Beach House – Ship\’s Mini Blog & Position Report – Cold Front, Spinnaker Drills, "Crap Shoot" and the loss of "Morning Dove"…..

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/05 18:14
LATITUDE: 07-31.25S
LONGITUDE: 111-56.08W
COURSE: 269T
SPEED: 8.0
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 17
WIND_DIR: SE
WAVE_HT: 0.7M
WAVE_PER: 5
SWELL_DIR: SSE
SWELL_HT: 2.0M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 100%
VISIBILITY: 5
BARO: 1013.6
AIR_TEMP: 26.1C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Marquesas Islands – Day 9 – 165 nm (just under normal average of 175-180 nm/day)

Well the day started off beautiful and still not too much wind. That has changed! We\’d been flying the spinnaker and at 0300 local time, (Why always around and after mid-night?) the wind started to blow and the rain started to fall. This wasn\’t just a set of line squalls, but rather a true cold front coming out of the South Pacific High Pressure zone. We\’ve had gray skies and constant rain for the last 9 hours. Winds are now 13-20 knots from the SSE.
This actually has more wind in it within the next 24 hours and I\’d expect to see gusts up to 25 knots at times. As such, we may take in a reef before dark based on the latest information at the time. So at 0300, Nikki and I are up forward, \”socking\” the spinnaker and good old \”Crap Shoot\” (as I\’ve now officially named him/her) could care less. Takes a peak from out under wing, says, \”yep, it\’s those people again\” and goes back to sleep.
In all the gray and rain this morning, \”Crap Shoot\” went fishing but so far has not returned. He may have lost us in the fog (looked like London out here for awhile) or just said, \”moving on to the next better floating island\”. We\’ll keep you posted. Many have asked for photos. I assure you, \”Crap Shoot\” will make the main blog when we get to internet.

So despite the colder (that would be 26 C/79 F) weather (I know you\’re all laughing at that), the gray skies, 40mm (1 1/2\”) of rain that we\’ve had – it\’s actually still quite comfortable. We have been forced to \”reach up\” toward the new wind these past light air days which has moved us quite south of our intended track. This front is allowing us to gain much of that back, which we should do over the next few days.

We also heard on the main Pac Sea Net last night of the loss of a yacht in the Tuamotus (also known as \”The Dangerous Isles\” due to extensive reef systems). \”Morning Dove\” with Bruce Moroney and three crew aboard were all successfully rescued. The boat unfortunately is a total loss. I know nothing more about the incident, but Bruce has a web site at: www.alaskawings.com for those with internet who may find out some info there?
This may have happened on the atoll of Apataki in the Tuamotus, a place Cindy and I spent several days adventure diving at in 2009.

If you do find any details, please let us know by email.

It\’s a constant reminder that we must always be vigilant.

KIT (keep in touch),
More excitement surely lies ahead.
Scott and Nikki