Been at sea now for 10 days and should be halfway to The Marquesas Islands by tomorrow. We have still been getting a lot of confused waves which make it hard to sail the yacht, but the last couple of days we’ve finally seen the sun, getting quite hot too, and the sea has calmed down so we can catch up on some sleep. A few days ago we found that we had to fly the big mainsail to keep the boat moving and stable in the choppy seas and that’s a bit risky at night. When we use a smaller sail the boom keeps banging around and we don’t think that is good for it. The last couple of days we have been able to practise with a smaller sail during the day and we appear to be getting the hang of it!
We are getting close to the equator now and will run into “The Doldrums” shortly, where there is little or no wind. We plan to head due south and use the motor for some of it to speed up getting south to more wind again. We are in radio contact with another yacht (Galactic with 4 crew) that is about 5 days ahead of us (about 600 miles ahead) and it is helpful hearing what their conditions are and how they’re coping with them.
Our gps locator called Spot is now out of range, but another link has been added on the blog to show our daily position and speed etc.
Everyone on board is fine including Raleigh but the comment has been said that ‘this ocean sailing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and we’re almost over it already’. A bit early for that as we haven’t reached half way yet! Carl is the keen fisherman onboard (the only one really) and puts out lures everyday. We think there must be some largish fish getting them as the lures frequently disappear, however 2 days ago Carl caught a yellow fin tuna, not a big one, but plenty for some sashimi each and a good size steak each for dinner. The past 2 nights we have had Vegetable Korma with beans, and tonight a lovely noodle broth with all sorts of things in it, including potato, onions, tomato, peas, beans, herbs, etc. Lisa continues to excel. Lisa and Leslie made two loaves of bread today, the favoured honey oat bread. Breakfast is typically egg sandwiches made with oat bread of course, lunch is variable for everyone, we’ve described dinner, but then Lisa makes up night packs for the night watch, consisting of a sandwich, raisins, granola bar, and some form of candy, to keep us going through the night.
Some more words of wisdom from the crew today:
Leslie - Can't wait to have a washing machine again
Carl – Spinnaker pole, hell yeah!
Don – Leslie made her first loaf of bread today
Lisa – Only wants to sail under a genoa
Andy – I don’t understand what these little birds are doing so far out to sea!
Raleigh – Don’t tell me when I have to pee and poo.
Keep the comments coming on the blog, but how come Raleigh gets all the correspondence!
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