tiny specs of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Crossing the Pacific has been a dream for a very long time.  In fact, we had planned on doing this trip in 2013 but we were having such a great time in Mexico we delayed the trip and are now making the trip to the South Pacific on what many call the Pacific Puddle Jump.


This year there are about 160 boats that are making the passage.  Most leave from Panama, Mexico and the US.  Departure dates vary from February to April.

The passage from Mexico is 2700  miles + any meandering that can add another 200 miles or so.

This trip is mostly downwind.  We will start the trip at 24 degrees North latitude and after an equatorial crossing our destination is at 9 degrees South and three time zones away.

If we have good winds we expect to make the trip in three weeks.

Onboard we'll have me (Rob), JD (brother-in-law), Tom and Sylvia.   Nancy will be flying to the Marquesas and join the trip from there.

We have an ace crew for the trip.   JD can fix just about anything and Tom and Sylvia are super experienced sailors and did this passage last year on their boat Cinnabar.  Fortunately they dropped breadcrumbs so we can find our way this year.

At the moment we are busily working through boat projects and preparing the boat for sea.  Nancy has enthusiastically cleared out all the cupboards, closets and storage areas of fun Mexico related collections we've accumulated over the past 4 years.  We want to start this new chapter on Shindig as light as possible. There are already 4 large trays of ready made meals, chicken enchiladas, stuffed pasta shells and other treats waiting in the freezer for the passage.
Unlike cruising in Mexico, the South Pacific is far more remote. We are trying to address as much preventative maintenance on the boat as possible.  The next stop with proper boat yard facilities is New Zealand and that is a few years out.

Many people have asked about keeping in touch and even tracking our progress on the passage.
I intend on updating our position regularly through the reporting system at farkwar.com.
If you register, search for Shindig and then sign up to "follow".  You will get position updates and a short status update on the passage via email.











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