Crossing the Pacific... the hard way

Ron here. I hope Tom and Amy don't mind me posting this. I found it very interesting and relevant.

Today in the news, 3 Mexican fisherman were found floating in their boat after being adrift for over 8 months. They were found north of Baker Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, over half way to Australia. Here is the full story.

They had left San Blas Mexico last November for a 3 week deep-sea fishing trip. Both of their motors died, and they had no radios or phones. They had some water and lemons. They have lived off the sea ever since.

Tom and Amy were in San Blas in early December, shortly after these fisherman left. Since then, these guys have managed to actually go further west than Tom & Amy have. Click on the globe photo in this link to a page shot of Google Earth. I plotted the course of the fisherman in white. The Sandpiper's voyage is in yellow. Amazing.

This illustrates the power of the trade-winds and currents that I talked about ad-naseum back in March. It also goes to show why sails are so great! If your motors die, there is always the wind. That, and Tom & Amy have an EPIRB on board.

As Amy said in yesterday's post, "The canvas can do miracles."