Galápagos>Marquesas 06-08-2011 (Day 4, 22:4 5 UTC): DTF 2098nm (02:46.1S 104:23.7W)

Aquamante
Vries Peter Pons
Sat 6 Aug 2011 23:33
TWS: 15-25kt (8-12)
TWD: 120-140 (110-130)
TWA: 130-150 (110-130)
AWA: 110-130 (90)
HDG: 270-290 (270)
COG: 265-285 (250-260)
Data average over last 24hrs and between () is now.

DTF: 2098nm
Track: 823nm
Trip: 773nm

Last night the wind picked up and veered further to south, allowing us to do
some 8.5-9.5 kts on a course slightly north of west. Perfect, except for the
rough seas which kept us from sleeping much. At 6.00 local time (12.00 UTC)
we finally broke the 200nm barrier in 24 hours by clocking 201nm.
Unfortunately we have not been able to improve on this as yet, as the wind
came down to 8-12 kts this morning.

First sign of life in the Pacific after the fishing boat of some days ago: a
tanker by the name of Nordic Grace, heading for Chile, showed up on the AIS
system, and would pass us at some 50nm; so never saw her in real, even too
distant for VHF contact.

After our daily cleaning of the deck of flying fish (less than usual) and
squid (much more than usual and in bizarre places like the cockpit, which
has hardly any ocean spray, and we thought squid does not fly), we set up
the bimini. Since it was repaired in Santa Cruz, we had not put it back on,
as we used the sun awning at anchor and thus far it was not that hot whilst
sailing to need it, but the clear Pacific skies and increasing temperatures
meanwhile make it unbearable not to have a permanent cover over the cockpit.
Daph baked bread for the first time on this crossing: it had a nice crust
:-).

Also decided this morning to put the clock back one hour, since we have to
go back 3.5hrs in total (UTC-9.5hrs/ NL-11.5hrs) for the right Marquesas
time zone.