Passage to Nuka Hiva, Day 3

Date: Mar 13, 2014
19° 22? N 113° 15? W
Previous 24 hour run: 134
Water Temp: 77.9
Wind: N 14. Boat: 6.5 @ 235
Log: 11179.0
Distance to go: 2320nm (Distance from the start was 2620nm.)

The start to this passage has been just perfect. I motored out of the Marina on Tuesday the 11th and kept going for two hours until I found a west wind and started sailing. The winds south of Cabo San Lucas are flukey and inconsistent, I wanted to find some decent wind before I started sailing. For the first day I was initially close reaching and as the wind veered around to become NW, a beam reach. The boat speed was good, averaging over six knots in 12-14 knots of wind. I didn?t put down a waypoint at my first noon position, but the distance traveled from the second noon to the start, 27.5 hours, was 165nm.

The wind has gradually continued to clock around to the north and has generally kept to the low teens. There is a four or five foot swell, at 10 seconds and small wind waves on top of that. One of the nice things about this wave state is that there are very few hull-slapping waves which end up in the cockpit - so the cockpit continues to be a salt free environment, for now. (A hull-slapper is a wave which crests just as it reaches the hull, sending a vertical plume of water up where the wind catches it and blows it onboard. They can be annoying.) You couldn?t ask for better conditions. While the wind weakened somewhat yesterday, and having clocked around was putting it behind my beam, slowing the boat down, the sailing was excellent. Flat seas, little traffic, a nice boat motion. Just the sort of conditions I would want while I reacclimatize to being at sea again.

I have blue skies, the seas are starting to warm up and I?m making good progress.

All is well onboard.

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