3144 nautical miles (5823 km) in 20 days

Eventually we had no further reason for delay in setting off on the longest and possibly most significant passage on our itinerary, and in the late afternoon on the 7th of March we pulled anchor and headed towards the setting sun harnessing every joule we could from the light easterly wind. We kept four hour watches, turn and turn about. We never stopped. Either Nick or I were always watching out and keeping a track of navigation. George, the autopilot did 99% of the steering for the trip. Legend.

The passage was intended to be, as the mighty weather guru, Don Anderson, puts it “the easiest passage we could ever make”. Ha, that’s if you don’t get cabin fever! By the time we sailed past the half way mark on day 9 I was champing for steak and exercise, a plan to catch and eat Nick was forming. No wonder the Marquesans were cannibals. A 14 kg wahoo was gratefully landed and it kept us sated for a good few miles. Actually we ate like royalty, there being little else to do other than create regular work ups in the galley, read, and make the necessary sail changes to keep us ahead of the pack. We left at a similar time to three other yachts, Riff Raff, Blue Stocking and Storm. Alimac was a couple of days in front and Dream Weaver and Gato Go are a week or so behind. Nicks savvy weather routing and our regular sail changes put miles between us and the pack on most days.

We changed a spinnaker halyard after the original one kept chaffing which meant Nick had to go to the top of the mast twice, and at one stage a fender went over the side so we circled back and Nick dived in to retrieve it, but apart from those incidents all was well. I lost Nicks four favourite pairs of underpants whilst trying to wash them in a rain storm on deck (however this will be the last time that is mentioned).