Across the Pacific - Day 17

Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Sat 10 Apr 2010 08:00
08:58.175S 137.13.331W

Saturday 10th April

When we woke this morning after another night with the engine droning we were pleasantly surprised as we had 10 - 12 knots of wind from the East. The genoa was soon out, the cruising chute was hoisted up and that is how we have stayed all day, it's been great! We've only been doing between 4.5 and 7 knots (occasionally) but it's been a really nice sail. We lost sight of Blue Magic this morning as they continued with their engine on so it's just us for the final 100 ish miles.

I knew it was going be a good day when I woke this morning to find Amy washing her clothes and not in a horizontal position. On our final day she's finally found her sea legs, typical! As the seas have been so calm the rest of the day has been spent playing scrabble and bingo. Paul did surprisingly well, although we had to laugh when he tried to put "Ian" on the board.

I think I spoke to soon, just as I was writing this I could see the cruising chute flying loose at the bow and starting to get dangerously close to wrapping itself around the forestay. The sheet that attaches to the clew on the chute and runs through a block (pulley) on the end of the boom had snapped. Paul and Amy managed to get up on deck pretty quickly so they soon had the sail under control. Things can change so quickly on this boat! We're back to the twin headsails and main sail formation now and the boat is getting into the dreaded rocking motion. Only one more sleep and then we're there! We should be able to spot land early in the morning as I believe the 4000m high islands can be spotted from around 20 miles away.

We can't wait!!!