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Meraviglia
Sandusky, Ohio
We are the crew of @sailingmeraviglia! Bob’s a pediatrician. Kim’s a child life specialist and health care executive. Bob’s originally from Cleveland, Ohio and Kim’s from Bridgeton, New Jersey. We met in Rochester, New York. We’ve been married since 1993 and have two grown children. We lived in Cleveland from 1993 until 2009, when we moved to Seguin, Texas. In 2023, we sold it all and started our sailing adventures!
Day 4 to Niue 🇳🇺! We are speeding along even with two reefs in the main and a partially furled genoa! #tradewindsailing
Made it to Bora Bora after a great 24 hour sail from Tahiti! Loving our new mainsail from Zoom sails- what a difference it made!
Coolest morning ever swimming with these gentle giants in Tikehau!
Just left Rangiroa for Tikehau! Happy Mother’s Day 💐🌸🌻🌹and Happy Sunday!
The beauty of Toau - absolutely stunning atoll to visit!
Day 33- Meraviglia to Marquesas! LAND HO!!! Yesterday finally brought some wind and we had nice sailing on our final day of the passage. We started to see a shadow of land in the distance in the afternoon and by 4pm we could clearly see Hiva Oa!!! Because it was still 20 miles to the anchorage and we needed daylight to safely anchor, we hove to for the first night watch. When it was Bob’s turn for watch at 2am, we resumed sailing so we could arrive at the anchorage by first light. We got to the main anchorage by 7am and it was completely crowded with boats! The World Arc is making its way through here so it is quite busy. We moved to the secondary anchorage and there are only three boats here including us so much better! It’s a longer dinghy ride but worth it plus this anchorage is supposed to be feeding grounds for the manta rays so I’m hoping to see them!! Thank you all so much for following us on this passage and supporting us. It made a world of difference to us and we deeply appreciate you all! We hope you continue to follow along with us as we explore the South Pacific! Kim and Bob Day 33 moving average speed: 5.4 knots Trip top speed: 13.5 knots Total NM for this 24 hours: 76 Total Nautical Miles still to go: 0!! Total Nautical Miles for the trip: 4288
Beautiful pacific sunset on Day 31- Meraviglia to Marquesas! Today dawned bright and beautiful, back to blue skies and puffy clouds ☁️! Yesterday was a mixed bag, some sun, some clouds, and little wind. We did get a bit of wind for a little while last night - enough to bump up our mileage from yesterday over the previous day ever so slightly. Now we are back down to 8-10 knots of wind but enough to leave the engine off for the time being. We are 166 miles from destination , so hoping we might start seeing more birds and marine life again! Getting excited to add another pin to our world map for our 20th country!!! Happy Monday from the crew of Meraviglia! Day 31 moving average speed: 5.5 knots Trip top speed: 13.5 knots Total NM for this 24 hours: 107 Total Nautical Miles still to go: 166! Number of dolphins seen: 0 Bird visitors: 0 Number of things that broke: 0 Number of flying fish on deck: 0 Number of times Bob swore: no wind so you know the answer 😬😬😬😬 You can follow our live tracker here: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV-Meraviglia/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYVAjtqXIbW8D58v4Hy7IvKUc2AUYVS26mcYwSB1-A1_74LIPTS9jxh2kM_aem_BRZCGxC-6IwD2goI5M2fiw
Day 23 - Meraviglia to Marquesas! Yesterday started out rough with fatigue but throughout the day conditions slightly improved. We finally had a few hours of sunshine in the afternoon and enough wind to stop some of the slapping sails and boom. We both got short naps and that always goes a long way towards making things better. It was calm enough to make an edamame pepper stir fry with some of the last of our fresh veggies for dinner so a nice dinner and a glass of wine at sunset was a good way to end the day. Night watch was pretty calm with no squalls although we did have a wind switch requiring a sail change at the change of watch at 2am. Dawn has brought sunshine and along with some big puffy clouds- hopefully the squalls will stay away! Excited to see we should be under a 1000 nautical miles left by tomorrow! #slowbutsteady Day 23 moving average speed: 5.7 knots Trip top speed: 13.5 knots Total NM for this 24 hours: 145 Total Nautical Miles still to go: 1097 Number of dolphins seen: 0 Bird visitors: We saw a few gulls in the distance fishing. Number of things that broke: 0 Number of flying fish on deck: 2 Number of times Bob swore: 0 You can follow our live tracker here: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV-Meraviglia/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYVAjtqXIbW8D58v4Hy7IvKUc2AUYVS26mcYwSB1-A1_74LIPTS9jxh2kM_aem_BRZCGxC-6IwD2goI5M2fiw
Day 20- Meraviglia to Marquesas! We had big excitement yesterday- we had a visit from a pod of PILOT WHALES!!! They were so cool! They are quite large and actually swim really fast and gracefully. Pilot Whales are actually part of the dolphin family and there are two types, long finned and short finned. Short finned live in this part of the Pacific. For short-finned pilot whales, adult females may reach a body length of about 5.5 m, while males reach 7.2 m and may weigh up to 3,200 kg! We could not get great video/photos but a few are attached! In other news, the sail repair held up okay 🤞🤞🤞 and the wind is light but making slow but steady progress! Also got a better shot of the Southern Cross last night, loving the night watch views! Day 20 moving average speed: 5.6 knots Trip top speed: 13.5 knots Total NM for this 24 hours: 150 Total Nautical Miles still to go: 1539 Number of dolphins seen: technically 10+ pilot whales which are among the largest of oceanic dolphins, exceeded in size only by the orca! Bird visitors: We saw a few small birds in the distance but no one came to visit. Number of things that broke: 0 Number of flying fish on the deck: Numerous! Many tiny ones and a few larger ones! Number of times Bob swore: that darn wind or lack thereof is not good for the swear count! You can follow our live tracker here: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV-Meraviglia/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYVAjtqXIbW8D58v4Hy7IvKUc2AUYVS26mcYwSB1-A1_74LIPTS9jxh2kM_aem_BRZCGxC-6IwD2goI5M2fiw
Day 15 - Meraviglia to the Marquesas! Well this has been a very windy 24 hours and the forecast looks for it to stay that way for another 24! We definitely had our share of squalls during the day and over night so our foulies are getting some wear! We have hit the two week mark for the passage and honestly it doesn’t feel like it has been that long. Bob just ran sail routing on our Predict Wind app and it is saying 16 more days to destination, all sailing - so we hope that is true! It can definitely change based on a lot of factors, especially weather, but good to know we are pretty much on track! Day 15 moving average speed: 5.5 knots Trip top speed: 13.5 knots Total NM for this 24 hours: 175 Total Nautical Miles still to go: 2242 Number of dolphins seen: 0 Bird visitors: We had a very musical bird flying next to the boat around 2 am when we switched watch! It was too dark to really see it but you could definitely hear it! Number of things that broke: 0 Number of times Bob swore: I know there was some, but neither of us can remember why 😂😂😂
Day 3- Meraviglia to the Marquesas! It has been calm conditions and a lovely morning today! 😊 Our stats for yesterday: Day 3 moving average speed: 5.7 knots Trip top speed: 13.5 knots Total NM for this 24 hours: 136 Total Nautical Miles still to go: 3811 (this number didn’t change much due to some course adjustments but more to come so will likely change again!) Number of dolphins seen: a pod! Flying fish on deck 0 Bird visitors 2 Number of things that broke: Nothing and Bob fixed our whisker pole so win win! Number of times Bob swore: 0
Day 9– Meraviglia to the Marquesas! We continued our journey south in search of the elusive but magical trade winds 💨 Overall it was a pleasant day- we were able to use the grill for dinner since we had just calm sea state and got to do our NYT crossword and do a bit of reading. And we did hit our 5000 nautical miles sailed mark!! Woo hoo 🎉 We also have passed 1000 miles for this passage! Plus dolphins 🐬🐬🐬 Day 7 moving average speed: 5.1 knots Trip top speed: 13.5 knots
One year ago today we left @brunswicklandingmarina for the last time and headed to Florida en route to the Bahamas with our friends on @dawntreaderwith4 ! We have now visited 19 countries, traveled over 4,000 nautical miles, and transited the Panama Canal! What a year!! Many thanks to our friends, family, and supporters, especially Sailing Totem and Mariner Marine Services, Inc. - we couldn’t do this without you 💛
Getting ready for our upcoming crossing to French Polynesia with lots of boat prep and provisioning! Hit me up if you have any tips or tricks!! https://sailingmeraviglia.com/chapter-138-the-one-where-we-become-preppers/
Panama Canal transit complete!! Great trip with an awesome crew and canal advisor!! Happy to be in the Pacific!! 🎉🎉
The one where we met a falcon! https://sailingmeraviglia.com/chapter-133-aruba-to-panama-our-longest-passage-yet/
Night watch views of Colón. Getting surrounded by cargo ships heading for the canal! 20.5 NM’s to go to Shelter Bay!
Great passage from Aruba to Shelter Bay Marina to await transiting the canal in early December! Smooth downwind sailing, calm seas, bright moonlight, and lots of visits from birds made the trip fun!
