The Big Crossing Begins

>>NOTE: Please do not send OCEALYS email for the next 25 days. We are relying on email for critical weather and safety communications<<

Hello all. Today we leave Mexico to cross the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands. It's 2900 miles and 20 or so days at sea. It is the longest crossing we will be doing on this whole trip.

Austin (known as Awesome Austin on board) joined us a couple of weeks ago in LaPaz to help us get the boat ready and make the crossing to the Marquesas. He's got a ton of racing experience and will surely help us get an extra knot or so out of the boat (which would mean shaving several days off the crossing). So far it's been wonderful having him aboard. He's great with the kids and is always jumping in to help on the boat before we even ask.
We even had a couple of days of proper "cruising" on the way down from LaPaz, and caught a Sierra with which Austin made a wonderful dinner.

We will likely make a short stop at Isla Socorro, 250 miles South of Cabo San Lucas. It will allow us to rest up a bit, have a decent meal and do some fishing.

We will try to send occasional updates via satcom while we're at sea.

- Maurice and the Crew aboard OCÉALYS

s/v OCÉALYS
23º03N, 109º40W

Et maintenant en francais:

Voila, nous partons aujourd'hui du Mexique pour la grande traversee de l'Ocean Pacifique!
Apres 2900 miles et 20-25 jours, nous arriverons aux Marquises. La vraie aventure commence!

Nous avons embarque Austin notre equipier a La Paz. Il est super et nous sommes vraiment tres content de l'avoir a bord pour cette grande etape.

Nous posterons des nouvelles de temps en temps sur le blog. Check it out.

Grosses bises et a tres bientot!
Sophie et l'equipage d'Ocealys
s/v OCÉALYS
23º03N, 109º40W

Friends, Puffer Fish, and Killer Whales

Sorry it's been so long since our last update. We've found that our satellite connection is not nearly as reliable as we'd hoped. Plus we've been "busy". How can that be, you ask? We don't need to rush out the door at 7:30 to get through the traffic to get the kids to school and catch the 8:34 train in to the City. Prepare for the first 2 meetings of the day on the train ride in. Dive into work, come up for air during a 15 minute lunch. Dive back down and get home at 6:30 exhausted and just in time to make dinner and get the kids to bed, etc. etc. Yet somehow the time on board does go by quickly and although every day I think about what I should write on the blog, bedtime comes before we know it and another day has passed.

Over the last month we had some wonderful visits from back home. Our friends Candace and Nathan came down for 10 days with their 2 boys Noah and Ambrose, who are the same age as our kids. (They also brought along a huge duffel bag with parts and critical supplies for us, including Trader Joe's pancake mix and an anchor. Thanks guys!!)

The kids were very excited to see each other and happy to spend the time together. We spent half of their visit at a beautiful anchorage in San Juanico, North of Loreto.

We went fishing and diving and hiking every day. On the trip up there, on a completely calm day, we ran into a small pod of killer whales. They swam slowly around the boat and one even went between the hulls and turned over on her back to have a close look at us. Quite a treat!

My dad came down to Loreto for 3 days and we spent most of our time reviewing technical details on the boat in preparation for the crossing. Some of the issues were resolved, and others remain mysteries (like why the autopilot keeps throwing "rudder response error" alarms. Grrr). He also insisted that I bring him fish to eat every day, which Massimo and I managed to do.

Massimo has gotten really good at fishing with his rod and reel. Just a month ago he could barely handle the rig and now he's casting on his own. He spends hours on deck fishing for whatever will take his lure. If he doesn't catch anything in 5 or 10 minutes he gets bored. But thanks to the great congregation of puffer and box fish under the boat, he pulls something up every 2 or 3 minutes. Then one of us needs to go out with a pair of pliers to set the beastie free. The puffers seem to be particularly dense since Massimo will catch the same one 2 and 3 times over. Yesterday evening he caught a small Cabrilla (a sort of grouper). It was too small to keep, but it put up a good fight nonetheless. This morning Massimo caught a big needlefish that was almost as long as him, and during his Grandfather's visit, he caught a red snapper, which we ate. He's still getting used to the fact that we have to let most of the fish go...

Recently Massimo's been coming with me to spearfish. He rides on my back and looks down with his mask over my shoulder. He takes one breath every 30 or 40 seconds, then plunges right back in. We managed to shoot a couple of small snappers from the surface together.

The other day we had a real treat for dinner. The kids were jumping up and down and yelling in unison, Broccoli! Broccoli! Broccoli! I never thought I'd hear that.

Annabelle's obsessed with horses. This morning she kept telling me that horses eat carrots and fish. Carrots and fish. Carrots. Fish. She can't wait to get to the Marquesas because we told her she might get to ride a horse there.

My mom's been aboard for a wonderful 2 week visit and the kids are thrilled to have her. It's really hard for them to see the people they care about come and go, but that's a part of this nomadic life that they'll have to learn to live with. On the other hand they're already learning to make friends with new kids very quickly.

One of the most special parts of this trip for me so far has been watching the kids grow up minute by minute. Thinking back I can't imagine what it would be like if we had kept going the way we had been, spending an hour or two in the evening with them, and then weekends crammed with activities. Now the farthest I've been from them since we left is when Sophie takes them to the beach and I'm working on the boat. But I still watch them fly their kites through binoculars...



Maintenant en francais:

Voici notre correspondance mensuelle avec un peu de retard.... les journees en mer passent a toute vitesse et entre, la voile, la peche, la plongee, la plage, l'ecole des enfants et les multiples taches quotidiennes la vie est dure!! Just joking!

Nous avons passe le mois de mars en mer de Cortez en remontant jusqu'a San Juanico (nord de Loreto). Ce fut le mois des visites et l'equipage au complet gardera de merveilleux souvenirs de ces moments d'amitie. Nos amis Candace et Nathan sont venus nous rejoindre a Loreto pour 10 jours avec leurs deux enfants Noah et Ambrose, du meme age que Massimo et Annabelle. Les enfants etaient ravis de se retrouver et une fois la marmaille couchee, les parents appreciaient les bonnes coversations autour d'un peu de rhum et de cookies....

Nous avons aussi eu la chance de voir des orques. Une famille d'orque est venue tout pres du bateau et ce fut une rencontre inoubliable. Surtout quand le mere a commence a foncer droit sur le bateau avec ses yeux hors de l'eau pour nous voir et puis au dernier moment elle a plonge sous la coque! Je dois dire que j'ai eu un petit moment de doute...

Isabella et Ugo, les parents de Maurice, sont egalement venus nous rendre visite et c'etait vraiment sympa de les avoir a bord. Maintenant que nous nous sommes acclimates a notre nouvelle vie, pouvoir parler a des gens qui ont deja fait ce que nous faisons est vraiment sympa et enrichissant.


A la fin de chaque visite, c'est le drame pour les enfants. C'est vraiment dur pour eux de voir les amis et la famille partir mais cela fait parti du quotidien de notre nouvelle vie. D'un autre cote, ils ont appris a se faire des copins rapidement et des que nous croisons d'autres bateaux avec des enfants a bord, le "playdate" a la plage s'impose. Cela nous a egalement permis de rencontrer des gens tres sympas.

Nous sommes de retour a La Paz ou nous preparons la prochaine etape et non la moindre: la traversee du Pacifique. Nous comptons partir mi-avril. Pour moi, c'est une etape importante et je mets desormais toute l'energie possible a la preparation logistique et psychologique permettant de passer 2 a 3 semaines en mer. Rajouter a tout cela une dose de petoche et vous obtenez mon portrait actuel!!

Gros bisous a tous!

Sophie,Maurice, Massimo et Annabelle

Some Pictures...

Finally, since we've got "broadband", I've uploaded a few pictures. Proof for the fish stories... Click for a larger view.













- Maurice
s/v Océalys
LaPaz, Baja California Sur

Estamos en La Paz

Estamos en La Paz!

We are now in La Paz where we have to refill on food and other stuff. We found a beautiful bay - Puerto Ballandra, right before La Paz - full of brillant, sandy beaches so we stayed few days there before going to the big (!) city. We spent few days at Cabo on our way up. The coast is striking but what a zoo!!!! The boat traffic is insane and the prices are through the roof. However, the kids loved the beach because - I am quoting them - "there were a lot of people" !

We are all happy to finally get some warm and sunny weather on the Sea of Cortez. We are now in T-shirt and shorts. The sea life is amazing: lots of whales and dolphins. The kids became
experts at spotting them. Fishing is excellent and we got some huge fish: a 25 pound red snapper that Maurice got spear fishing and which was delicious; and a 42 pound yellow tail we got trolling with a fishing line! The kids are really excited when it comes to fishing. Massimo is getting pretty good at choosing the right lures.

Overall, life is good and we love our boat! She is strong and very comfortable.

Some of you asked what was a typical day on board. In fact, time is an interesting notion on board: our days are organized around eating times and sleeping time! Everything else depends on the weather. I guess we are back to the basics of life: good food, good weather and
when at least one of these conditions are fulfilled some love!! If we are sailing, we start our day pretty early to leave the anchorage as soon as possible. Then, we eat our breakfast and we start School. Usually, it lasts 2 or 3 hours. Of course if Maurice needs me for a maneuver I drop everything and go help him. Massimo and Annabelle are both doing very well at school and they are making a lot of progress. Massimo is strating to read and he likes the French
program. I do both the English and the French curriculums. However, I have to be on top of Massimo constantly to stay focused.... oh well, at least, if I don't feel like teaching one day I just say that it is the weekend.
Then, the kids play together for a while. They mainly invent games and play Legos. One of the favorites of the moment is that they pretend to be on a boat and there is an emergency, meaning the boat is sinking!
They take all the sleeping bags they can find to make the boat and they scream orders to save it...

After lunch, it is nap time / DVD time.... everybody relaxes. Usually, we arrive at the next anchorage in the afternoon that way we have some time to start exploring the new spot. All that depends if the weather is good or not. If we are not sailing, we go to the beach or we go spear fishing with the dinghy. We have also been eating a lot of lobsters that we
exchange against toys / sweets / cokes and other "luxury" goods with the local fishermen.
As we start our day with the sunrise, we finish it with the sunset and everybody is ready to go to bed at 7pm!
So far, we only had to sail twice during the night. The routine is then very different. The kids go to sleep and we start our watches. Maurice starts at 6 pm and we take 4 hour watches. At first, I was apprehensive about the night sailing but then the second night went very well. I only saw one boat compared to the previous sailing night when I saw 1 cruise ship, 1 cargo and several fishing boats; way too much traffic for me! Also, a lot of dolphins came to keep me company
and it was amazing. During the night, you see them very well underwater with the phosphorescence. They look like glowing green torpedoes.
Anyway, time flies by and it feels like we left yesterday. It has already been more than a month.

Another important point in our adventure, we finally tried our washing machine and I love it! At first, Maurice wanted to get rid of it to save some weight. I almost agreed but thankfully, Isabella, my mother- in-law told me to keep it and see how it worked out. I am so grateful to her that she gave me that advice. It saves me so much work. The washing machine works very well and we will surely keep it!

Next, we'll go up to Loreto where our friends Candace, Nathan and their kids will meet us for a week on board. Then, Isabella and Ugo will join us in Loreto come back down with us to La Paz. We are all very excited to get some visits! We haven't met too many people on
other boats yet. Once we met a couple on another boat, Massimo and Annabelle were so happy to talk to new afces and they kept asking when our "friends form the other boat" will come back to see us.

We are still planning to cross the Pacific to the Marquesas at the beginning of April. Stay tuned.

et maintenant en francais:

Nous sommes arrives a La Paz! C'est une des plus grandes villes de Baja California - moins grand que La Rochelle - et egalement le repere des "naviguateurs". Les marinas sont pleines et les gens diverses. Des notre arrivee, un zodiac est venu nous accoster. C'etait des francais qui avait repere notre Catana et son drapeau francais et venaient nous saluer! Avant d'arriver dans la "grande" ville, nous avons trouve une superbe petite Baie - Puerto Ballandra -avec ses plages christallines de sable fin. A la vue de ce tableau, nous avons jete l'ancre et sommes restes quelques jours. Maurice a du plonger pour changer les anodes de l'helice et j'ai emmene les enfants en expedition sur ces plages magnifiques. Cela valait le detour.En descendant la cote, nous nous sommes egalement arrete a Cabo mais seulement quelques jours. Les paysages sont extraordinaires mais c'est un vrai zoo touristique! Je n'ai jamais vu une circulation de bateaux
aussi intense. Les enfants ont eux adore car, et je les quote, " il y avait plein de gens sur la plage" !!

Nous avons maintenant notre petit rythme et les journees defilent a toute allure.
Lorsque nous naviguons, nous levons l'ancre assez tot histoire d'arriver au prochain mouillage encore en plein jour. Apres le petit- dej, commence L'ecole pour les enfants si le temps le permet. bien sur, si Maurice a besoin de moi pour une manoeuvre, l'ecole s'interromp et reprend plus tard. Cela dure en general 2 a 3 heures dependant de l'humeur de tout le monde! Je fait le cursus anglais et francais avec le Cned. Massimo aime bien le programme francais et tous les 2 parlent de plus en plus francais meme si ils se parlent toujours
anglais entre eux. Ils font beaucoup de progres. Massimo commence a lire en anglais.
Puis les enfants sont livres a eux-memes et jouent ensemble. Pour le moment, leur principales occupations sont les jeux de role et les Legos. Leur jeu de role favoris est de pretendre qu'ils sont dans un bateau et qu'ils sont en train de couler!!! Ils ramassent tous les duvets qu'ils trouvent a bord pour faire le bateau et ils crient des ordres a leurs peluches pour evacuer le navire en ordre!!! Si nous ne naviguons pas, nous partons a la plage ou a la peche avec le zodiac au moins une fois dans la journee. Nous nous levons et couchons comme les poules: tout le monde est pret a se lover dans son lit a 7 heure. Nous sommes en general pas mal creves de nos journees.

Y a pas a dire, le grand air ca fatigue! Lorque nous devons naviguer de nuit, nos quarts commencent a 6 heure et durent 4 heures. Maurice prend le premier. Au debut, j'apprehendait les quarts de nuit surtout que la premiere nuit, la circulation etait assez intense: cruise ship, cargo et pecheurs. Beaucoup trop pour moi! La seconde nuit a ete beaucoup plus sereine d'autant plus que des dauphins sont venus me tenir compagnie et c'etait extraordinaire de
les voir nager sous l'eau grace a la fluorescence.

Je reserve un paragraphe special a la peche, histoire de faire baver certains lecteurs/lectrices - notamment mon frere! Au debut, nous attrapions essentiellement des bonites que Maurice
n'aime pas tellement alors nous les relachions, au grand regret de Massimo! Lorsque la temperature a monte, Maurice a commence a plonger en libre. A sa premiere plongee, apres 20 minutes, il nous a sorti un Red Snapper de 25 pounds - 12 kilos! Quand Maurice plonge, je le suis en zodiac avec les enfants et ce jour la, ils furent legerement apeures du monstre qui leur arrivait sur les pieds. Le Red Snapper est un poisson delicieux et nous l'avons partage avec
un des autres bateaux qui etait au meme mouillage. Les enfants etaient ravis de voir debarquer de nouvelles tetes a bord. Ils n'arretaient pas de parler et de raonter leur vie. Plusieurs jours apres, Massimo me demandait encore quand "nos nouveaux amis" allaient revenir nous
rendre visite. Deux jours apres, nous avons attrape a la traine un Yellow Tail de 42
pounds ou 20 kilos: une grosse bete. La aussi, nous avons partage la prise avec d'autres bateaux. Bref, je suis bien contente d'avoir un congel!

La vie marine est ici incroyable et nous voyons beaucoup de baleines et de dauphins. Les enfants sont devenus experts a reperer le jet des baleines.

Voila, en gros tout va bein et nous apprecions pleinement notre nouvelle vie. Ocealys est un super bateau, solide et comfortable, elle nous mene ou nous le voulons.

Nous remonterons jusqu'a Loreto ou ous allons commencer a recevoir de la visite. Nous sommes tous tres contents de revoir nos amis et famille.

Stay tuned pour le prochain episode!

Sophie, Maurice, Massimo et Annabelle

Now We're Cruising

Yesterday we completed our first overnight crossing. We left Bahia
Asuncion and about 190 miles later arrived here at Bahia Santa Maria,
just north of Bahia Magdalena on the Western Baja coast. This is our
last stop before arriving in Cabo San Lucas. It's a huge bay lined
with a 9 mile beach. We're mounting an expedition to go explore it
this morning if we can figure out a way to get the dinghy safely
across the surf breaking on the shore...

So far the anchorages have been getting better and better, the weather
a little sweeter- not so cold anymore. We had a memorable stop at Isla
Cedros. The anchorage was exposed and rolly, but the island is
beautiful and we were just a couple of hundred yards off a series of
small, rocky beaches that were home to Sea Lion and Elephant Seal
rookeries. There were lots of baby Elephant Seals there and between
the expected honking of the adults they would scream and wail in an
astonishingly human voice. At night it sounded like there was an
asylum ashore full of crazies screaming their heads off. It was so
weird it was more funny than annoying.

A local fisherman came by and gave us 8 lobsters for some granola
bars, a plastic truck
and 4 cans of Coke. Needless to say we had a right feast, and the kids
decided whether or not they like lobster (one does, the other doesn't).

Then, in the middle of the night I woke up with a terrified start. The
kind you have when you think there's been an earthquake, or you've had
too much Thai food for dinner. I jumped out of our bunk and heard it
again- a great hammering on the bottom of the hull. Holy shit! We're
aground... I scrambled on deck and all around could hear loud
breathing. A quick look and we obviously weren't any nearer to shore
than we should be, but we were surrounded by young Sea Lions playing
with the boat. Somehow they found great entertainment in going under
the boat and blowing huge bubbles- which, when they hit the hull, make
the aforementioned thunderous scary noise. They made up for the
indiscretion the next morning when, as we were pulling out of the bay,
they swam within inches of the transoms and the kids got to wave
goodbye to them while looking right in their eyes.

We're still easing into the rhythm and activities that make up our
new, very different life. Sophie's getting the kids used to a regular
school schedule. Annabelle is taking to it, Massimo, like me when I
was his age, is not. It's a question of threats, bribes and brute
force to get him to concentrate, but even with that, he's progressing
faster than he would at school. In a couple of months he'll be
reading. He caught his first fish, and he's learning how to steer the
outboard on the dinghy. Pretty sure they don't cover that in
Kindergarten.

We're still concentrating on getting South, so we spend most of our
time at sea, although we're starting to slow down a bit and enjoying
the scenery. I still have projects on the boat- some new and some
maintenance. The other day during a passage one of the engines sprang
a major oil leak and sprayed it's entire contents all over the machine
room and into the bilge. Luckily it was a 15 minute fix, and several
hours of cleaning up... Otherwise Océalys is doing well. We just
logged our first 1000 miles and we continue remarking what a great
boat she is.

Tomorrow we leave for another overnight trip to Cabo. We will have to
check in with the Port Captain there, buy a few groceries, then we'll
head up towards LaPaz. Once we round the corner into the Sea of Cortez
we'll be doing some some diving and spearfishing, and hopefully
settling more into the cruising rhythm.

You can always send us email at ocealys *at* ocens *dot* net (written
out to avoid spam bots- replace with "@" and "." And it is spelled
"ocens", not "oceans").
Bandwith is very expensive for us, so please don't send images, HTML
emails, or enclosures. Messages larger than 50K will not come through.

We'll post some images as soon as we have Internet access...

-maurice

s/v OCÉALYS
via SATCOM

First Night on the Hook- Puerto Santo Thomas

We left Ensenada this morning after clearing in and completing all
formalities yesterday. We decided to start our trip South with a short
hop to Puerto San Thomas, about 35 miles South. We were looking
forward to some good sailing, but alas we had to motor the whole way.
The way things have been going, we'd have been better off with a
powerboat! Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

We're anchored in a little bay that's not very protected. There's a
swell running outside, which curves around the point and comes in, but
the motion is gentle and not uncomfortable. Thank God for a catamaran.
We'd be rolling +/- 25 degrees in a monohull...

This was our first time anchoring, so it took a bit of extra time. The
new anchor roller and windlass setup seems to work well enough, and we
rigged the new bridle. I'm a little concerned about the way the lines
lead, so we'll keep an eye on that. The anchor didn't set on the first
two tries and we pulled up a big ball of kelp. Third try was a charm
and she held fast with both engines backing at 2000 rpm.

We did some fishing with the kids off the stern. No luck, but the kids
had fun. We'll have to catch something sooner or later to prove to
them that fish can actually be caught... Their doubts are
unfortunately mounting. Worst case I'll go spearfishing, but the
water's 56.1 degrees here, so I think I'll wait till we're further
South.

Tomorrow we've got a long shot (95 miles) to Cabo San Quintin, so
we've got to be underway at 0500 and maintain 8kts minimum. Hopefully
we'll have a good breeze to push us along.

The kids have been great and really getting the hang of things. They
wore their harnesses all day and roamed around in the cockpit. We
spotted some whales spouting and Massimo gave direction as we
maneuvered to avoid a cruise ship.

Ocealys Actual
via SATCOM
31º 33.1708'N
116º 40.688'W

And we're off!

We've made it... we left the Bay area 2 weeks ago with all our belongings to meet Ocealys, our boat, in Santa Barbara and sail her to San Diego.

It was pretty funny to see the minivan we rented. It was so packed that the kids couldn't even move in their seats. Our first trip with Ocealys went pretty well, although there was no wind whatsoever so it was a diesel trip! The kids saw their first dolphins and it blew their minds. Here's Annabelle's quote: 'Can we ride them, please?".

Arriving at San Diego Yacht Club, the preparation of the boat and the crew went on: various mecanical, electrical,....etc tasks related to the boat itself as well as organizing ALL the stuff that we have on board and of course buying and putting away our food provisions.


Everybody had their list, even the kids. Massimo's mostly included fishing lures to catch BIG fish; Annabelle's needed more stuffed animals just in case!
Oh, and we also started home schooling, which everybody is still getting used to.

We are leaving the US tomorrow morning for Baja California. We just celebrated and had our last american dinner at the Yacht Club: no tacos for us but big hamburgers and ice cream! We are all very excited to start the real trip.

The plan is to go down the coast of Baja and then up to Loreto. Then, in two months we will go down again to start the most important part: making the crossing to the Marquesas.

We will be checking email via satellite, so write soon.

Sophie and the rest of the Ocealys crew.


Pour les francais:

Enfin des news! desolee mais tellement de choses se sont passees ces deux derniers mois que nous n'avons pas eu l'opportunite de donner beaucoup de nouvelles.
nous sommes partis il y a maintenant deux semaines de la Baie de San Francisco. Le mini-van que nous avions loue pour embarquer toutes nos affaires etait plein a craquer.... meme il debordait! Nous avons rejoins Ocealys a Santa Barbara, bourre le bateau et largue les amarres direction San Diego. apres 2 jours de naviguation, nous sommes arrives a destination sans probleme. Il n'y avait pas un pet de vent et ce fut donc grace a la risee "volvo" que nous nous avons atteint notre but. Le clou de la traversee fut l'apparition de dauphins. Les enfants etaient ebahis et je dois dire que d'etre sur un cata a rendu cette rencontre encore plus sympa. Arrives a San Diego, les preparations du bateau et de l'equipage ont reprises: divers travaux a effectuer sur le bateau / organisation de l'interieur et bien sur les courses! bref, on a reussi a tout faire rentrer.

Et papa est toujours tranquillement installe dans son equipe avec pour compagnie un vieux paquet de goldo que j'ai trouve sur le bateau....!

Nous quittons les US demain matin, direction le Mexique. Finalement, notre vrai trip va commencer et nous sommes tous tres excites! Nous avons fete cela en s'empiffrant de hamburgers et de ice cream au Yacht Club de San Diego. Tout le monde a porte un toast et nous nous couchons avec le ventre bien rempli et le bonheur plein la tete!

La suite tres bientot pour vous faire partager notre nouvelle vie.

N'hesitez pas nous contacter.
Grosses bises a tous!