Marquesas Inbound Day 18

Hi everyone,
At noon today we were at 08 35S 130 22W steering 250M, sailing under single-reefed main and full yankee at 5.5 knots.  The wind was 13G18 from the E.  Our noon to noon distances were 110nm by the log and 132nm over the ground.  Overall we've logged 3391nm and 3736nm respectively.  Our distance to go is 513nm.

Great sailing

Apart from swell-induced rolling it's been champagne sailing for the last 24 hours.  Only a few very mild squalls with a little light rain.  The almost full moon rendered torches unnecessary.  The 'stairway to the moon' on the water was mesmerising to watch.

Last night I spoke with a ham radio operator in Perth.  Amazing.  6900nm great circle distance.  Twas nice to talk to someone in our home town 'over the air'.

This morning we did our weekly checks.  Ran the engine for 30 minutes.  Dunked a camera to check the fouling.  The gooseneck barnacles are growing just fine.

Fouling increasing!

Yesterday I mentioned our Starlink is misbehaving.  Its GPS seems to have failed.  Connecting takes up to two hours.  I also mentioned our Zoleo device.  It is supported by PredictWind for tracking and provides a much slicker user interface than the Garmin InReach units IMHO.  It can be used standalone or with a smart phone.  It supports SMS, short email and emergency signalling.  The battery lasts for about a fortnight.

Zoleo Satellite Communicator

Today we're putting ship's time back another hour to UTC-9.  The next change will be to UTC-9.5 when we arrive.

Below is the usual screenshot.  We're pulling ahead of the Amel 55 sv Onyx and HR49 Xora is further back.  The boat to our NE is a Swedish 32 footer sv Aura.  They're sailing very well indeed.  The first boat to our W (in red) is Aussie sv Sea Change, a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 41.  They're getting away from us now.

PredictWind GPS Tracking

Trust all's well where you are.