5/21
We spent one night moored at Toau, a beautiful little atoll, and had breakfast ashore with one of the two families that live there. Then we were off again. Right now, we are close reaching with the drifter (a massive sail): light breeze, sunny sky, flat sea. It's been a great start for Bronson; I could sail a few thousand miles like this, myself. What a difference from the first leg of the trip!
5/23
We motored most of last night in a flat calm, and have been sailing rather slowly all day. But the skies are clear and the seas are flat, so we don't mind too much. We had a bird try to land on the wind generator just before sunset yesterday. He got clipped by the blades and fell to the deck, landing on the fish-cleaning station. He appeared to have a broken wing, but I couldn't bring myself to pitch him overboard. We just left him resting on the board there, and next I noticed he was gone. We have a local net with about six boats, including Orca III, Malachi and us. Both of them are a couple of days behind us. One boat is well ahead.
5/24
We're not making great time, but we're having a great time. We motored all last night with no wind. Most of today has been great sailing, reaching at 5 knots in 10 knots of breeze. One squall killed the wind for about 2 hours, though. Enjoying life.
Tues, May 26, Bronson wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe weather predictions keep promising us more wind and we keep waiting. The last two days have been 130 and 115 miles, which is good considering we only have 8 to 10 knots of wind, but 15 knots would be better. We are just above 7 deg south and headed pretty much due north until we reach the northern trade winds, then we will turn more northwesterly and head to Hawaii. The sea is mostly calm sunny sky and few clouds, not much different than an easy day on the Great Salt Lake. The boat's self-steering gear is amazing, it keeps the boat going for hours (4 to 8 at a time) without needing any adjustment.
Sun, May 24, Bronson wrote: We have just finished 2 days of light winds and slow sailing (only 80 miles/day). We are now at about South 11 and West 145 moving slowly in the southern trade winds. We encountered a squall at noon that wasn't bad at all but had wind shadow that caused no wind for almost 2 hours, but we are out of that now. We are rotating 4 hour shifts on deck. I have noon-to-4p, 8p-midnight,and 4a-8a. Sleeping well so far. During the day it is hot in the sun, so we put up a shade. Shorts, no shoes, T-shirt weather, actually kind of hot and sticky.
Fri, May 22, Bronson wrote:
19th evening was rough, didn't take the second sea-sickness pill in time, all is fine now. 20th, spent the night at Toau atoll, a beautiful place. We had breakfast on the beach with the local family, cool cultural experience. 21st, we started sailing, passed King George Isl. that night. 22nd We ran into a squall at 5 a.m. and had to shorten sail. Right now we are becalmed so we are motoring to gain needed easting. There are several yachts within 200 miles on the same passage, can't see them but have been in radio contact. All is going well, the boat feels very solid.
Saturday, May 30th, Bronson wrote:
ReplyDelete"The sailing is going along very well, actually couldn't ask for any better, we had another 155 mile day yesterday, and today looks good also. We crossed the equator yesterday at 5:15p took a photo of the line, don't know if it will show up but there was a nice sunset. We saw a big freighter this morning, they were headed to Chile from China. Had a shower at noon, feel much better. 10 to 12 days left. The boat is doing very well and all looks good for the rest of the trip. Scopolamine is working well for sea sickness, and I have enough for the rest of the trip."
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