St. Helena to French Guiana - Days 21 - 23

shiptrak 101

Day 21

Miles to go: 676

A full moon in a mackerel night sky...a change in the weather coming? The weather forecast shows more of the same for the next five days and the barometer remains steady. We'll wait and see what comes. The effect of the rippled, fish-scale clouds with the bright moon behind them was stunning. The moonlight was so bright, I took photos for sharing later.

Not having walked for three weeks is hard on our bodies. We do some exercising, but we're mostly sedentary, especially since we haven't even had to adjust the sails in days. Making the morning rounds on deck or climbing the ladder into the cockpit is not quite like walking for several miles a day which we tend to do when we're in port. It'll be good to stretch our legs. This has been such a benign passage so far (thank you, Neptune), we've gained weight instead of losing it. Bah!

By the way, our first foray ashore after a long passage is always a bit comical. We sway and stagger like a drunk until our bodies figure out we don't have to compensate for the roll of the boat any longer. No videos allowed.

We got an email reminder from NOAA today. Time to renew our EPIRB registration. It's easy to forget, but easy enough to do on-line (when you have Internet) and important to handle. I keep important renewal dates like this on a calendar, so they don't get overlooked. This sounds like a good  blog topic for sometime in the near future.

Day 22

Miles to go: 580

Two ships passed us during the night and we saw several more during the day. One came within 1.5 miles of us, and having the AIS display his course and CPA was reassuring. Some ships are probably heading for Belem or other Brazilian Amazonian ports and others are heading back across the Atlantic. It's odd to see so much ship traffic after weeks without seeing any at all.

We had a visitor during the night. A brown noddy hitchhiked a ride on the solar panels for several hours, spanning our watches. He'd do a couple fly-bys, lite for awhile and then fly off, returning in 10-15 minutes. He practiced the same routine over and over again, but was gone when I  took over at 0600. He must have found a better alternative.

Speaking of taking over at 0600, it was dark this morning when I started my watch...a sure sign that it's time to change the clocks one hour ahead again. We gained an hour this morning and we're now on Cayenne, French Guiana time, -3 hours GMT.

As I sat on watch in the early morning hours and contemplated the endless motion of waves and swell, that old factoid about 70% of the Earth's surface being covered by water came to mind. We've been sailing in pretty much a straight line, non-stop, 24x7,  for nearly a month and we haven't run out of ocean. In the Southern Ocean, a boat could sail endlessly to the east or the west and never hit land. So glad we live on a boat... and really glad South America is right up ahead.

We've picked up an adverse current that's slowed us down a bit. It's running between 1-2 knots. Hard to tell exactly since the speed transducer isn't providing through-the-water speed. We've checked the pilot charts and no countercurrents are noted. In fact, we should be seeing a favorable current. Instead, we're sailing along as smoothly as we have been and only doing mid-3s. Maddeningly slow progress.

Several ships, one hitchhiker, a time change, a countercurrent, and no flying fish. Quite the day!

Day 23

Miles to go: 440

A dog of a night! We've lost the ever-present southwest swell of the South Atlantic, but last night we picked up a confused wave pattern combining gentle, long period southerly swells that alternated with vicious, short-period, steep waves that hit us square on the beam and had us rolling gunwale to gunwale.  One moment, we'd be rocking gently and the next, the boat would jerk and lurch violently. The pattern repeated itself every 10 minutes or so throughout the night, making it lumpy, bumpy and quite uncomfortable for on-watch and sleeping crew alike.

PLUS we're heading southwest, not northwest! We managed to lose 18 miles of our northerly progress through the night between wind shifts and a southerly push. Luckily, we're doing it slowly because not only has the wind calmed to 8-10 knots, but it's changed direction to the east. We're blaming everything on the mighty Amazon River, more than 300 miles south of us, just because it's there. In actuality, it's all  because I had the audacity to say we were doing so well and Neptune heard. Note to self: Keep these thoughts to yourself...you know better.

Our hitchhiker was back last night...at least we think it was the same guy. He took over the solar panels as if he owned them, got settled in, pooped, and hung out for several hours. David said he took off just before dawn...leaving a voluminous quantity of poop behind to be cleaned up by the early morning crew. Yuck!

When David woke at 0900, we re-rigged the whisker pole to starboard and jibed. Now we're too high on our northerly course, but that's how it goes. Another jibe in our future. As David pointed out, at least we'll get to sleep on the other bunk/tack and relieve some of the lameness caused by a starboard heel for the past week.

One itsy-bitsy flying fish...still counts -19 total

Almost there ... stick with us ... Days 24-26

Handling Finances at Sea

Before leaving on a long passage, there's always so much to think about and handling our finances is one of them. There are all those purchases we charged just before leaving and the recurring payments made on our charge cards to consider. How do we manage bill-paying when we're on a passage? It's a question we're asked frequently. We've dealt with it in varied ways over the past years. Here are some thoughts and considerations.

Limit the number of credit cards

We have only two credit cards … a Master Card and a Visa, neither of which charge currency conversion fees which is important if you plan to be out-of-country for any length of time. Both cards also give a % cash back on purchases made. We tend to use one card more than another just for convenience sake. It's easier to keep track of purchases on two cards than on several. We either use one of these cards or pay cash for all of our purchases.

Set up an Auto Pay with credit card companies

Many credit card companies offer a “service” of dipping into your checking account each month to pay themselves. It's an option, but one we don't particularly like. If you can't check your account while at sea, you don't know what they're deducting. I'd prefer to do a bit more planning and have control of what's paid.

Get someone else to pay bills

In the past, my sister, Lin, had the onerous task of paying our bills … by writing checks, no less. It's an option, but you need to be able to trust the person who has access to your checking account and you also need to realize it's a pain in the tush for them to pay your bills as well as their own. Despite the fact we now pay all our bills ourselves, Lin still has access to our checking account … just in case.

Electronic Bill Pay

Our best tool for paying bills while on a passage is the electronic bill pay option through our bank. It's a free service for us and it's worked like a charm over the past few years. We've set up “pay-to” accounts and just fill in an amount and date to be paid and voila, it's handled.

Keep track of recurring charges

In addition to local current purchases, it's important to keep track of any recurring charges or auto-renewals you have set up. We don't have many … our annual SSCA dues, SailBlogs renewal, quarterly website fees, etc. We have a list and I take these into account if I'm scheduling payments in advance.

Calculating the amount to be paid can be challenge.

When I know we'll be offshore or out of internet range for several weeks, I keep accurate track of what we spend just before we leave. I cross-check what's been processed on our credit card account against the receipts; sometimes there's quite a time lag between purchase and account posting. I check for any recurring or annual renewal fees and add them into my calculations. As close to departure as possible, I schedule a credit card payment and add a little extra for anything I might have missed. Keep in mind the cut-off date for both charges and payments. It might be that you can split the payments between two months if the charges occur on different “sides” of the cut-off dates.

What about bills that cannot be charged?

We, currently, do not have any bills that cannot be charged to our credit cards, but we do send out checks for events like birthdays and holiday gifts and they can be scheduled well in advance.

What about deposits?

If you're lucky enough to have money coming in instead of just going out, then setting up an auto-deposit for regular incoming funds is the best bet. Still, there are those odd checks that might arrive and need depositing. Again, relying on someone ashore is the only sure-fire way to insure that funds will be deposited in a timely manner.

You'll be surprised how much you save by being at sea. Our best month ever for expenditures … $0. Long passages really give you a chance to recuperate from all that shore spending and build up your cruising kitty again.

St. Helena to French Guiana - Days 18 - 20

Right now David and Marcie are further north than this post reflects. They're close!

Day 18

Miles to go: 1,049

Another great 24-hour mileage run. The moon is nearly full, lighting up the clear night sky. The stars have bowed out, unable to compete with the moon glow. We are north of mainland Brazil now, a couple of hundred miles from Fortaleza, and not so far from Belem and the mouth of the Amazon River. That would be an interesting river to explore, but alas, not now. More time...we always need more time.

We got a disturbing email recently. Our oldest son, Brennan, took a 15' fall from a scaffolding and suffered compound fractures of his right fibula and tibia. He underwent two surgeries and a week of hospitalization. When he got home...he finally let us know. "Why the delay?", we asked, worried and upset. "Well, you're in the middle of an Atlantic crossing and you have enough to worry about plus there's nothing you could have done", was the reply. He'll be out of work and  laid-up for 12+ weeks...difficult for our workaholic son.

The cruising guilties have set in hard. Though we're back home by design for the momentous occasions and life and death events, we're not the kind of parents or grandparents or sibs or friends you can rely upon for "just being there". This is a lifestyle choice full-time cruisers make, I guess, and one we live with, but not always easily.

An interesting sidebar ... David broke his right leg climbing Mt. Kenya back in 1988. He was the same age as Brennan is now. I broke the same leg while hiking  in Colorado in 1995 ...and now Brennan's mishap. Must be something in the genes, huh?

One flying fish today for a passage total of 17.

Day 19

Miles to go: 914

Milestone: Less than 1,000 nm to go

Gorgeous sailing continues day after day and we're in awe of our luck and Neptune's largesse. The miles tick away, bringing us closer and closer to French Guiana and land. We tabulate our 24-hour run every day at 1000 hours (10am, for our landlubber friends). We both sit expectantly in the cockpit, waiting till the last possible second to log our distance run versus our distance made good. We calculate our miles and days remaining, then moan or congratulate ourselves accordingly.

Our friend, Miks from Maine, alerted us to "the last super blood moon eclipse in our lifetimes" last night. We couldn't remember what a super moon or a blood moon was, but we knew what an eclipse was and also a lifetime, so we planned to watch. David woke me from my 2100-2400 nap early, so we could enjoy it together. The moon was directly overhead and we craned our necks till they were strained and stiff, then got smart and stretched out on the aft deck with pillows for our heads. I popped a kettle of popcorn at 0100 and we munched while enjoying the lunar spectacle. We tried to take photos, but taking a long exposure night shot on a rocking boat just doesn't work well. The eclipse lasted for about 4 hours and it was just perfect in a mostly clear sky. If anything, the light, wispy clouds added to the show. Midst the moon's masking, we saw several shooting stars and finally found Polaris, the North Star.

We rearranged our watch times a bit, since David had spent much of his off-watch time moon gazing and eating popcorn. He fell sleepily into the bunk about 0200. I was fine for the first couple of hours watch, but had to sing and stay on my feet and do some exercises on my last hour to keep awake. Watching the eclipse was worth a bit of fatigue though. Thanks, Miks.

To celebrate our milestone: A "Less than a 1000 miles" picnic including calamata olives, smoked salmon pate, cracked pepper and herb crackers, white English cheddar, artichoke hearts and hearts of palm. Gourmet nibbles from the larder and easy on the cook and dishwasher.

And, lest I forget, one more stiff-winged flying fish in the scupper...18 total now.

Day 20

Miles to go: 785

It's positively steamy today... hot and quite humid...the breeze has lessened and it's just what you might expect traveling on the Equator and a portent of weather in the Guianas. I read that this is the dry season (good), but also the hottest temps (not so good). After freezing our butts off in South Africa (if only!), I'm not ready to start complaining about the heat...just yet.

We've slowed down considerably. The winds have remained the same, but we're pretty sure we've got an adverse current of a knot or two working against us. Without a working speed transducer and not caring enough to throw a log over the side to calculate speed through the water, we can only guess. For sure, we're going slower.

In anticipation of going ashore sometime in the near future, however, I painted my toenails today. Bright red...why be subtle? With the rocking of the boat, I got about as much polish on my fingers and toes as I did on my toenails, but for the 10' test, it'll do. David will tell you, grinning all the while, that no amount of nail varnish will improve the look of my feet, but it's a "getting near land" ritual thing that I do...getting into the mindset (and foot-set) of our impending arrival at French Guiana. I paint my toenails and David talks about boat chores and task lists.

By the way, he's already posturing for work vs. play days when we arrive with comments like "Boy, Marcie, the stainless really needs work, huh?" .. "It would sure be great to get some varnishing done soon, don't you think?" ... "I've been looking at the to-do list  and...and...and..."   (Not to worry...we'll have plenty of time for play. I've got my negotiating strategy all planned out.)

Flying fish count remains at 18

Days 21-23 ... will we ever get there?