Day 9- Pacific Crossing - 31st March

We were talking today about how the passage has compared with our expectations. We had expected a nice trade wind passage once we were clear of Galapagos. Blue skies, fluffy clouds, 15 knots of wind from the SE. What we have had is either close hauled for the first few days or 3-7 knots mostly from ESE or E; that is almost dead downwind. Seas are very disturbed with a dominant 2m swell on our port beam and occasional small bands of current pushing us one way or another. Without a decent sized genoa to pole out (and now a small Yankee we don't really trust) we end up rolling and crashing unless we use the parasail. Which we are not confident enough in yet. Yesterday the apparent wind suddenly picked up to 18 knots in the night and it was all I could do to pull the sock over the sail to dowse it. So it's been pretty hard work with little time to relax. Today though we have flown the parasail all day and had a bit of time to relax - for the first time really. Time indeed for a cockpit haircut

It was 3,002 miles from Galapagos to Hiva Oa our first French Polynesia landfall. Tomorrow we will pass both the 1,000 miles completed and the less than 2,000 miles to go marks. We will also be almost halfway from Panama to French Polynesia and a quarter of the way from Panama to New Zealand! So tomorrow it's PARTY TIME!

Also as we move west we need to put our clocks back 3 and a half hours in total. That's roughly an hour every 1,000 miles so that's another milestone for tomorrow.

Otherwise morale is pretty good. Sleep patterns are evolving and we are starting to talk about plans once we arrive in Hiva Oa which might be in around 18 days.

Oh yes. Our friend Baldrick the booby is still travelling with us, leaving his perch only to catch a few flying fish.


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