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.)



Thursday, November 29, 2012

Tonga to NZ - Day 5

We crossed the official international dateline at 180 degrees last night at about 9:15pm. I watched the GPS as the longitude went from 179 59 999 W to 180 00 000, for about one second, then to 179 59 999 E. Now the longitude is counting down instead of up.

We lost the wind at about 2am last night and fired up the motor at about 4am. It's pretty pleasant with a very low swell. We'd rather be sailing but you get what you get. We can motor for 400 miles total and we have 700 miles to go - you can do the math. Predictions are for a front to hit us around Dec 5th or 6th but it doesn't sound too bad and this morning's prognostications even indicate it might make for a favorable wind.

I think I'm going to deploy the fishing line (and hoping that Tom knows how to clean fish).

1 comment:

  1. Enjoying the daily updates! Tom cleans most things with deadly chemicals, so I would be wary about turning him loose on the fish. Alex

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