Pacific Puddle Jump — The Planning Versus the View From the Trip
The good news is the bolts to the Hydrovane are tight on the inside of the hull. The other side of the coin is that I am hauling along through swells in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and I am not sure how I will extract my body from the lazarette! Maybe more interesting is how I got into this situation.
My long-held goal has been to sail across the Pacific. With planning, and discussions at home and work, I had the opportunity to take off from Memorial Day to Labor Day 2025. Below is my “messy, mistake-riddled, missed-chances” experience. This flawed approach may be useful to those planning a similar sail, or may simply be entertainment as you realize what not to do.
In order to get hold of the dream before it evaporated, I channeled the concept that big trips start with simple steps. For me, it was key to merge the three Ps and hopefully build a successful trip: Plan the concept, prep the boat, pick the people.
PLAN: After many early iterations, the final version laid out a three-month trip with the mantra of “start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” Spreadsheets on time of year, average wind, distances, average speed turned to days needed, etc., were built. While a three-month plan does not allow for all the awesome side trips one reads about, it allowed me to throw off the dock lines, which may be the hardest part of a successful trip. The plan envisioned heading down the coast from S.F. to SoCal and heading offshore to the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji, and then Australia.
PREPPING THE BOAT: Mimosa is my 1989 J/40. The name was inspired by an Irish ancestor’s boat and is also the name of the left star in the Southern Cross constellation. Taking an objective view, I realized I had a boat that was great on the Bay, had made it to Hawaii and back, but needed some serious attention for this adventure. Fortunately, the S.F. Bay Area is full of knowledgeable and helpful sailors and craftsmen.
Basic principles are keep the water out, the mast up, and the keel and rudder attached. To this end, I began a spreadsheet with those goals, and which continued to expand with a list of projects to be completed at the top and finished items at the bottom. Such lists can be daunting, so I put down all that had been done in ’21 for the HI run under the “Accomplished” column!
Step one was to sort out the steering and rudder bearings. The steering quadrant had snapped as I sailed up Raccoon Strait one sunny afternoon; hence the priority. Fortunately, I’d had the emergency tiller close at hand and was able to return to the dock with only minimal heart palpitations while learning that the emergency steering devices are awkward! A new quadrant and rebuilt upper and lower rudder bearings completed that step.
Next order of business: Keep the water out. The sail to Hawaii in 2021 had been pleasantly downwind, but the return exposed some leaky ports to be fixed. The J/Boat owners’ group and J/Boats HQ were quite helpful. However, when the company that makes your boat has come out with the “new and improved” version, you know replacement parts will be a challenge.