Good Progress

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sat 8 Jan 2011 16:35

Noon Position: 20 28.9 S 088 01.5 W
Course: 285 Speed: 5 Knots
Wind: East sou’ east F4 Moderate breeze
Weather: Overcast, mild to warm
Day’s Run: 148 miles

Another solid day’s run. The wind is up and down a bit, even had to shorten sail down to two reefs early this morning. I woke up at about six and could feel Sylph surging along, I checked the GPS and we were touching ten knots, a little much for the wind vane to handle and putting quite a strain on the gear so I reduced sail and slowed down to a more comfortable seven knots. Now if I had an extra hand I might have had fun hand steering for a while, oh well! The wind has eased again, I have shaken out a reef and will probably set full sail shortly.

My coffee tastes dreadful, might have to throw it out and try a different bag.

The GPS has just ticked over to 2999 miles to go to the Marquesas. I have been studying my charts a little this morning, always fun, thinking about options. The Marquesas look interesting, as does all of French Polynesia. But my tooth has decided where we should go. If we continue at roughly 140 miles a day we should be there in 22 days, so that will be about the 30th, though I suspect this is a little optimistic. While we will be in the Marquesas during the cyclone season, as mentioned the risk will be low and on the plus side there will be a lot less boats around so there will be more room and the locals might be a little more hospitable.

All is well.