Marquesas Inbound Day 12

Hi everyone,
At noon today we were at 09 34S 119 39W steering 250M, sailing under double-reefed main and full yankee at 5.5 knots.  The wind was 14G19 from the ESE.  Our noon to noon distances were 107nm by the log and 131nm over the ground.  Overall we've logged 2710nm and 2981nm respectively.  Our distance to go is 1148nm.

Nicki on watch in before dawn

Yesterday afternoon and overnight the winds were a little lighter again.  However I think our log is under-reading due to hull fouling.  I've had to 'scare' it once after it stopped.  Scaring the log means taking it out partially, giving it a twist to and fro, then reinserting it.  That cleared it but I really don't believe we got 24nm from current (the difference between log and ground speeds above).

Last night was mostly cloud free.  I do the 0000 to 0600 local time watch and last night got to see the moon which is now waxing beyond half.  After it set the milky way was magnificent.  It was fun to have the Big Dipper on our stbd beam and the Southern Cross on our port beam.  Guess we were headed W!    And of course Scorpio was cheering us on overhead.  We think Nicki saw the ISS pass overhead earlier in the night.

Dawn today

This morning it clouded over briefly but then cleared to give us clear sunny skies.  And the wind came back in enough to get us moving nicely.  There was the usual crop of small flying fish on deck, plus one monster.  Wouldn't want that one in the side of the head!

Biggest flying fish yet!

The usual screenshot is below.  We'd rather be a little further N but we're sailing as broad as Zen Again likes.  Any further and the headsail collapses behind the main.  We don't have a pole aboard and prefer to gybe downwind when necessary.  I expect we'll need to do so eventually.

PredictWind GPS Tracking

We're changing to UTC-8 today.

Trust all's well where you are.