18.00 UTC (Zulu), 12.00 Galapagos time
Position / Posicao: 09.22.258 S (sul), 122.38.315 W (oeste)
Course / Rumo (COG): 250 degrees magnetic (250 graus magneticos) Speed / Velocidade (SOG, GPS): 6.5knots (nos)
Wind: ESE (108 degrees on the compass), 15-18 knots
Swell: 1.5 to 2 m.
Temp: 28 C (81 F) Mostly sunny with harmless little white clouds here and there Water temp: 29 C
Barometric Pressure (BP): 1016 mb
Noon to Noon / Distancia percorrida em 24h: approx 153 nautical miles Distance remaining to Marquesas: 951 nautical miles
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Ok gang, two weeks down, one week to go – or a bit less if we are lucky. It’s two weeks today since we left the Galapagos, and overnight we passed the 2/3rds mark – now we have less than 1,000 miles to go. So, say we have done 2,050 miles so far – just for kicks. That is an average of 146 nautical miles a day, or 6.10 knots – nonstop for 336 hours. Not that fast really, for our boat, but it could be worse so we are not complaining!
The last stretch will test our sailing skills just a bit more than we had expected though: our spinnaker pole broke yesterday (the part that attaches to the mast) and so we can no longer effectively sail wing and wing. This is a bit of a problem because we need to make westerly progress with no or near no southerly progress – we have plenty of that already. So, without the wing and wing set up, we have to revert to more basic sailing of the main and genoa – except that the boat can’t sail so near to dead downwind that way, we have to be more on a reach than a run… and that puts us further south than we need to be, effectively. Two boats I know of have been in similar positions of late and have decided to skip the Marquesas all together and head further west to the Australs or Societies (Tahiti). But Lara and I don’t want to miss the Marquesas for anything, so at some point the next few days we will have to gybe and make some northing again. On the other hand, the trades could clock a bit further south and save us all that -but from the forecast that looks wholly unlikely. In fact, the trades are clocking a bit further East, not South. C’est la vie.
If you see our spot track from last night, you might see a bit of zig-zag – that was us dodging a large fishing vessel of some kind, with a zillion lights. Fishing in the middle of nowhere… It was radio silence all the way so we have no idea whom or from where they were – I’d bet Japan though. 🙂
Thanks to Uncle Paul, Helen, Japes, Mom, JoJo, Juliana, Marcelo, Paraiba, and Michael Nelson for the messages and emails. Yes Paul, we could use a fisherman – come aboard any time! PARABENS Marcelo & Ju – aguardamos noticias da Clarinha…. Paraiba, pega tudo o puder la naquele deposito. Tudo mesmo. Aproveite!
Have a great Tuesday gang!!!
S/Y Walk On 