Marquesas Inbound Day 13

Hi everyone,
At noon today we were at 10 04S 121 38W steering 280M, sailing under single-reefed main and full yankee at 5.5 knots.  The wind was 12G17 from the ENE.  Our noon to noon distances were 95nm by the log and 128nm over the ground.  These were for 25 hours since we moved to UTC-8 yesterday afternoon.  Overall we've logged 2803nm and 3110nm respectively.  Our distance to go is 1030nm.

Squid!

Our log is definitely under-reading.  So I'm about to adjust it - via its Bluetooth app - to read more accurately.  The fouling must be nasty under there!

Yesterday afternoon we sailed along quietly in 'slow cruising' mode.  The winds had lightened a little more still but I didn't want to shake out a reef just yet.  I'm impressed at the WindPilot managing to hold course down to 6 knots apparent wind.  Overnight the stars were again spectacular.

Dawn today

We've been waiting on an opportunity to gybe to the NW.  We were getting quite far S of the other boats in our group, and as an ex-racer I really wanted to 'cover' the boats behind us.  The opportunity came this morning and we gybed at 0945.  Our new course is 280M (290T) which was the leading gybe towards our destination.  And we moved into 'fast cruising' mode and shook out a reef.  The wind had gradually backed to E, which was our trigger.

Shortly after gybing a group of six squids, each 20cm long, hopped aboard.  Most of them immediately dumped their 'ink' on the deck.  All of their bodies were changing colour rhythmically - very pretty.  I think we got them all back where they belong alive.  But what a mess!

Every couple of days I send a position report into the Amateur Position Reporting System via our SSB.  I use a system called JS8 which allows very long range at very low transmit power.  This is a good test for our SSB since we're 'way out there'.  You can see our APRS track here.  The site only keeps the last week's data.

APRS track from SSB position reports

Here's the usual screenshot.  If you look closely you can see we're tracking WNW.  It'll be interesting to see how far ahead of Xora and Onyx we pass.

PredictWind GPS Tracking

Trust all's well where you are.