Passage to Nuka Hiva, Day 17

Date: Mar 27, 2014
02° 48' S 133° 55' W
Previous 24 hour run: 117nm
Water Temp: 82.4
Wind: SE 11. Boat: 5.5 @ 225T
Log: 12744 (*)
Distance to go: 525nm

I've been out for over sixteen days. The previous day's run (March 26th), over 24 hours, was 107nm.

Soon after submitting my last blog report, I crossed the equator! Yay! Here I am, sailing in the southern hemisphere now. Cool.

I'm sailing at a fairly good clip toward my destination. The winds have turned to the SE and are pretty steady - I'm definitely in the trade winds. Yesterday the winds were fairly light most of the day, and then started to pick up toward the evening. I had the full genoa and main up, sailing well. By just before sunset the wind had picked up to around 12 knots. The grib weather forecast didn't call for anything much stronger than that for the next few days and I was wondering about reefing the sails. I decided to reef, and did. At around 11pm the wind had picked up to 18-22 knots and I put second reefs in the sails. The wind kept up this strength until morning, when it started to fall off.

Today, the wind has been in the 10 to 13 knot range all day, from the SE. Its nice sailing conditions.

I've been napping all day today, as sailing on a close reach, as I am, means the boat is more active which makes it more difficult to get good sleep in my 20 minute intervals. However, four or five more days of this should get me there! It'll be really nice to arrive, anchor, see the sights and sleep well that evening.

That's about a wrap for this entry. Sailing along in moderate trade wind conditions, getting there.

(*) My ship's log is wrong now, as my Tack Tick wind instrument has once again, failed. I'm leaving the system turned off most of the time now, so that when I want to know the conditions I can turn it on and see the wind. This means the log is not accumulating miles. This thing has failed on every passage I've made, over around 7 days. I thought the replacement unit I received in Seattle would solve the problem. Obviously not. I'll be looking for a replacement when I get to NZ.

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