Flying Fish Weather

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Fri 18 Mar 2016 23:10
Noon position: 17 47.6 N 155 56.2 W
Course: South west Speed: 6 knots
Wind: North, F4, moderate breeze
Sea: moderate Swell: North east 1.5 meters
Weather: sunny periods, mild
Day’s run: 150 nm

The wind remained fresh from the NNE overnight such that running square on the port tack we were pushed slightly to the east of our rhumb line route for Fiji. However, as expected, the wind has very gradually veered and now we are on course. We have made good time and Hawaii now lies far astern. I doubt whether I shall return if I can help it. Cook was killed here, and RC marooned by his shipmate. In the maritime annals of the West, it is indeed an infamous place.

Okay, so that was a little melodramatic. After all RC no doubt by now has been well fed, is enjoying an afternoon siesta and likely a bit of a cuddle. In fact he is quite likely thanking the change in his luck. If he was on board Sylph by now he would have thrown up, been pretty cranky with everything moving and the upper deck becoming a threat to life and limb, not to mention the possibility of getting wet, and he would have had to sit under the galley bench hoping that the skipper might toss him a morsel of tuna in lieu of the hard tack that constituted his usual daily fare. Perhaps the only thing he would miss, and I am not sure about this, is the two fat flying fish that I found on deck this morning. He has always turned his nose up at the fresh thing for some reason, preferring the civilised stuff out of a tin. Cats! I shall just have to make do with borrowing OPCs for the time being, and, on the plus side, I can now contemplate a few cruising grounds that have previously been off limits to us cat owners. Sorry RC.

Alright, now that that little piece of guilt has been put on the table and hammered about a bit, it is time to focus on the passage ahead. The sun shines and the sea is a deep cobalt blue, flecked with windy white caps, and as I write, glancing out the companionway I see a Layson albatross has joined us, wheeling and soaring, graceful and effortless, glancing the wave tops, as if to welcome Sylph back into her element.

All is well.