Farewell Pitcairn

Spindrift
David Hersey
Thu 19 Jun 2008 14:58

24:20 818 S  132:50.881 W

 

18/6/08  15:00

 

So defeated yet again by the weather we left at 13:00.  It is still raining lightly, everything is wet. 

19:30

When we left the wind was East so Steve and I prepared to pole out the Yankee.  By the time the pole was set the wind had gone NE so we didn’t need it.  I shouldn’t have been surprised, after all the forecast was for SE wind all day. The grey and the wet have continued but at least we are sailing pretty much on course and a reasonable speed.  No sunset tonight.  No moon. Nada.

 

23:30

 

Well it stopped raining. The wind also stopped and we’ve been motoring since 22:00.

There is some diffuse moonlight through the clouds and a couple of squalls on the radar look like they’re heading our way.

 

19/6/08 06:00

 

The squalls left us alone and it’s been a dry night lit by full moonlight through the gauze of cloud. The wind has finally gone SE as promised and we are sailing again, albeit 35 degrees off course and slowly.  We really miss the main sail in light wind.

 

07:30

Dawn was a mostly monochrome affair, just getting lighter through the clouds; eventually there was a bit of subdued colour. We’re ghosting along at 5 knots.  Later we should rig the spinnaker when everyone’s up.

 

11:00

Spinnaker up.  Big patches of blue sky.  Sunshine.  Boat speed over 7 knots. Only 20 degrees off course. Sun bathing. Laundry. Life suddenly looks better.

 

12:00

 

Our 23 hour run was 162 miles including 7 ¾ hours of motoring. The Gambier’s are another 143 miles so we will be in tomorrow morning or a bit later if the wind dies.

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image