Across the Pacific by rope
WITH a happy and competent crew plus ample provisions for 3 months, Chaotic Harmony (hereafter known as CH) made a departure from Balboa in Panama for the Island of Mangaroa (Gambier Island) in French Polynesia.
Travelling via the Las Perlas group of Islands on the 17th February 2012 she left with a full passage plan of expected conditions, no pressing maintenance requirements and new sails and rigging.
We had hauled out in Colon to make ready for the Pacific and Chaotic Harmony was launched with a very slippery ablative bottom, a full service of both main Yanmar engines and sail drives. The bending on of new sails and a complete new suite of throughhulls were installed for the crossing before transitting the canal and provisioning in Balboa at one of the world’s largest markets.
The Balboa anchorage on the southern side of the Panama Canal was full of cruising boats with Jimmy Cornell’s ARC fleet and the Oyster rally taking most of the available berths in the marina and a large portion of the available space in the Diablo anchorage; so we were happy to raise anchor and set sail to the south east from such a packed anchorage.
HEADING OUT
Conditions were great with a gentle northerly breeze of three knots and CH flying a full code zero and main heading for Isla Saboya and an extended island hop around the Las Perlas before leaping into the vast Pacific to catch the trades and make a landfall at Mangaroa a few weeks later. It also was beneficial to precede the Oyster and ARC fleet as prices seemed to inflate wherever they moored.
We always took passage planning seriously and studied the effects of all situations and possible combinations of expected conditions so we would always have a ‘plan B’ and at times even a ‘plan C’.
We had been studying the weather including daily GRIB files, fax charts and NOAA forecasts since we sailed from Queensland a few years previously and had poured over our 1954 ‘Ocean Sailing Passages of the World’ and the NOAA pilot charts to get a grip on conditions and expectations.
In reality, a GRIB is useful for around 24 hours and comprises the
