Do you go fishing?  Have you caught any fish (to eat)?

We do quite a bit of fishing, but are not very lucky in actually catching anything.  Almost every time we sail (moving from one location to another), we put out a fishing line that trails behind our boat (this is called trolling).  We have only caught one fish worth eating (a yellowtail tuna), which we caught on the passage from Mexico to the South Pacific.  We have had a lot of fish bites, but have not been successful at hooking them.  We keep trying though!  (P.S. since writing this, we have successfully hooked two Barracuda and a Skip-Jack!)

Do you go to sleep?  What time do you got to bed?

When we are anchored sleeping is easy.  We usually go to bed pretty early (by 9 or 10pm).  When we are underway (sailing), then we must sleep at different times so that one person is always awake and watching out to make sure we stay on course and don’t hit anything!  In this case we take sleeping shifts starting at 8pm and going until 8am.  We trade every 3 hours.

What is it like to sleep on the boat?

First you have to get used to having a smaller bed, but once you get through that it is very comfortable.  At anchor we usually can’t even tell we are on water.  At sea the boat can rock quite a bit, so it can be tough to get comfortable (imagine if your bed always moved side to side).  We use a lot of pillows to help keep us from falling out of bed!

Do you have food?  What do you eat?

Buying food (or “Grocery Shopping”) is quite different in the South Pacific then in the U.S.  Most of the islands are quite small and only have very small stores with minimal choices.  It is hardest to find fresh fruit and vegetables, and quality meats.  We usually can’t find our favorite brands either (like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese).  This means that we eat whatever is available.  If a fisherman comes in with a fresh catch we try to purchase fish.  We have found a lot of frozen whole chickens that are pretty good as well.  We eat a lot of pastas (like spaghetti) because pasta is so easy to find and inexpensive.  We don’t eat out (at restaurants) very often because there are not very many around and they are usually really expensive!

Where do you take a bath?

The bathroom on a boat is called the ‘head’.  Our head is very small (probably ½ the size of your bathroom) and does not have a bathtub or shower stall like you have at home.  We have a shower nozzle and an itty bitty space to stand in under the nozzle where we shower.  It’s cramped, but it gets us clean!  We sometimes also shower outside (in the cockpit) with a hose like nozzle.  Every once in a awhile we may even take a salt-water bath in the ocean!

Do you ever go swimming?

We swim all the time!  The water was a bit cold in Mexico, but here in the South Pacific it is the perfect swimming temperature.  Since it is usually hot, swimming is the perfect way to cool down!

Do you ever go scuba diving?

We have done a couple of dives, but not many.  We do not have scuba diving equipment on board, so when we have gone on dives, we have borrowed our friend's equipment.  We do a lot of snorkeling though, which has been a blast.  In addition, one of our friends has a Hooka hose that allows you to dive about 30 feet underwater without scuba diving equipment.   We have snorkeled and dove with manta rays, stingrays, sharks, an octopus, whales, and tons of different tropical fish!

How many days till you get to land?  How much time does it take to get there?

When we planned our trip we figured it would take anywhere from 20 to 28 days to cross from Mexico to the Marquesas Islands.  It ended up taking us 23 days and 19 hours!  The trip was just under 3,000 miles … in a car (on land) it would’ve probably taken less then two days!

Is this your longest journey?

Yes!  Prior to crossing, our longest non-stop journey was only three nights!

What animals did you see?

We saw lots of birds, dolphins, and flying fish.  A few other boats saw whales, but we did not.  The dolphins were our favorite because they would play in the wake of our boat!

How  much food do you have on the boat?  Do you have enough food to cross the sea?  Where do you get your food?  How do you eat?  What do you eat for food?

Since I am very used to having a grocery store "down the street" I did a bit of research before stocking up.  I read that one should plan to have enough food for a conservative expected number of days at sea, plus twenty percent, plus a 30-day emergency supply.  We were estimating 25 days for our crossing, add on to that an additional 20% (another five days), plus another 30 = a total of 60 days worth of food (per person).  To this day I'm not sure how one decides how much food is necessary for a certain amount of days, without making some sort of "meal plan".  This sounded like too much work for me, so I resorted to just filling every unoccupied space aboard to the brim with food!  From my reading I also found suggestions for how much oil, peanut butter, flour, sugar, canned foods, etc one should carry ... most of these quantities tended to work quite well for us. I did most of our shopping in the US prior to our departure for Mexico.  Just before leaving Mexico we went on another shopping splurge until Billabong was practically bursting at the seams.  The hardest thing to store and keep for the passage was fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats.  I made wild assumptions on the quantities we could/would eat before things went bad.  All in all, I did an okay job, we threw very little out. What I have learned since our crossing is that it is not actually the food for the crossing that was an issue, but rather getting by afterwards with minimal markets and stores.  Throughout the South Pacific Islands it has been difficult (if not impossible) to find many of our favorite foods.  Next time I will take more of the foods we love, or are extremely picky about (like KRAFT Macaroni and Cheese, KRAFT Real Mayo, SKIPPY peanut butter, & STARBUCKS coffee), and less of the more basic foods (like sugar, flour, canned tomatoes, etc). As for what we ate on the crossing ... the first week or two we had enough fresh veggies, and fresh meats to make "normal" meals (like chicken or BBQ pork sandwiches, spaghetti, lasagna, salads, BLTs, etc).  After the fresh foods ran out we were left with our canned goods.  Prior to leaving the states I had ordered canned meats (online) -- these turned out to be fantastic!  We tended to eat a lot of pasta dishes; they were filling, tasted good, and easy to make underway.

How do you drink?

We have a water maker that takes salt water from the Ocean and turns it into fresh water that we can drink.

Who drives your boat at first at night?  Do you sleep?

At night we have to take turns driving.  Driving is not very hard because we have an autopilot … we set a course and the auto pilot steers for us!  However one person must still be awake to check our course and to look-out for any objects that might be in our way (like other boats).  Since there are only two of us, that means that we take shifts sleeping.  We use three-hour shifts from 8pm till 8am.  It is hard to get up after only three hours of sleep, but after a few nights of this pattern our bodies seem to adjust and we get used to the short “naps”.