***Life on board***
Some milestones reached onboard today. We crossed into another time zone last night and are now in Greenwich time plus 9 which makes us 5 hours behind you guys on the east coast of the US. We also crossed the "500 miles to go" mark this afternoon. Woohoo! A celebratory honk of the horn announced this to the wind a waves.
The Wind was light all day today and we have averaged just under 6 knots most of the time. The wind and well shifted more easterly as well and we gybed the #1 headsail and main accordingly this morning. Since then we have been sailing on the starboard tack! Imagine that. Starboard tack after 15 days of leaning to starboard. What a difference.
Will is on watch now and I have the 8-midnight watch. At our current rate of about 140 miles per day we would reach Marquesas in about three and a half days. Knock on wood.
***The Boat***
Our spare jib halyard jammed at the masthead sheave this morning and Adam was hoisted to the top of the mast to free it. Luckily the wind was very light and it was no big deal. We will also look into the cause of this when we are inspecting the Navigation Lights.
With the light wind of the last few days and our downwind heading, the wind generator has been mostly relaxing and enjoying the weather and not charging our batteries. The solar panels alone cannot handle out consumption alone and they do not receive full sunlight all day long since they are shaded by the sails shortly after local noon. Thus, our battery bank is down to 79.9% and we will need to be more power conscious from here on out.
***Communication***
We checked in with the Barefoot net again this evening. All is well.
Today is the first day that we have not been able to send any emails over the SSB radio. We are about 2500 NM from the CLOSEST Winlink email stations in Hawaii and about 2700 NM (and increasing) from the Stations on the West coast in California and Panama. Hopefully we will pick up new stations soon but for now it looks like the connection will be light and we may not be able to send the daily updates as regularly as we have been. Knock on wood though.
***Weather***
The wind and swell is not out of the ENE and much calmer. The swells are down to 3-5 feet and we have had about 10-11 knots all day. Clear skies and very very bright moonlit nights lately.
Position (11:00pm):
11 deg 33' S
129 deg 41' W
Alan and the Crew