Hola to Aloha: Selected Trip Stats

To start, we want to send big thank yous out to everyone that followed us throughout our crossing via this blog. All the love and supportive energy from all over the world was with us through all the lows and the highs. Special thanks to the vast amount and the array of people that posted comments and showed interest via e-mails (you know who you are). Their magnitude was a pleasantly unexpected surprise and very much appreciated. Following are some of the numbers that we've calculated and some of our initial reflections of the passage. More thoughts and pictures will be forthcoming as we spend the next little while here in Hilo recovering and figuring out our next steps.

Punta de Mita in Banderas Bay, Mexico to Isla Soccoro, to Hilo, Hawaii, USA

Total Travel Time: 26-days and 53-minutes

3-days 10-hrs 15-min from Punta de Mita to standing off Isla Soccoro

33-hrs from standing off to anchors back aboard leaving Isla Soccoro

21-days 5-hrs 38-min from Isla Soccoro to Radio Bay Hilo, Hawaii

Weighed anchor from Punta de Mita: Monday 16 May 1945 Zulu, 1445 PV, 0945 HI

Standing off Isla Soccoro: Friday 20 May 0600 Zulu, 0100 PV, 2000 HI

Weighed Anchor Soccoro: Saturday 21 May 1500 Zulu, 1000 PV, 0500 HI

Med-tied Radio Bay, Hilo Hawaii: Saturday 11 June 2038 Zulu, 1538 PV, 1038 HI

Total Travel Distance: 2,962.1-nm

362.6-nm between Punta de Mita and Isla Soccoro anchorage

2,599.5-nm between Isla Soccoro and Radio Bay, Hilo, Hawaii

(2,785-nm is the shortest distance between Punta de Mita and Hilo via the Great Circle route. Just for comparison, it is 2,580 miles from SFO to JFK.)

Total Engine Hours: 9.9-hrs

5.1-hrs motor sailing between Punta de Mita and Isla Soccoro

2.4-hrs motoring onto and off of Isla Soccoro

2.4-hrs motoring into Hilo Bay

Fresh water consumed: 30-gallons of 70-gal capacity. This means for all of our drinking and cooking, we used just over 1-gal per day. It was difficult to be interested in drinking, especially from wide mouth bottles so we must have been dehydrated out there as well as exhausted.

Items that required fixing en route:

replaced Monitor wind vane steering control line

cleaned soot-stained cushion

removed litter box swinging door

reconfigured jib downhaul connection at headstay

removed failed propane solenoid

repaired tear in base of 150% drifter

changed Fatty tie down

duct taped: heater stove pipe, teak haus pipe plugs, Chris' foul weather boot, plastic companionway hatch runner, AIS computer cables.

Surprisingly useful items:

Monitor wind vane- we knew this would be important, but not quite how integral!

Dodger, awning, weather cloths- we also didn't fathom just how nice these would be.

Efficient electrical system- this is obvious, but we were impressed with how our new solar array kept our battery banks topped off and how well the refrigerator worked when it wasn't even originally intended for off-the-grid use.

HF Radio and AIS- again, we knew these would be important, but the connectivity provided us via the HF radio was much more than expected and the AIS was very soothing when needed (we can only imagine how nice radar must be and full system chart plotters...).

Ear plugs- required for quasi peaceful sleep amid all of the sounds of constant motion.

Gimballed stove, pressure cooker, fiddles- used for every single warmed meal as well as the most stable storage platform anywhere aboard. Each meal was an achievement of huge proportions.

Folding cushioned cockpit chairs- we spent innumerable hours sitting on these.

Red light headlamp- night reading without completely ruining the night vision.

Logbook calendar-difficult to keep track of time underway.

Yardstick- we needed an extension for plotting on our very small scale chart (i.e. over very large areas).

Additional items included- clear lexan weather boards, lee cloths, bunk fans, and iPod.

Other interesting thoughts:

• As noted frequently throughout the voyage, the roll was more pervasive than we could have imagined. It made it quite impossible for us to do much besides keep the boat moving in the right direction- so there was little time/energy for learning (i.e. many people try to learn French on the way to the South Pacific) and we had no interest in watching digital media to pass the time.
• The creaks and groans on each different point of sail were nearly deafening with upwind being more pounding and downwind more rolly.
• Although we did our reasonable best to water tight the boat before leaving Mexico, water indeed made it's way into every nook and cranny so much time was spent attempting to keep things dry.
• A mere 2-weeks after we visited Isla Soccoro for a moment of respite, the 2011 season's first East Pacific hurricane, Adrian, visited it as well. This reconfirms why we didn't stay there long, though we would have like to.
• After landfall, when we first hopped out into Fatty, we were surprised to see the sea life that had attached itself to our after port side (both below and above waterline) which, due to our heel, had constantly been submerged for the entire voyage.