AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/03 18:05
LATITUDE: 06-26.87S
LONGITUDE: 107-14.37W
COURSE: 249T
SPEED: 6.2
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 10
WIND_DIR: ESE
WAVE_HT: 0.3M
WAVE_PER: 5
SWELL_DIR: S
SWELL_HT: 2.0M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 10%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1013.4
AIR_TEMP: 31.7C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Marquesas Islands – Day 7 – 121 nm
Well, first the dull news. We\’ve just had the slowest 24 hour run (2 consecutive days of it in fact) ever in 808 days of sailing \”Beach House\”.
The wind powers that be, just never showed up yesterday and we were sailing often in the 4 knot range. We even had that nasty SSWesterly show back up for awhile. The issue was that the South Eastern Pacific High (permanent pressure zone) just quickly moved north and poof went our wind. It was frustrating hearing about other boats in front of us going faster with more wind. Last night around 10 pm, the winds shifted way aft and picked up a bit, but as it was the middle of the night, we didn\’t feel like doing the spinnaker drill in the dark as we have not done so for 2 years!
Boobie Bird!
So yesterday at sundown, a Red Footed Boobie (p.s. We never saw a \”red foot\” in the Galapagos – only Blue Foot and the Naca Boobie) showed up and landed on our port bow pulpit. He was preening and preening and we wondered how long he was going to stay, especially when we started going forward to change sails. We also new, he\’d make a giant mess that Nikki said she was going to clean up as she didn\’t want me to chase the bird away. I agreed, but you can guess who will be cleaning up the mess!…:-) \”Our Bird\” as he has become known, has learned to take off and land on a small round metal piece of (essentially) pipe and balance him (her?) self while even asleep. He\’s been with us now for 18 hours and we\’re hoping were not arrested in French Polynesia for importing a bird upon arrival..:-)
\”Our Bird\” seems to go off fishing for awhile and we\’ve even seen him land on the water, so we know for sure since he\’s staying with us that well – he just likes us! We thought all the sail changes including putting up the spinnaker would scare him off, but nope, he\’s still here. Once on a \”fishing trip\”, I went up to start to clean up the mess and he practically landed on my head upon his return. He then gave me the look! You know, \”The Look\”. As in, \”Hey buddy, this is my piece of shiny metal rock, there\’s another perfectly fine one for you to sit on over on the other side of this island – now scram!\” So at least for the moment, you know who \”da\’ boss\” is…:-)
Speaking of Spinnakers, we just set ours for the first time in two years. I know this, because of the repair tag inside the bag from when we were in Florida. After a bit of straightening it out, she\’s up and flying. The winds have dropped, so it\’s almost an essential sail to keep us moving at a decent speed. We\’re averaging 6.5 knots, but occasionally 5.5 and sometimes 8.
We\’ve just passed our first week at sea and this trip will be a long one, our longest ever on \”Beach House\” in terms of time. Of the almost exactly 3000 miles from the start, we\’ve 1869 to go as I write (and that\’s in a straight line as if such a thing existed in sailing!).
We heard from our old friends Dave and Kathie Blanding of \”Sunflower\” whom we met in the Indian Ocean in 2012. They\’re about to embark on a nice coastal cruise on the US East Coast. Always great to hear from all of you.
KIT, More tomorrow and hopefully no more \”slooow records\”. At least we\’ve a flying start today.
Scott and Nikki