Here you will find tales of voyages past and present on our trusty Pacific Seacraft Dana 24, "Sockdolager," and our Bigfoot29 powerboat, "Raven," from Port Townsend, Washington, USA. In 2009 we sailed north from Puget Sound up the west coast of Vancouver Island to the Queen Charlotte Islands (now called Haida Gwaii.) In 2010 we went back to the west coast of Vancouver Island. In July 2011 we left the Northwest, sailed to Mexico, and in March 2012 we crossed the Pacific to French Polynesia, then on to the Cooks, Niue and Tonga. We spent several months in New Zealand, and in May 2013 loaded Sockdolager (and ourselves) on a container ship for San Francisco. In June and July 2013 we sailed north along the California, Oregon and Washington coasts, and in August we arrived home. In October 2016, Sockdolager found new owners, and we began cruising on Raven, a unique wooden 29' powerboat. In 2018 we cruised up to Glacier Bay, Alaska, and back. But in 2024 we had the chance to buy Sockdolager back (we missed her), so we sold Raven. We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures as much as we enjoy having them. (And there will be more.)



Saturday, December 1, 2012

Tonga to NZ day Seven

We passed the half way point last night. We now have 535 miles to go and have already gone 615. The motor is running again. It's a fine warm sunny late spring day, but no wind. But no worries as we are still good on fuel and wind is supposed to arrive tomorrow. The wind has been mostly from the southeast (when we had wind) all the way from Tonga. Tomorrow it should be be coming from the west - which means we will have to tack! Yikes, not sure I remember how to do that.

Tom's quote of the day: "There are very few situations where this stuff tastes good, but this is one of them", said while munching on a tasty hunk of Spam.

As I was getting ready to leave Tonga I got out the New Zealand charts, carefully packaged and packed away by Karen over a year and about 8,000 miles ago. And I got to thinking was a leap of faith it was, buying those charts. You hope and you plan and you get the boat ready and you buy charts. All hoping that you actually make it to the place those charts show. Will you be up to the task? Will you stay healthy? Will you really like sailing across an ocean? So many unanswered questions. Yet you buy the charts and off you go. As I look at those New Zealand charts now and see where we will make landfall in a week or so I smile and I'm glad we took the leap.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousDecember 1, 2012 at 9:00 PM

    Jim, thanks for the needed inspiration on another dark, rainy winter PT day. We're keeping the faith! Love to you,
    Sarah

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