Last Day!!

Here we are on our last day of our Pacific crossing. In less than 24 hours we will be able to say we have crossed two oceans. Overall this has been a good crossing. We have had a lot of things break but so far nothing outrageously expensive or catastrophic so I will call that positive. The four of us are more than ready for a break from constantly moving. We are looking forward to sleeping without getting up every 3 hours. We are excited to arrive in the gorgeous Marquesas islands!!!

We kept track of how many squid and flying fish we had to bury at sea, how many reefs D put in and out of the main sail and how many books read. In the end the numbers didn't come out as impressive as I thought they might. I was worried in the first week that Maple's deck would be the cause of squid being added to the endangered species list with how many we had to pry off the deck every morning. But for some reason after about a week, the squid finally learned to avoid using Maple as an escape route. The final tally was 50 squid and 25 flying fish. As for the reefs in the main, again we (and by "we" I mean D) started out with putting in lots of reefs and then shaking them out again, but then the second half of the trip was mostly just sailing with either the genoa only or a few days with the spinnaker. So the 29 times D was at the mast adjusting the main doesn't seem so bad...says the one who didn't do the work. As for the books read, also not that impressive of a number of 28 for a crew of 4. Clearly I should have instead of kept track of the number of levels of Candy Crush completed or games of Exploding Kittens or Sushi Go played. Next time I guess.

Now I know that some of our sailing friends are desperate to know what broke, right?! Ok, maybe just Jeff and Shaun really. I could give you a full list but that would be boring. Instead I will just give some of the highlights:

The most spectacular break was one of our radar reflectors (this is something that is attached high up in the rigging so that Maple might have a better chance of showing up for boats that have radar on board). It is a long piece of a plastic tube with metal bits inside. So one morning, D and I are sitting at the helm together, quietly enjoying a cup of coffee. When something plummeted in front of our eyes immediately followed by the most outrageous sound as it hit the deck and shattered. There is that moment of not understanding what just happened and hoping it is not the start of the mast falling down. We were relieved when we discovered the cause, it is just unfortunate we had to contribute yet more plastic to the world's oceans.

The most concerning break was when we went to start the starboard engine in an attempt to top up our batteries and we got nothing. Just silence from the engine. Oh no. That's not good. At the time the seas were unpleasant and basically every second wave would hit the engine hatches so it meant we (and by "we" I mean D) could not investigate what was wrong with the engine. At one point D did get impatient waiting for the seas to tame and as he was half in and half out of the engine, upside down, a wave swamped him and the engine room. So that was the end of that until later. Since then D has been able to isolate the problem and the good news is that it is just a relay between the engine start switch and the starter solenoid that needs to be replaced. The bad news is that is the one spare part we do not have on board. So for now, we will have to jump start the engine with a screwdriver, how ghetto is that?!

And the most recent and exciting break was our spinnaker (a light wind, downwind sail...think of a parachute). Our dear, sweet spinnaker who we will forever have a love/hate relationship with. D noticed that a ring at the top of the sail was showing wear from a metal shackle that attaches the sail to the sock that is used to deploy and furl the sail. D being a clever fellow decided to replace said metal shackle with a soft shackle (one made from high strength rope) thinking that would help avoid further wear on the ring. We had the spinnaker up for about 12 hours with this new "fix" when close to midnight (during my sleeping shift), D describes hearing a very soft "pop" sound followed immediately by the spinnaker gently floating down into the water. Brilliant. Thankfully we had a full moon and calm seas on our side. The poor spinnaker was drifting calmly at the back of Maple in a tangle of lines still attached at the bow. D and I managed to drag the sopping wet sail out of the water without too much drama. And wouldn't you know it, we actually found the poor soft shackle that was severed through. Hmmm, one of those times when "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies. And in case you are wondering, the sail is no worse for the wear and did fly again in the morning.

The girls have been amazing. They never missed one of their watches, Iris especially was like clockwork with showing up right on time. They were able to get a lot of school done as the school year is quickly drawing to a close. Sure it is not always harmonious on board, but overall the four of us make a fantastic team and I would call this a successful crossing!!

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At 2019-05-20 19:00 (utc) our position was 08°51.78'S 138°43.56'W