Day 20 - Pacific Crossing - 11th April

11th April: 15.25 (Add 8 for UTC)
Course needed: 269
Course steered: 269
Speed: average 5.7 knots
Miles sailed: 2307
Miles to go: 738
Lat: 9° 29'S
Long: 126° 36'W
Wind: 10-15 apparent, 135 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Consistency sums up the last 24 hours. We've hardly touched Paul. Just the odd click every few hours to compensate for small wind changes. Fair sized ocean swells pushing us from behind at an average of 5.7 knots.

We reefed at night but as we put full sail back up this morning the blue #1 reef got stuck in the boom. So the main won't quite go fully up and I think we'll have a baggy reef line hanging down for the rest of the passage when reefed. If anyone can find out what might have happened and how to resolve in port please let me know. It sounds as though one of the single line reefing sliders came loose and is now jammed? Not a good start to the day. [Update: Maybe it's sorted. At least the reef went in OK tonight. Big test tomorrow when we shake it out again].

It's Gill's turn to feel down today. I think I heard her say "I've never liked ocean sailing". Oops! Whereas I can just sleep wherever I am she still struggles to fall asleep at any opportunity.

We passed 3/4 of the way today. Amazingly each quarter of 750 miles has taken around 6 days and a few hours.

Oh. I almost forgot. Today we saw a ship! The AIS alarm screamed and at the same time Gill saw it on the horizon. The closest it came was 6 miles but it was the first sign of human life for two weeks. So unusual was it that Gill said there were two ships whereas actually one was the bow and one the control area at the stern of the ship, the Mount Ita, a cargo ship!

It's been very quiet wildlife wise for the last week. Gill spotted a few dolphins in the night and today we saw a couple of Shearwaters (I think) as well as a skinnier type of petrel. Other than that and a few flying fish, nada. Or as we are now closer to French Polynesia than Spanish Galapagos, rien.

It's my turn to cook tonight. My girls will know what's on the menu today. Yes, you guessed it - cheese omelette, my signature dish.

Hmm. Food stores. Where are we? We have 21 eggs left out of 36 but cheese as always has taken a hit. We are on our last round cheddar. We have loads of jars of pickles, made up pasta sauces, curry pastes etc but the longer these last in French Polynesia the better as it is apparently three times more expensive there than Panama which itself was not cheap. Panamanian rum and wines from there are stored away too. Tins of beans and sweetcorn are rapidly being depleted. Fresh produce? Ha. No salad stuff; the lack of a proper fridge hasn't helped. Loads of onions, potatoes and sweet potatoes. We ate the last delicious grapefruit for lunch today with last night's left over potato salad. A few avos and green peppers and chillis remain and an enormous butternut squash together with two huge watermelons, apples and lemons. Plenty of pasta and other carbs. Tomorrow I will bake bread again. We are not going to starve!





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

----------
Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com