Date: MONDAY, April 23nd, 2018 Time: 17:00 UTC Location: 05° 24.0’N 122° 12.8′ W COG: 180° T SOG: 5 knots 24 hour distance traveled: 105 nm Distance to the Marquesas: 1380 nm
Saludos! We are within 20 miles of being half way there!!!! And we are firmly in the ITCZ with variable to no wind, much calmer seas and frequent full-on downpours of rain. We set our threshold at 2 knots. If we can’t make headway in the direction we are trying to go under sail at 2 knots, then we flip on the iron genoa. We fought the good fight last night and earlier today putting up the spinnaker, flying different sail configurations but in the end, it is just time to motor south and find the wind on the other side of this…at least until we feel a little freshening on the side of our cheek that tells us the wind is picking up and clocking around. Then we will start all over with the exercise of trying to harness the wind… until it dies:
As Cameron said to a friend earlier today over SSB, it is all downhill from here. We are past the hardest parts. We got through the acclimatization; we broke through the walls of frustration with sea state, sea sickness and routine. We have found our sea legs and so far, nothing has broken that we haven’t been able to fix. I just knocked firmly on some solid wood FYI. On a separate topic, the nice thing about a boat of our vintage (1979) is that there is a lot of nice old hard wood to knock on!
We caught two more fish this morning. More skip jack tuna. They are small, perfectly sized for the family. We have pizza on the menu tonight. I have to do something with my bread dough that is weirdly soupy and will not take a shape. I have just poured it into a casserole pan, will top with pizza toppings and cook. We will see!
Just a reminder, in case these posts abruptly just STOP, do not freak out. The ability for us to do these posts is tenuous and any small glitch in the system or small mechanical failure could put the kibosh on it. So do not assume anything from no posts. It could be just that I am too busy sun bathing. We lost our SAT phone for a while this morning so that is what brings this to mind. I had put it in a secret location just to give Cameron a scare… just kidding. Or am I – no really, totally kidding. Until next time, Banyan clear.