Sailing across the Pacific Ocean - Panama to French Polynesia - 29 days at sea

• June 24, 2025 by Sailing Wishful Thinking |
• Language: EN
• Play Time: 00:04:13
• SAILING YOUTUBERS

WE MADE IT!!!!!!

Wishful Thinking's anchor is down in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, after 29 days and 5 hours at sea.

We are so excited and relieved to have arrived here safely, having crossed about 3,850 nautical miles of the Pacific Ocean.

We're also stoked to have had such a great passage! "Pacific" means peaceful and it lived up to that name, with a relatively calm sea state (compared to the Atlantic!), mostly sunny days and consistent wind, although it was a bit light at times. We sailed as much as we could to save diesel, and ran our engine for 118 hours in total, mostly to cross the doldrums at the start and to arrive during daylight at the end.

We spent our days cooking, eating, reading, listening to podcasts, fishing, sleeping, adjusting the sails, looking at the sea and talking about our future plans. The days passed surprisingly quickly, as did the nights as we took turns doing 3 hour watches. Life became simple as we focused on looking after the boat, each other and making decisions based on the weather. Nature kept us entertained with visits from dolphins, sharks, whales, fish and birds. Fresh water was precious and used for drinking and cooking only - we've never been saltier!

A highlight was crossing the equator into the southern hemisphere - the first time Wishful Thinking has been at this latitude. It felt like a major milestone in our journey, especially with a cool southerly wind blowing that reminded us of home. The sun set later and later each day as we moved west through time zones but kept our clocks the same, staying on ship's time for our watch schedule.

The passage wasn't without challenges. We were on constant alert for changes in the boat or weather which could present a problem. At different times we had issues with our autopilot and engine, a huge thunderstorm passed over us that lasted for hours and we had our spinnaker stuck up during a squall and battled to get it down. We really felt the remoteness of the passage when things like this happened. Luckily we got through it all ok and Ryan was able to fix any issues quickly.

Otherwise it was smooth sailing and mostly a mental game to try and stay sane for 29 days at sea. Keeping in touch with friends on other boats doing the crossing via Starlink was a morale booster and helped us to feel less isolated - a luxury of sailing in modern times.

We broke the passage up into different milestones and only let ourselves count down the days in the last week. When we finally sighted land on the horizon we were absolutely euphoric.

Fatu Hiva is incredibly beautiful, and making landfall here is a moment we'll never forget. We're so grateful to Wishful Thinking for another safe passage and to each other for completing this epic adventure together as a team 💙

Now to explore the Pacific Islands - new cruising ground unlocked! 🔓

Sailing across the Pacific Ocean - Panama to French Polynesia - 29 days at sea Locations

• French Polynesia (-17.679742,-149.406843)

Sailing Wishful Thinking

We are Emily and Ryan, a couple from Tasmania, Australia, who are pursuing our dream of exploring the world by sailboat. We have recently bought a 1988 Moody 425 in Greece, named Wishful Thinking (formerly Vitaminsea III). We will be fixing her up ourselves and sailing in the Mediterranean in 2023/2024.

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