When “S/V Kayak” left Barra de
Navidad on a transequatorial passage for French Polynesia, it was the opportunity of a lifetime to fulfill long- standing dreams for her skipper and crew. It was a second chance for skipper Brian Jose, who lost his first boat to fire before ever making a bluewater crossing. For crewmember Kelly Green, it was her chance to see coral atolls, now under threat of submersion from rising seawater, and witness the extent of plastics in the ocean. It was also her first offshore sailing experience. Two weeks before picking the hook they were strangers, and Brian had owned his “new” boat for only two months. Now that the sea salt that crystallized upon the solar panels, clothes and boat cushions has been washed away by tropical rains, the two sat down and talked candidly with each another about the experience of making an extended passage with a virtual stranger.
What were you feeling and experiencing the first 24 hours at sea? Brian: I felt very confident, I felt I
had reason to be and that was a large part due to you. One big question mark I had was how you were going to react to the sea, but you were showing bravery in the face of the unknown and you were super enthusiastic when you were jumping into this head-first. We were both going to sea for an unknown period of time with a person we’d known for only a few weeks. You had no basis for knowing what you were getting into at all. Kelly: Perhaps that’s where the enthusiasm came from. Brian: Getting offshore was my
biggest concern and we were beam reaching at seven knots. It was rolly and you were a little ill. Kelly: Only in the cabin. Brian: Yeah, and I figured, well,
she’ll probably get better. (laughing) And you? Kelly: I was really happy to see the
first sunrise, after leaving at sunset the night before. It was a pretty bumpy night and I hadn’t sailed on Kayak yet. I hadn’t had the experience with the various forces and the reality of the potential dangers and when the
things that people had warned me about became apparent, I felt those concerns. I slept outside because I was queasy and, when you went below and didn’t come up from the cabin for some time, I thought maybe you had been knocked out by a swinging pineapple or something. Finally, when you would pop your head out I was reassured. Really happy to see the sunrise. It took some time to get used to the
constant motion of the boat, a few days, but the first day it hit me that we are always going to be moving, a novelty at first that wears off. So is 360° of ocean, kind of cool, different, unique, but that novelty also wore off.
How did the reality of the journey
differ from your expectations? Brian: Trade wind sailing was
different from what I had expected. I thought it would be the steadiest winds and neat rows of seas and it wasn’t really like that. The seas were like anywhere else, frequently mixed with chop, the winds were always varying slightly in strength and direction. In the southern trades there were frequent squalls and the wind strength varied
License #0E32738
more, sometimes the winds dropped considerably. This wouldn’t have bothered me so much if Wendy Vanity (our olden style trim-tab windvane) steered a little better, but I was always having to make adjustments. It was okay most of the time except for when there were other things going on and then it was a little irritating. Otherwise, there weren’t a lot of surprises for me. Kelly: Well for me, because I’d never
done a journey like this before, I thought there would be more hands on sailing, we’d be steering or maneuvering, but because Wendy Vanity took care of it and the winds were fairly steady, there wasn’t so much to do. Pre-trip I was thinking that we would maybe want a third person, to help entertain, cook, and share lives with but it was just fine with two. I also thought that I was going
to be happy leaving civilization for a month, no pavement, no traffic, no terrible torrential Vancouver (BC) grey rain. But because we had absolutely no contact with the outside world, it was kind of hard for me because my family was very worried about this trip, and they didn’t know for about 30 days if
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