Analysing a South Pacific Crossing by numbers

When the blue horizon stays blue, you can only walk as far as the length of the boat you are on, you have the same crew for entertainment and your body clock works in sync with your watch rota, you know you are on a long crossing. It won’t come as a shock to us yachties that long passages at sea can become slightly mundane, so as we were about to leave for one of our longest journeys yet, crossing (part of) the world’s biggest ocean, I decided to challenge myself to some counting… logging some of our daily activities.

Our South Pacific journey started from Central America to the Galapagos Islands, into French Polynesia and finished in New Zealand.

*The following numbers were taken from our time just at sea, not including our time spent sailing around the islands*

The Route

A post shared by Gemma ? (@gemmaharris3) on Nov 3, 2016 at 6:46am PDT

Complete route: Costa Rica – Galapagos Island – French Polynesia – New Zealand
Total number of days: 30 days
Shortest section: Costa Rica to the Galapagos (4 days)
Longest section: Galapagos Islands to French Polynesia (14 days)

The Boat

Type: Sailing yacht, ALLOY SLOOP
Length: 31m
Engine: 1
Generators: 2
Sails: 3

The Crew

A post shared by Gemma ? (@gemmaharris3) on Jun 12, 2017 at 3:21pm PDT

Crew members: 6
Cumulative age of crew: 198
Youngest age: 19
Oldest age: 45
Nationalities: British: 5 American: 1

The Engine

Engine hours: 528
Fuel burned: 15,920 lt (engine) & 4296 lt (generator)
Hours with engine off: 192
Hours spent on generator: 687

The Sails

A post shared by Gemma ? (@gemmaharris3) on Jul 11, 2017 at 8:33am PDT

Time spent sailing with engine off: 192 hours
Motor sailing: 204 hours
Winches used: 7

The Passage

Nautical miles covered: 7463
Number of pages in log book used: 72
Number of pens used: 5
Lines crossed: 2 (equator & dateline)
Other boats seen at sea: 11
Litres of water used: 30273
Litres of water made: 29738
Suncream used: 7 bottles

The Entertainment

A post shared by Gemma ? (@gemmaharris3) on May 30, 2017 at 10:07am PDT

Parties had: 3
Photo challenge: 1
Collective dodgy tan lines: 7 & 1/2
Films watched: 90
Books read: 82
Good books read: 48
Exercise done: 162 hours
Games played: 24 (including 10 rounds of UNO)
Fishing rods out: 2
Fish caught: 4
Birthday’s celebrated: 1

The Wildlife

Dolphins seen: 30
Flying fish seen: far too quick to count…
Dead flying fish found on deck: 43
Dead flying squid found on deck: 26
Whales spotted: 2

The Galley

A post shared by Gemma ? (@gemmaharris3) on Jul 11, 2017 at 8:41am PDT

Meals consumed: 540
Cakes baked: 8
Bags of coffee beans consumed: 12
Cups of tea drunk: 430 (*British crew alert*)