Chittick and I have talked about sailing across oceans since high school. We've mused many scenarios. Now, after a lot of deliberation and some fairly major life-decisions, we've finally got a plan to give it a go. Our route will include the famous cruising rally route of the Baja Haha (though we're much too late for the rally) as well as the Coconut Run/Pacific Puddle Jump. Our plan will change continuously, but this page is devoted to giving our friends some idea of where we're headed.
This map is a rough outline of our planned route West. From Tonga we go southwest to New Zealand (not shown), where we have to wait out the South Pacific cyclone season for about four months.
We will have a map with our real-time positions when we depart. We haven't figued out how to embed that map yet, so it may just be a link to the YOTREPS or ShipTrak websites. Each of those (and a few other services) provide free position updates online in exchange for weather information using single side band (SSB) radio. Though we won't be able to provide updates to the blog unless we're at port, you should be able to watch us plug along.
Ultimately, we're shooting for a full rounding of the Pacific. But we have several scaled-back options that would allow us to cut the trip short should our bank accounts or sanity or survival demand it. The first half of the journey starts in Berkeley and ends at the North Island of New Zealand.
Timeline:
depart Berkeley to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Feb - mid April:
Sea of Cortez and mainland Mexico
mid April:
cross to Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia (expecting approx. 30 days)
May-August:
French Poly- Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society Islands...
August
Cook Islands
September:
Samoa and/or Tonga
October:
Depart for New Zealand
Approx March 2013:
Depart NZ for East Australia. From there, it's all pretty up in the air. Some order of southeast Asia before we head north to the latitude of Japan or so and then a long-haul East.
Keep us posted on your trip, photos too! Best wishes for your adventure.
ReplyDeleteWoot! Saw FB postings of your departure. Congrats, Connor and crew! Best wishes and lots of love!
ReplyDeleteHey, check out those shelves. Those boys really know how to pack it away. Can only imagine the exhilaration you guys feel. This is an Odyssey*, for sure. love, sheri
ReplyDelete*Odyssey: an epic journey marked by adventure, not all of them easy but that's the whole damned point.
amazing.
ReplyDeleteHeard you've landed. Wishing my cousin Dana the best!
ReplyDeleteDavid Wenell
I find myself longing for your next posting as each day passes without an update. Each time I read of a new adventure I spend the rest of the day dreaming up ways to get down to New Zealand to rendezvous with my righteous hombres. All that daydreaming has begun to infiltrate my conscious thoughts and has left me considering viable options for heading south during the NZ summer. Taylor - if I were to head to NZ in October, where would I start looking for work there? I'm considering a journey to NZ for a few months, then heading to Thailand to teach English till... who knows when.
ReplyDelete