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How Our SOUTH PACIFIC Sailing Adventure Came About!

A couple of years ago we had the motorhome parked on the beach at Chacala, Mexico, about one hour north of Puerto Vallarta. This beautiful bay is also a favorite anchorage for cruisers. Having brought a VHF radio along, Will programmed it for the marine VHF channels, and started to talk to a number of the cruisers on the boats. As we plan on taking our own boat off shore & anchoring in this very same bay, we were anxious to learn about their experiences & hear their stories. We actually got to meet & visit with some of the cruisers when they came ashore.

We met one particular couple who were from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. They were on the first leg of their South Pacific Adventure having left Victoria in August 2001 & this was now January 2002.

They invited us aboard their boat while at anchor in Bahia de Chacala. With a cursory five minute introduction and inspection, it appeared that this vessel was in fairly good shape. She should be though, considering she had only left her home port in Victoria, British Columbia less than six months before. 

We learned that the husband did not want to go any further on their journey. He did not want to sail anymore and wanted to sell the boat or ship it back to British Columbia. The wife, however, did not want to abort the journey.  She wanted to carry on into the South Pacific.

And so, she donned the Captain's hat, her husband did indeed go back home to Victoria. She began to search for crew to sail from Mexico through the South Pacific & on to New Zealand with her.

While we were talking to the Captain, we realized that we might be able to crew for her at some point so asked her of this possibility. She said we would be welcome anytime, particularly after she found out we were experienced sailors and owned our own very similar sailboat.

Regrettably, we didn't have any more time left for holidays that year to enable us to be crew, so we promised to keep in touch.  If there was a chance later on during the various passages that she would undertake, perhaps we could join her then, as crew.

Their boat is a CS 36 and ours is a Sceptre 36.

The Captain had the opportunity to check out how we "run our ship" & see how we handled her, getting into the docks, in particular.

The Captain was quite astounded to see that I could actually get the boat up to the fuel dock with no problem & not being yelled at by my husband in the process.  Apparently this was the common method of communication between the Captain & her husband.

As it turned out, she enlisted about thirteen different crew members for the various legs along the passage from Puerto Vallarta to New Zealand. After going through so many different crew members the Captain realized that she needed to have experienced crew to help her sail her boat.

Plans started to get underway to meet the Captain in New Zealand in March 2004 & for Will to sail as far as 3 months would take him.  We hoped it would be to Hawaii at least.

And, if he couldn't go all the way back to Victoria, he said there was no reason why I couldn't stay on board & bring the boat all the way home.

Our dream of sailing the South Pacific was going to become a reality.  Instead of having to wait until retirement we were going to be able to get a taste of the Cruising Life beforehand & see if we really wanted to do this later on with our own boat.  Wow, what an opportunity!

Conversations with the Captain also left us feeling that she knew a fair bit about sailing. She talked as if she knew how to handle the boat in weather. And it seemed like she was knowledgeable with the various operating the systems on her boat.

With limited information gathered during such a brief encounter, we felt that the Captain would be quite capable of undertaking the journey she was just about to embark upon.  When we met her again after she had completed the first leg of her journey to New Zealand, we were very confident that she must have great knowledge amassed after such an expedition. After all, that was many, many nautical miles under her belt, or keel, should I say.

There had been a number of visits with the Captain & even more emails back and forth to finalize our preparations to meet her. She was to go ahead to New Zealand February 1st & was going to get the boat out of the water & onto the hard by about the beginning of March. Her husband left a couple of days before her & they were to meet in New Zealand & he was also supposed to help with preparations/cleaning, etc for her impending journey.

It was settled.  We would meet her in Whangarei, New Zealand at the end of March 2004 & help finish getting the boat ready to head out into the South Pacific by the first week of April or so.

Now, that may seem like an ok thing at first glance but when I saw the boat sitting on the hard & actually went up the stairs onto the boat & had a good look around, my heart just sank.

I had a real bad 'gut' feeling that this was not what either Will or I was expecting to see. The boat was absolutely filthy being covered in black mold & mildew, dust, dirt, etc. It would take longer than two weeks to get this boat ready for the long passage that we were about to undertake. The boat was in a complete & utter chaos. I was very tempted at that time to contact Will & tell him to abort, abort but thought we had already paid thousands of dollars in air fares & did not want to lose it. So, I didn't contact him.

This was only the beginning!

This Sailing Adventure would turn out to be an unbelievable adventure making it one of the best & the worst experiences of our lives. 

The second clue could have been the caption on the T-shirt that the Captain's husband had with the following logo:

"Life is Simple, You Sleep, Eat, Play Tennis, Sail and Repair the Boat, And Repair the Boat, And Repair the Boat, And Repair the Boat, And Repair the Boat."

By the end of our journey we had no doubts whatsoever as to the significance on his T-shirt. No wonder he did not want anything more to do with this boat!

And, as a fellow cruiser that witnessed some of our adventures told us in an email: "other people may not believe you, but we will."

Our Adventure didn't have anything to do with the sailing or places that we visited. It wasn't sailing in storm conditions or running out of wind. It wasn't being wet or cold. It wasn't running out of fresh food. It wasn't have little fresh water to drink or bathe.

It had to do with a gutsy woman who decided to say "to hell with her husband," she was going to get that boat to New Zealand &  back home to Victoria come hell or high water. And she was prepared to take on anyone who showed even a slight interest in boats & sailing in order to have someone sail her boat for her.

Little did we know when we decided to be crew on her boat just how inexperienced the Captain really was & how she did not know the systems on her boat & how she relied primarily on her crew to captain her boat for her.

We were not prepared for the deteriorated condition of the boat & all the problems that a boat in such condition would entail.

We were not at all prepared in how to deal with a woman who, upon her own admission, did not know a lot about sailing or the operation of the systems on her boat.

She told us of the numerous problems that she had encountered on the first leg of her journey. And they were indeed numerous.

They included motor problems (overheating engine), several changes of crew, auto pilot failure, tiller pilot problems, improperly installed equipment, crew that became hostile & irrational & rude, broken docking lines, illness & more.

We encountered typhoon type storms, becalming, & drifting. Most of the systems on the boat failed including critical communication, electronic equipment & navigational instruments.

We had the same engine problems because of some previous malfunction with the boat's engine that had not been resolved. This malfunction resulted in us not having a motor for over half of the 4000+ nautical mile journey. The broken engine is why we ended up drifting off of the Hawaiian Islands for a number of days. Had we had an engine we could have motored (provided we had enough fuel) into port.

Through all that we endured we will not hesitate in the least when it comes time for us to take our own boat offshore. This experience  taught us that we could get through anything & endure much hardship with a difficult Captain & neglected boat.

We got a good taste of sailing in storm conditions & learned that we could handle severe weather also.

Believe it or not, it was easier to deal with the severe storms than it was dealing with this Captain.