***Life on board***
This morning brought light winds but now it has picked up and we are making great progress. Adam baked a macaroni casserole for dinner with rice that was delicious and we had another movie night this evening. Adam is on watch now and were looking forward to putting on some real distance tonight with good winds.
Last night during the midnight watch, my fishing pole went swimming. It was in its usual position with the line still out and the mainsheet snagged it and lifted it right out of its holder. Don't worry though, it had a strong line tied to it and it was recovered straight away. Tying lines to things that you don't want to lose is the name of the game out here. Fishing poles, buckets, even people! No luck fishing today. Tomorrow is a new day.
Today I started a plot of our position on a "plotting sheet" that is used in conjunction with celestial navigation to track ones position with a combination of dead reckoning and celestial navigation sights. I am going to try to keep up with our position as we cross the pacific using just the compass, sextant and our speed and heading. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it's going.
***Communication***
We listened in to the "Pan Pacific" net today but found there was not formal net held for whatever reason. So we made a general call for anyone who was on the frequency and were able to speak with a boat named Dignity who is also bound for Marquesas. They gave us the scoop on the other informal net that cruisers use on the Marquesas crossing called the "Barefoot" net and we checked in with them at 6:30pm with our position and got the positions of some other boats around us. This morning we were just about even with Dignity and about 10 miles North of them. By the Evening we were still about 10 miles away but had put them to our South East and behind us. The net meets in the morning and evening and it is good to know that there are other boats in such close proximity to us that we could call on for help if we ever needed it. The Pacific is a BIG place.
***Weather***
It was very clear all day today with only a few trade wind type cloud patters that arrange themselves in small puffy bands that stretch out all the way to the horizon. The wind was light most of the day until around 4pm when it started to pick up and now just after sunset, we have a steady 10-12 knots.
Position (8:30pm):
02 deg 26' S
95 deg 06' W
Alan and the Crew