AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/05/04 18:07
LATITUDE: 07-23.22S
LONGITUDE: 109-15.34W
COURSE: 243T
SPEED: 4.9
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 6
WIND_DIR: E
SWELL_DIR: SSE
SWELL_HT: 2.0M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 10%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1013.5
AIR_TEMP: 33.3C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Marquesas Islands – Day 8 – 134 nm
We had a lovely and pleasant night with the spinnaker and we\’re amazed that we could keep an average of around 5.5 knots with only 7-9 knots of wind. Said wind was also from everywhere and places it wasn\’t even supposed to be like North-NorthEast! (Wrong ocean for that!).
Our Wind Function on the Auto Pilot has saved us many hours sitting at the helm playing video games with it. That was notably a feature of the last time we sailed these waters. One of us always had to literally watch the wind shifts or the sails just collapsed. The new electronics really have come into play on this voyage. They can pick up the wind around 100 times faster than the old system and the auto pilot reacts instantly.
We had everything in the sweet spot including a cooperative ocean (calm) so the wind wouldn\’t literally be rolled out of our sails. All in combination, we turned what could have been a very frustrating day into a nice one.
On the wind front, we should have increasing amounts starting in about 6 hours and maybe a bit too much by tomorrow night, so we\’ll expect our daily averages to get back toward normal (which is 170-185 nm).
Our Boobie went on a fishing trip and while he was gone, I went to scrub and scrub his catch of the day. Awful stuff! While I had my head down and scrubbing, he landed on the rail with his right foot and ME with his left. It was like a shove that said, \”Hey, didn\’t I tell you this was my perch on this island? Go find your own!\”
Right after that, he started \”beaking\”(chewing?) on my lines so I gave him the look! He got the message and stopped. We\’ve sort of an accommodation now that he\’s doing his business on the inside of the rail which goes directly OVERBOARD vs. the other side which yields much scrubbing!
Last night, our AIS (automatic identification system – much like on an airplanes), sounded off on Nikki\’s watch at O\’Dark 30 and we saw \”Angel 29\”, a 450 foot either cargo or fishing vessel. We hailed him and seemed to wake him up. He then altered course and all was well. The system is set to give us 24 minutes notice of any vessel so equipped (all commercial vessels are supposed to be) that would be within 2 miles of us when crossing.
It worked perfectly. When Nikki saw it on watch, at first she thought it was a bright star.
Friends on \”Blowin\’ Bubbles\” had a freighter come near them yesterday and an unlit fishing boat last night. Also, they have seen another (as yet un-identified) fellow small craft out here. This is one of the most remote sections of ocean in the world and it\’s starting to sound a bit like the traffic in L.A?…:-) Who knew?
Long time sailing friends, Bill Healy and Gary Walls sailed around the world for 25 years on their boat, \”Amadon Light\”. I always thought it was the name of some famous lighthouse? Nope, it\’s the morning version of the \”Green Flash\”. I\’ve gotten into watching the sunrises and taking lots of photos of the sunrises, mostly because most people take photos of the sunsets. This morning, the horizon was super clear and out of nowhere, after \”looking\” for years, I saw my first Amadon Light! The morning Green Flash. It was very different. For one, even quicker and secondly, it popped up as the sun rose like a dome. Very cool and I missed a photo of it by about 2 seconds. I\’m sure you can JFGI (google it) and see photos of both the Green Flash (which we\’ve seen dozens of times) and the far more rare – Amadon Light.
We\’re \”Waiting for Godot\” (aka – the wind that\’s promised by the weather charts) and enjoying the boat ride.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki – 1740 miles to go!