Day 12 - Tatt av vinden - 1800 UTC

Tatt av vinden
Bjørn Larsen
Wed 25 Apr 2018 18:39
Position: 7:50.6 S 115:20.9 W
COG: 270
SOG: 7.5
Current: 1.4/ 290 gr.
Sea temperature: 26.8 C
Wind: ca 21 kn ESE.
Sailed last 24 hours: 154 nm.
Distance to Fatu Hiva: 1399 nm (One half passed yesterday afternoon.)
Weather: Very nice, has been the last 24 hours.
 
The sun showed itself above the horizon at 0640 ship time. That means that we soon should move our clocks back one more hour and then be 8 hours behind UTC and 10 hours behind European daylight saving time. On the crossings it is the captains privilege to decide what time it is onboard! Well there are some opponents also. The crew wanted longer evenings, and there were protests when the captain wanted to put the sun to rest almost half an hour before 6 pm.
The weather conditions are very good now. The wind is very steady, around 17 - 21 knots, and only a very few light showers. The waves are less uncomfortable, sometimes almost like the commercials from other sailors who have crossed here in earlier years.
Yesterday at 5 pm we marked halfway from Santa Cruz to Fatu Hiva with a glass of wine and a clean t-shirt.
Still no fish, but we provisioned well before leaving, and we enjoy all the meals. Bjørn has an extra meal in the morning: Out seeds with milk, rosins and walnuts. He has the last night watch, and when the sun rises, it is time for this meal. Breakfast with boiled eggs are around 9 am, lunch at 0130 pm, and dinner at 6 or 0630 pm. The days pass fast, and that is good because we shall have 12 or 13 more days out here before letting down the hook and resting.
We get updates from other vessels every day, and that adds to the feeling of being more a part of a movement then a lonely sailboat left all alone at the sea. We do not see many boats though, no sailboats, but we have seen one fishing vessel and four ships so far.
The radio connections are better for Sailmail again, so we keep using the SSB for emails and updating the blog.