Day 2 - Pacific Crossing - 24th March

Today was an odd day but it ended very memorably. Last night as predicted was "interesting". The first part was 6 knots of wind and 4-5 knots speed over the ground due to a favourable current. Halfway through my watch though the light wind caused us to gybe and we spent the next hour trying to get things sorted out again. In the end we resorted to the engine and motored south for five or six hours.

In the morning we got things going again and continued mostly westwards at around 4 knots. That is the direction of the Marquesas but we really need to work south to pick up the more consistent trade winds. The wind today was primarily southerly which is where we were trying to work to. Add in their light nature and it's been hard going. Hopefully tonight we can sneak SW without resorting to the engine.

This morning we received our first weather forecast from Jack. It's really excellent even if every space of the text has mysteriously turned to a question mark! Thanks Jack. And thanks to Jenny too for remotely fixing our SSB radio system that allows me to post these blog entries.

We are pretty tired after Day 1. It takes a while to get used to watch patterns and this time there is just the two of us. During the night we are doing 3 hour watches which looks as though it will work fine. Still jobs to do though. Fixing the recalcitrant AIS, emptying the holding tank and tidying up. But still time for a bit of reading and cryptic crosswords too.

No ships at all today. The AIS does show a Greek yacht some 35 miles east of us motoring at 7.5 knots (I wish!) which we think is another cruising yacht. No ships but plenty of wildlife. Petrels, Royal terns, boobies and jumping rays.

But the clear highlight (maybe bar the stunning sunset) were the Sperm Whales. Gill spotted a pod of at least 30 individuals mostly in pairs. They gradually came towards us eventually passing within 30 metres or so. We could see and hear their blowing quite clearly. They are the easiest whales to identify with their blunt noses and hump on their backs. We thought they didn't look all that big but then we read that even the babies weigh over 1 ton! Quite magical as they snuffled across the quiet ocean on their way to who knows where, though after Raindancer's recent whale sinking we did keep an eye on the liferaft.

Finally thanks for all your messages of goodwill. We do look forward to them even if we don't always manage to reply.





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