1. "Never start a passage on a Friday." To show the quirkiness of sailors there is no better example than this superstition. The purist will adhere to this edict as if it's a natural law. Most modern cruisers, however, have invented little ways to sidestep the rule. A passage requires an overnight trip, many say, so you are free to change anchorages and make short daysails on Friday. Others say all it takes is a 360 degree turn to port upon leaving the harbor to reverse the jinx. As for myself, on the rare occasion I have set sail on a Friday (only for daysails) my logbook marks the day as Thursday +1.
2. "No bananas." This superstition applies more specifically to fishermen, but most sailors abide by it at least to some degree. As for me, I won't pass up a good batch of bananas, but I also won't go out of my way to procure them. And, looking back, each time I've brought bananas I've had a rough, fish-scarce passage. To wit: upon leaving Fanning Island the locals gave me two massive bunches of bananas which served as the bulk of my diet for the nine day sail to Hawaii. That passage was plagued with unusually squally weather and the worst sea conditions I've encountered over an extended period. And, by the way, I didn't catch a fish until the afternoon before my arrival, six hours after I had consumed my final bananas.
3. The popular adgae: "Ask and ye shall receive," or the sailor's version, don't ask and you won't have to deal with it. Never mention the desire to encounter bad weather, even if just to see what it's like. Never be ashamed to answer the inevitable "have you hit any bad storms" with a nonchalant, "No, I've been really lucky weather-wise thus far." For proof of why this is you need look no further than this very passage. As Avventura's crew sat together in her cockpit admiring one final Hawaiian sunset, Kevin ventured the statement, "I hope we come across some weather just to see what it's like." My father and I quickly convinced him he didn't really want to; but alas, it was too late. Two weeks later we found ourselves in the midst of a late-June winter low pressure system in the North Pacific. We were in the heart of a gale in a place where the pilot charts declared there is, historically, a ZERO percent chance of encountering such conditions in June! "Ask and ye shall receive."
Needless to say Kevin has learned a valuable lesson, and though we can joke about it now, I venture to say he won't be wishing for bad weather or lugging bananas on board or shoving off on a Friday or even stepping on a foul line anytime soon. No matter how you feel about karma, superstitions, jinxes and the like one important thing to remember is they have been around for generations, and continue to live on for a reason. So, even in our technologically advanced age, you don't monkey with tradition or defy superstitions—especially not before facing a 2500 mile voyage.
(Credit for the idea of this blog goes to my father. Please remember I've been at sea for 18 days now and have gotten very limited sleep the past 3 days, so the writing may be lacking a bit.)
July 2--1300
34.31N by 134.35W
PS Has been a nice day of sailing thus far. We've had 15 to 20 knots of wind since yesterday and it has slowly shifted from the SW to the S. The miles are drifting astern (139 yesterday), as the water temperature continues to dip (65 now). Our fishing luck has persisted, but shifted forms, as we've caught two tasty little albacore in the past 24 hours-one in time for dinner last night, and one early this morning. One thing remains the same with our fish-they hit at the most inopportune times. Both the last two hit as light squalls descended upon us, leaving me to fillet them in the rain. But our diets remain fish-heavy, and our lockers remain filled with largely untouched canned goods. Autopilot is struggling, but holding in there. All else is going good.
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