Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Day Twelve: 10-Apr-2016 The Crossing

Day 12 11-Apr-2-16 Monday  

0800 Report to Net: Seas: 2 foot chop with a 3 foot swell at 8 seconds
     Winds from the East at 5 knots
     Barometric Pressure: 1006 and steady
     Mostly sunny skies. A beautiful morning!

David continues to plot our course on the Universal Plotting Sheets ** and we are happy to report that we are right on target for the preplanned course plan. 700 nm +/- to the Equator.




0900: I redid the group email contact list. For some reason win link likes to drop people off the list.The emails can be written at any time and stored in the “mailbox”. David usually tries to send them around midnight when he is doing the watch changeover with Armon. There seems to be less interference at this time and he is able to connect quickly. We are amazed at the number of emails we have received from family, friends and fellow boaters. It makes home seem not so far away!

Note about the Time Change: Did you know that every change of 15 degrees longitude constitutes a time change of one hour with Greenich England being the starting point? Now how do you get that? Simply divide 360 degrees in a circle by 24 hours in a day and you get 15. When we get to Tahiti the time zone will be 5 hours ahead of Victoria and 8 hours ahead of Sault Set. Marie.

Right now we are in the same time zone as Victoria but will be changing on or about 120* longitude.

1200 NoonPosition: 6* 25.4 N and 118* 26.6 W
     Seas have a 2 foot chop. with a 3 foot Swell every 8 seconds
     Mostly sunny with scattered cumulus clouds on the horizon - no squalls in site.
     Winds southerly at 10-12-15 knots 
     Speed is 6.2 to 70 knots with a current helping us along of 1 knot
     Course is 230-24-
     Distance Travelled over 24 hours: 112
     Total Distance Travelled to Date: 1362 nm

This has been an absolutely perfect sailing day! Close hauled to a beam reach. All those years of sailing in the Pacific North West and I never thought I would spend day after day sailing, never turning the motor on and never tacking. 

0640: guess we got carried away and forgot to take a position report at 1800.
     6* 08’ N and 119* 04’ W
     Speed is 5.3 knots but Speed Over Ground is 6.3. Still getting that push from the current.
     Seas continue to be 1-2 foot chop with a 3 foot swell at eight seconds

April 11th will go down as one of the best sailing days ever. If life were any more perfect we would be in heaven - or as David just said maybe we are!! Armon’s comment for the day: Today was one of those moments life is heaven on earth!

Noticing some wear on the fiber bushing on the main axel for the wind vane. Not critical but we will have to keep an eye on it. No replacement part on board. Must start making the next order list!

Grossness for the Day - I asked Armon to go into the open tote in the head and get the cabbage for dinner. And did he find a surprise - said it smelt worse than the slop bucket! I guess I forgot about the small watermelon that I had put in there. It had totally rotted along with the purple cabbage. Thank goodness other things were in plastic and did not get contaminated. But it did make for a bloody mess! Guess watermelon does not have as long a shelf life as I thought!

2030; David was able to make initial contact with Al from On the Double - wonderful man that we met in Barra. He was also having engine issues and was able to provide us with comic relief as we all dealt with our issues. He has been trying to keep us informed about weather and what not but we are finding that the connection is very bad. Sometimes we have to get the message relays three times before we get ITCZ (doldrums). All assistance is greatly appreciated.

And so ends another day!




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