A Speck On The Ocean. Sailing The Pacific With Nadine Slavinski
Imagine sailing through the night across the Pacific Ocean with the sound of a gentle wind on the sails, the creak of rigging, and an array of stars above you. Nadine Slavinski talks about the joys and challenges of sailing across the Pacific with her husband and son. Nadine Slavinski is an archaeologist turned teacher whose sailing adventures inspire her fiction and nonfiction books. Show notes * The Coconut Milk Run, sailing east to west in the Pacific * Experiencing different cultures and languages throughout the Pacific islands * Keeping watch and sailing for several weeks straight * Dealing with the fears that arise in the open ocean, and the challenges of the weather * Working up from day sailing to long passages * How places inspire stories * Recommended books about travel and sailing You can find Nadine Slavinski at nslavinski.com Transcript of the interview Jo: Nadine Slavinski is an archaeologist turned teacher whose sailing adventures inspire her fiction and nonfiction books. Welcome, Nadine. Nadine: Thank you so much. Great to be here. Jo: I’m excited to talk to you today. So let’s start with your book Pacific Crossing, which in itself just brings to mind all these different things. What is the Coconut Milk Run? And what are some of your highlights from that trip? Nadine: The Coconut Milk Run…well, I guess a milk run refers to in the old days, a milkman would go and do the standard route. So, sailors speak of crossing the Atlantic as the milk run because over time and over the centuries really, up through the modern-day, there’s a standard way to do it, and the same goes for the Pacific. So the Pacific version or the route is known as the Coconut Milk Run, it’s probably better envisioned as stepping stones. There’s a very logical route across the Pacific, the wind goes more or less from east to west, taking you on your way, and you almost can’t help following a certain route across the Pacific. Jo: What are those stepping stones? What is the route to those of us who don’t know? Nadine: This is interesting. About the first half of the Pacific, you in a way don’t have a choice. 99% of sailors these days, as they have for centuries, leave from Panama. And then for our boat, we had a 35-foot sailboat, it took us a week to get to the Galapagos from there. Then is the big open part, the biggest, longest piece of the Pacific, it took us 28 days from Galapagos to get to the Marquesas. So now you’re in the French territory, and so on, and so on. Then you go across the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, the Society Islands, then you get into the direction of Samoa, eventually the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, and then on to New Zealand or Australia, then the route splits a little bit after the Society Islands. But it’s the standard route. Even as a sailor, you might be surprised how many people are actually out there doing it. We sailed, my husband and I, with our then 7-year-old son, and there are a number of families in their boats sailing the same route. And basically, you buddy up, and you have a buddy boat, and you meet the Galapagos and you’re like, ‘Okay, we’ll see you in the Marquesas a month from now.’ And then you might meet in an anchorage and spend some time together like that. So that’s roughly how it works. Jo: Already I’m like, ‘Oh, all these different places.’ You mentioned, for example, the Marquesas have a French feeling, I think, some of the other Pacific Islands do. What are some of the different cultures that you see on the route? Nadine: So many, from the indigenous cultures that you’re leaving behind in Panama to the Galapagos where...