Day 16 - Pacific Crossing - 7th April

7th April: 15.45 (Add 7 for UTC)
Course needed: 263
Course steered: 260 (too much wind in East)
Speed: average 5.4 knots
Miles sailed: 1827
Miles to go: 1204
Lat: 8° 20'S
Long: 118° 47'W
Wind: 10-15 apparent (to 27 in night) 120 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Last night as the moon came up I saw an ominous cloud to the east. I said to Gill that I think we should reef. So we did. Then nothing happened for a few hours. Then suddenly the sky went black, the wind piped up and it started to rain. A very nasty squall that lasted almost an hour. Paul, who follows the wind backed from 263 degrees, our desired course, to 208 degrees. Consistently over 20 knots, peaking at 28. When you add on our 7 knots of boat speed that's pacto the mast in the dark with white capped waves swishing around me just visible by the light of the moon.

Eventually we came out of it and it was my watch. Another squall a couple of hours later but not as bad and our course was less affected.

And since that the wind has stayed consistent all day at around 15 knots from ESE. At last it has been a beautiful sailing day. Fair sized waves but for the first time coming from behind us instead of rolling us from the side. The sun is out, we've investigated a few issues with a view to repair and, at present, life is good. We are starting to get tired though as we always seem to both be needed on deck several times a night. Still Gill is sitting here waiting for the "1,200 miles to go" mark to be reached.

No unusual wildlife and no boats. We do know that Wild Thing 2, a fast catamaran on a similar course to us is only 700 miles behind us. They may well catch us before we reach Hiva Oa. Milvina who left Galapagos before us dropped anchor in French Polynesia last night.

All in all today has been a much needed pleasant day.

[Daughter Jenny tells me you might not have received yesterday's blog and she thought you might wonder if we were dead! I think this is because the email distributing programme checks for updates on the website early in the UK morning. As we are now eight hours behind the UK it's possible yesterday's message had not yet been posted when it checked. This is increasingly likely to be the case as we will put the clocks back a further two and a half hours before we arrive in French Polynesia. However you can always see the most recent post at www.yachtmehalah.blogspot.com.]

We are really enjoying all your messages to us. Message download time after dinner is one of the day's highlights and gives us lts to discuss.

Also Gill reports that we used the last of the salad stuff today. With the fridge out of action we have been running the normally dormant freezer in its place for a few hours a day. So far it is holding up well.


email (text only, no pictures) to mvgc3@sailmail.com

Follow us at https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/mehalah/journey

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