Author: irishblessing625

Oyster organized a welcome party and dinner for which the locals had been practicing and organizing for months. It was really special and obvious how much they cared about sharing their culture.

We have taken a number of dives on Fakarava which they call pass dives. You time the dive when the current is incoming and you drift with a boat following and the current shoots you like a rocket over the coral. Hundreds of sharks and other fish swim calmly as you drift by. Its not your normal easy dive as we went straight down to 95 feet where you hold onto the bottom for 20 minutes before you let go and the current shoots you into the atoll.

We were fortunate enough to find a church for both good Friday and Easter Sunday services. The church was gorgeous with hard wood carvings and shell chandeliers. While I could not understand a lot of the service their faith and enthusiasm for Easter was compelling.

Easter dinner on board

We had a wonderful day of Easter mass in the morning. We found a lovely little beach hotel for lunch and then celebrated Easter dinner back on board where Issy surprised us with a wonderful apple crumble.

Oyster get-together

We hosted a get-together on board for 3 other Oysters. There is a fair amount of socializing and it is great to talk to the other owners, they are a pretty special group of people that are undertaking this adventure. Our stories are all different but our dreams strangely similar.

What’s next?

We are departing this afternoon for an overnight sail to Rangiroa where we will spend a week before again transiting overnight to Tahiti. Mike will fly out of Rangiroa to meet Cecelia in Tahiti for a week on shore in Moorea. Cullen and I will sail into Tahiti and meet Vanessa on the 28th of April. Cullen is looking forward to seeing his mom and I am looking forward to seeing my girlfriend. We will send you an update before we leave Rangiroa.

Random Thoughts

My assistant Suzanne sent me a text saying I don’t think you can go on a trip like this and come back the same. I will be interested to see what things in your life you hold onto and what things you decide to let go. I think about that a lot when I’m by myself on night watches. So far I have decided I am going to hold onto family and friends more and worry about stuff less but I will keep you posted.

The Irish Blessing departed Galapagos on St.Patrick’s Day (appropriately!) and have arrived in Nuku Hiva on April 3rd. 17 days at sea. Frankly, I think 17 days at sea is as long as I would ever like to be out there. It felt so good to get in, drop the anchor, and jump in the ocean after 17 days.

Pacific Passage by the Numbers

3150 nautical miles Galapagos to the Marquesas (3600 miles) 300 gallons of fuel 1800 gallons of water made (onboard desalinator) 270 individual meals prepared Only 2 bags of garbage (all food waste overboard, all plastic cans bottles etc. washed and dried in order to eliminate odors) 5 fish caught (1 blue marlin released and 4 tuna consumed) 10 books read Movies watched- Moana, Caddy Shack, Red Notice, and too numerous to list from Cullen 128 flying fish cleaned of dock and 16 squid on morning inspection Each crew member stood watch 3.5 days at 2 hours a shift

It’s so great after a long night watch to watch the sunrise in the morning. It is typically calm, peaceful, and beautiful. It is also when we get the fishing lines out.

Catching a fish under sail is both exhilarating and challenging. Your moving at 9 knots which means you have to get your sails in before the fish takes all the line off your reel. Once you get it to the boat you then have the challenge of getting it up 5 feet to the water line onto the deck, subduing the fish before it beats you and the boat up, and finally cleaning it before it makes a bloody mess of your boat deck. That having being said there is nothing quite like fresh fish.

Nuku Hiva

Bad mid ocean poetry

My South Pacific sailing dream is coming finally coming true/ Sailed 4,000 miles since Panama to arrive at the Polynesian Blue/ Finally seeing the Marquesas brought us all to tears/ No time for sentimental stuff… We’re icing down the beers/ We will sail through Polynesia and all of Fiji too/ End of July we see Australia… I heard there’s kangaroos/ Then we are taking a break from the action to go home for awhile/ We miss our friends and families… It will be great to see your smiles

Time to make the call

I told many of you that I divided the rally into 2 sections. 9 months cruising Bonaire, San Blas, Panama canal, Galapagos, South Pacific, Fiji and exploring Australia (my South Pacific dream) and 7 months sailing around Africa to return to Antigua. I planned to make the call in Australia if 10 months away from home, family, and friends was enough. 10 months away from home is definitely enough. I would have seen Vanessa a total of 30 days and my daughters once in 9 months and Mike needs to see Louise, his granddaughter! After discussion with Cullen and Mike we are sticking with plan A and will be heading home in October to be home for the holidays and be involved in Kearney’s wedding planning “fun”. But the dream isn’t totally over as we will be meeting up with the Oyster fleet in Grenada in early March for the 6 week Caribbean portion back to Antigua.

French Polynesia

We are currently in the Marquesas, leaving today for a 3 day passage to the Tuamotus. These are all atolls which means carefully traveling in through the passes at slack tide so we neither get shot through or are fighting a current. The surrounding coral reef creates a totally protected pool where the visibility is unlimited and reminds you of an aquarium. We will also stop at Rangiroa which is known as the shark capital of the world where I took Vanessa scuba diving on our honeymoon. I think I enjoyed it more than she! We will spend 10 days in the Tuamatos before traveling on to Tahiti where we are excited to meet up with Cecelia and Vanessa at the end of April. We will then spend 6 weeks in the Society Islands, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, etc. before heading to Fiji. Hope all is well with you and yours. Happy Easter from Irish Blessing.

COMMUNICATIONS

Sorry, no photos on this blog. We’re 9 days and 1600 miles from the Galapagos sailing west to the Marquesas, the entry point to French Polynesia. Our communication is over a sat Phone and emails go thru the sat phone and no bandwidth for photos or attachments. I’m imposing on Camille, Mike’s daughter to help me post this.

HALF WAY PARTY

We’ll celebrate our halfway party today but actually hit it last night. While we’re ½ way mileage-wise we’re over ½ way time-wise as it’s so slow getting out of Galapagos and now we’re hauling at 9-10 knots vs 5-6. Hopefully arrive into Nuka Hiva, Marquesas Sunday, Apr 3 or Monday, Apr 4. I made a beef stew and put in freezer in Panama for dinner and Issy made awesome banana bread for breakfast. Everyone gets 1 cold beer to celebrate ½ way with a lot more to come on our arrival.

FISHING

2 nice tuna for dinners and lunch and a gorgeous neon blue marlin that we released when we got him to the boat. As much as I wanted some fresh fish we all decided to let it go.

THE RHYTHM

Everyone is getting into their own routines to pass the time. Mike and I have been reading a lot and Cullen has 100 games but is also on his 3rd Lord of the Rings book in 9 days. We watched Moana on Cullen’s IPAD yesterday. It was surreal to watch a beautiful movie about the South Pacific in the middle of the South Pacific!

THE FEARLESS CREW

Harry and Issy have performed flawlessly. They have been absolutely awesome and so nice. Mike has been, well he’s been Mike. Willing to do anything to make things work better. Couldn’t be a better guy in the universe to have along. The time with Cullen has been a gift. Funny how little time you actually spend with your kids between work and school. He’s willing to do anything that Capt. Harry asks and just smiles and tries to help however he can. I’m really proud of how he’s handled this, especially since he told me on our first watch he’s ”kinda afraid of the Ocean”. Me, well I’m doin what I’ve been dreamin about forever so that’s awesome. Not all roses though, so far in heavy seas I manged to shut a 400 degree oven on my forearm and I now have a little additional crease on my forehead from getting attacked by a stair but all good.  

THE STARS

Staring at the stars at night is very humbling. You’re on watch, by yourself, 1500 miles from the nearest land and 70 miles from the nearest boat… if they could hear you. Mike and I decided that every once and a while you have to do something that stretches you and makes you a wee bit afraid.

Love the journey but we all miss family and friends/ YOU.

– John

I was so looking forward to Galapagos for 2 reasons. 1, the diversity of nature and what many have found is one of the most special and unique treasures in the world and 2, the chance to see family and friends who came to visit us for a week on an expedition boat.

The wildlife on Galapagos is incredible. Enjoy the video highlights. While I did all the photography, there is no way I could have put it together without my daughter’s help (Kearney).

We were fortunate to go on a number of wildlife excursions both on land and sea. The real highlight for us on board was when family and friends showed up due to us not seeing the whole family since Christmas.

I was so excited everyone could make it. The girls are both new in their careers but I challenged them to not miss this trip due to it being a once in a lifetime experience. I was also selling the deal real hard because I missed them dearly!

Since we had 12 visitors and family coming to the Galapagos we decided to treat ourselves and board a 16 passenger expedition boat called Natural Paradise. It was great to get off the boat for a change of pace.

We had so much fun getting together with the Condrey’s, Teague’s, Sanaglis, and McTigue’s. We were also really excited that my sister Kay could come from California. On some days they had us taking 2 hikes and 2 snorkels with 6:45 wake up calls. Needless to say there were a lot of people in bed by 9pm.

March 12th was our 28th wedding anniversary and we celebrated in style surpassed only by Cecelia’s 29th Birthday celebration the next day. It was bittersweet goodbye but now it is time to get ready for our 3 week passage 24/7 to the Marquesas, the entry point to French Polynesia. I’ve never gone 20 days without seeing land so that will be a new experience. We’ll celebrate Cullens 20th bday today and St Pats when we leave tomorrow. Happy St. Pats.

The crossing from Panama to the Galapagos takes you across the equator and through what is called the doldrums. This is an area of very calm seas, low winds, and frustration for sailors as they end up motoring most of the way. We had a great first day of sailing and last day and 3 days of motoring in the middle. The chart above shows a halfway point where we stopped the boat, threw a safety line off the back, and went for a swim in 3,500 feet of water. (For the safety-conscious, yes we always left one person on board.)

We had a visitor come to greet us and live on our canvas Bimini for a couple of days. How this dove got 3 days off shore is amazing. I guess it just needed a break. We also acquired the largest and loudest cricket in the universe. I think it was coming through the jungles of Panama. Luckily it was on the outside of the boat, If Harry hadn’t found it and killed it before we got to the Galapagos, they wouldn’t have let us into the country.

There is a time-honored tradition for sailors crossing the equator for the first time. People who have crossed the equator before are known as shellbacks. People who haven’t crossed are called pollywogs. The ceremony involves Neptune visiting, putting the pollywogs on trial, having them confess their sailing sins, and hopefully, after the initiation ceremony becoming shellbacks. For Mike, Cullen, Issy, and myself, It was quite the day as you will see from the scenes below.

Neptune had prepared a special soup of fruit and vegetable table scraps, water, yeast, and 4 other secret ingredients. He then left the bucket in the dingy where it fermented at 100 degrees. When our ceremony was over everyone went straight over the side into the ocean to wash off the carnage and even though we are a dry boat (no drinking on passages) we did have a ceremonial shot of rum for all and one additional over the side for Neptune and the sea.

We were warned before coming to the Galapagos that if you are not diligent with your fenders that you will have a number of visitors sleeping and barking on your transom. While they are cute, the sea lions have been even known to come up the stairs into your cockpit and then you have a wee problem. We saw first-hand evidence upon our arrival and luckily have just been able to observe and swim with the seals and sea lions instead of having them over for cocktails.

After 5 days at sea, Issy was nice enough to make us a full proper breakfast the morning of our arrival. The practice sails are over. We have now had 3 passages of 3, 4, and 5 days, the latter was solo watches which means 2 hours on and 8 hours off, which Cullen really enjoyed. We all did. Our next passage will be the longest of the rally from here to the Marquesas, 3,300 miles and 16-21 days. However, we have 2 wonderful weeks in the Galapagos and are really excited about our families and friends coming to visit for a week on a 16 passenger expedition boat. We will send a Galapagos blog before we depart for the Marquesas.

All the Oysters had to be in Shelter Bay by February 6th in order to be measured for the canal and prepped to be ready. In addition the Oyster team of technicians was phenomenal in making last minute repairs as this will be our last real opportunity to get boats prepped before Tahiti which is 3500 miles away. In spite of having, what Oyster said, was one of the best prepared boats in the rally we had to replace a water pump for our generator, replace out alternator, fix a leak in our furling motor, and replace our throttle. The Oyster team was instrumental as they had technicians on shore. Say Thank God!

I don’t want to give the idea that is was all work and no play. Oyster organized a rum tasting and cigar tasting that we all enjoyed. They were also nice enough after I asked them to organize a Super Bowl party. I was hoping that they could find a television with English language at a bar somewhere but Oyster and the Marina went all out and hired an AV company that constructed a 15 by 30 feet screen on the dock and we all watched from the bar. Unfortunately I had LA giving 4, the damn Bengals covered!

We were really excited to see Vanessa after 5 weeks. As Cullen said “I’ve never been away from Mom so long”.

I felt a little bad for Vanessa as we spent a lot of time working on the boat to get Irish Blessing ready for a 3500 mile crossing without a lot of mechanical support. We did have a couple funs days in Panama City. The Old Town is gorgeous and the new area is known for replacing Miami as the Latin America center of business.

Panama is a wonderful combination of the old and the new. We had a wonderful celebration with the Oyster fleet at Fort Lorenzo.

Vanessa flew home with a tearful goodbye but we will see her in 3 weeks in the Galapagos where Kearney and Riley will be joining us also along with a host of friends and family including Cecelia Condrey, my sister Kay, Ted and Lesa, and the Teagues. It was now time to get busy provisioning as once we leave Panama we will not see another major market till the end of April. Sure hope I keep catching fish.

We hired a provisioning service that brought us the major groceries and the food just kept showing up in waves. As big as a 64 foot boat is, I had no idea how we were going to stow it all. Some how Harry and Issy kept finding places to stow food. The language barrier is always a challenge. I asked for lamb shanks and got 5 pound legs of lamb. I asked for 5 pounds of bacon and got 5 kgs (11 pounds). We gave 1 leg of lamb back but found room for the bacon. All cardboard has to be left on the dock as critters/ cockroaches will lay eggs in it and overtake your boat so we spend a lot of time breaking it down to minimize that risk.

A boat is a great equalizer, I suppose you could have the crew do everything, some do. Frankly I don’t see how they would do it all, how they would be able to stay for 15 months, and it is more fun to have everyone dive in and help.

We depart Panama in 2 days on February 25th. Other than picking up a few odds and ends in Galapagos our next major grocery story will be on April 25th in Tahiti. The freezer is full, every crevice is crammed, some how we stored 6 cases of wine, 5 cases of beer, a wee bit of Jameson, and we are going to be finding canned goods in the bilge 10 years from now (hint, you write of the name of the canned good with a sharpie on top of the can so when the label comes off you still know what you have). Tomorrow we all put on mask, fins, and snorkel, grab scrub brushes, and do one last clean of the water line and hull as the Galapagos will send a diver down and if there is any marine growth on your hull they will send you back out to sea to bob in 8 foot waves and clean it out there before they will let you back in the harbor. Looking forward to the Galapagos.

As opposed to the last passage which was rough and high winds the passage from Panama to the Galapagos known for exactly the opposite. We will approach the Doldrums which is an area around the equator where there is little if any wind. We will probably have to motor for 2 to 3 days and before we get there we will cross the equator and go into the South Pacific. Harry is the only one who has crossed the equator so he will host the crossing ceremony where first timers (pollywogs) go through a humiliating ceremony and become full fledged shellbacks (crossing the equator on your own ship). I will send the embarrassing photos on the next blog. Best to all, from John, Cullen, Mikey… and Harry and Issy. I think they think we’re a wee bit crazy but too nice to say. John

The crossing of the Panama Canal is exhilarating and exhausting as there is lots of waiting with moments of panic and terror. We waited all day for our canal pilot as every boat has to have a canal pilot on board and we finally left at 6:00pm for entry into the canal. A canal pilot is someone who helps all ships get through the canal. They tied 3 sailboats abreast (something they call a nest) and there were 4 nests of 3 oyster boats each going through the canal together.

We were nested together with 2 beautiful boats from Ireland, Irene IV and Ruth II. The passage at night was actually a blessing as it was much cooler and the canal was lit up like it was the middle of the afternoon as the canal runs ships threw 24/7.

It is approximately 45 miles through the canal with Lake Gatun in the middle. We went half way the first day then stayed overnight in the lake and transited into the Pacific the following day.

The 3 boats tied together weighed approximately 225,000 pounds held by the 2 lines on the 2 outside boats. The stress on the lines was incredible as the boats moved around as the water came in and out of the locks. It got a little hairy at times but our line handlers did awesome.

The 12 Oysters entered the Pacific to the welcoming chorus over the canal megaphone who announced welcome to the Oyster fleet to the Pacific. As the boats passed under the bridge into the Pacific it was a mixture of cheers and tears.

We will do the Panama trip itself as a separate blog which will be send in the next 48 hours. We then head to the Galapagos and will have no signal. Best to all!

We had a wonderful 4-day passage and arrived in the San Blas Islands. We immediately saw for the first time a totally different culture. The islands are home to the Kuna Indians who were very welcoming with handmade crafts, fish, and vegetables. The islands are stunning and reminded me more of my perception of French Polynesia than Panama.

These were our first guests upon arrival. I was chastised for inviting strangers aboard in the world of Covid. Actually, the way the woman was coughing the odds were higher of getting tuberculosis! We compromised, hugged them goodbye, and gave him an Irish Blessing t-shirt. He loved it by the way.

In the isolated San Blas islands there are no food markets. A real treat is when an occasional boat would come from mainland Panama and Issy would load up with fresh fruits and vegetables and beer thank God. We would also have an occasional boat come by with fresh lobster and fish.

Now that the whole fleet has arrived in San Blas we are starting to get together and socialize. The twice daily radio checks allow us to plan get-togethers for the boats that are in the area. It’s great to get off the boat on shore and get to know the other people on the journey.

After 2 weeks in an island paradise, it’s time to get moving again. We woke at 4 am, left at 4:30 to arrive at Shelter Bay Marina which is the staging ground for going through the Panama Canal and the gateway to the Pacific. Excited that Vanessa arrives on the 12th. I got a Super Bowl get-together on the 13th and we transit the Canal on the 16th.

A lifelong dream of transiting the Panama Canal and sailing into the South Pacific will be celebrated with a nice bottle of Champagne as we cross under the Bridge Of The Americas but will send an update of the Canal crossing. Question: Can Cincinnati cover 4.5? Hope so.

While we had a wonderful time in Bonaire, it was time to move on to the beautiful San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. The route took us passed Aruba and over the northern shores of Venezuela and Columbia. The reality is most of my sailing over the last 30 years has been day sailing with few overnight passages. so it was time to learn, and challenge myself to something new. The passages have been both exciting and challenging. It takes 2 days to get used to the broken up sleep and finally getting to place where you are able to get good sleep even though its 2 to 3 hours at a time. The hardest thing is the heat as all hatches are shut and no air conditioning is on so it can be 85 to 90 in your cabin but does eventually cools down towards morning.

Typically whoever is on the 1500-1800 watch starts to prep dinner for all on board. The photo below shows some of the degree of difficultly

Issy has done a great job of precooking a number of passage meals that are frozen and can be put into a pot to make it easy for all to help with dinner. Even more amazing is the provisioning that she has done where we will not be able to get to a market for over 2 weeks.

Irish Blessing has a surprise birthday party for Harry on January 24th. Issy prepared brownies, Cullen made a sightly inappropriate birthday card that we all signed, and we decorated the cockpit to the birthday boy’s delight.

On the passage, we had a combination of medium to high winds and great speed. We consciously went pretty far north to avoid a high wind area off the coast of Columbia. A number of our fleet went through that area to visit Cartagena, some experiencing 40 to 50-knot winds, luckily all arrived to their destinations safely.

I have now discovered the 4 stages of ocean passage making. Stage 1: Excitement about leaving and getting ready to go Stage 2: I’m exhausted, hot, anxious, what the hell was I thinking Stage 3: Starting to get some sleep, maybe we are not going to die Stage 4: OMG, we are almost there, so excited to dive in the water

The dolphins and sea life are absolutely amazing. While we have often had dolphins swimming around the bow, we have never had them jumping 10 feet in the air as to say welcome. Without the passage you don’t get to experience the outside wonder and the moonlit passages at night can be hypnotic and quiet.

The scenery in San Blas is absolutely stunning. Feels strangely like French Polynesia. The locals travel in dug out canoes and come to your boat upon arrival to welcome and see if you would like lobsters and or fruits and vegetables but more about that in next blog about San Blas.

Whats amazing is that we are in the middle of the ocean anchored behind an atoll reef with waves pounding 500 yards off our bow but because we are protected by the reef it is actually as calm as if we were at a dock. Time to go explore San Blas.

Kearney and her dad had a wonderful weepy phone call announcing that Mott had asked for her hand. Mott was a total gentleman and asked me over Christmas and asked Vanessa and I to not say anything to anyone. It was a long 3 weeks for Vanessa not to be able to tell anybody as she was dying to share the good news. Wedding planned for the spring of 2023!