Looking for 'Blue Bear', Eastern Pacific

[martcol]

33ft Moody with 2 UK citizens, Brian and Sue Cox of Cardiff, UK. Transitted Panama canal just before Christmas 2011 and set off for Galapagos and probably Marquesas.

Any news or reports on conditions in the area very welcome.

A concerned friend.

[martcol]

Blue bear arrived safe at Marquesas yesterday - 85 days from Panama!

[redbopeep]

Thanks for the update!

Fair winds,

[Coyote]

Any explanation for the long passage? This is a good data point for estimating.

[martcol]

Coyote,

We're only just receving first news, so I'll post more info when we get it. For now, this is what Brian has told us:

Well!!! Two months overdue Panama to Hiva Oa French Polynisia a trip which should have taken 30 days approx took about 90. we tried to sail the 3600miles mostly North of the Equator to avoid the Cyclone and storm systems which develop during December to April which worked for the first 1000 miles with a powerful WNW current but we met very poor sailing conditions when trying to cross the Equator no wind for days then only south westerly winds added to by a Northerly or Current which would occasionally run north East in line with the Winds we used all of our diesel trying to get far enough south to pick up the South easterly trade winds and westerly currents but were unsuccessful we got 30 miles or half a degree south of the equator but light winds and currents forced me back north of the equator to a point we had passed five days previous.... we were unable to get good winds until 5 degrees south having run out of Diesel this was accomplished at speeds of less than 1 knot even the last few miles took several days the last 10 miles took more than a day almost 2 will write more ASAP...



Hope that's helpful.

[matt21]

For more info have a read of another sailors account on the same passage who meet up with the crew of Blue Bear over on his mailasail blog blog of mojomo, interesting read.

Matt

[redbopeep]

Welcome aboard, Matt--please go over to our tavern forum and introduce yourself! We'd love to hear more about you and your own sailing. Thanks so much for the link to the update on SV Blue Bear. Before we were all so connected with the Internet, various cruising folks took long, long times to complete a passage with no one being aware and comparing to the passages of other boats. It sounds like they had a fine passage and will have many more fun adventures, too. We'd love to hear from Blue Bear here as well.

Fair winds,

[martcol]

Hi Matt, it was the skipper of Mojomo - another Matt, IIRC, who first broke the news about Blue Bear. I'll try and get a message to them, maybe I can get them to post here.

THanks for the interest, all.

[martcol]

I have an update from Brian and Sue, which is quite long and details their trials and tribulations. I'm unsure whether to post it here, as this is an overdue section, or post it in a new thread in a different section.

I could post a link to our club forum, rather than copy and paste it, but I'm not sure if that is allowed?

Any advice?

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by martcol

I have an update from Brian and Sue, which is quite long and details their trials and tribulations. I'm unsure whether to post it here, as this is an overdue section, or post it in a new thread in a different section.

I could post a link to our club forum, rather than copy and paste it, but I'm not sure if that is allowed?

Any advice?

You might wish to post a new thread in the appropriate Regional Discussion. For example Regional Discussion Topics - Cruiser Log World Cruising & Sailing Forums

This would be helpful for anyone cruising a specific area.

You are also welcome to post in our General Cruising Forum
General Cruising Forum - Cruiser Log World Cruising & Sailing Forums


Typically links aren't as appreciated as the facts here.

Fair winds,

[martcol]

Thanks for that. I've posted the entry in the Pacific section, for anyone interested.