The iron topsail
African Innovation
AJ
Sun 2 May 2010 13:34
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We got off to a windy start from San Cristobal,
enjoying the breeze pushing us forward. We had to put double reefs into the main
and a single reef into the genoa and hunker down while the spray shot past us
... I am of course kidding :-)
Since we left the true wind indicator has never
been above 10 knots and even that only for a short time. We had to fire up the
iron topsail (engine) and out of the 13.5 hours we've been on the way, 5.5 have
been by sail and 8 have been by the noisy beast below. We are now motoring along
doing 5.5 knots at 1900 rpm on a 255 degrees heading. The log indicates that we
have moved 66 nm and we now have 2936 nm to go befor we make landfall in French
Polynesia.
Not a great start, but it was this or wait for at
least a week for the conditions to change. The forecast promises more wind to
the south and west of us, so that's where we are heading. Hopefully we will meet
it sooner rather than later.
Last night after setting off, we had one final rum
and coke, while we toasted to our adventures on Galapagos. Our next drink will
be when we get to Hiva Oa.
The nighshifts passed without any big events. We
were passed by three cruise boats heading into Floriana at dawn, but now other
than the occasional sealion that swims by (forcing us to pull up our fishing
gear in a hurry) we have nothing else, but Floriana on the horizon... oh, and a
school of dolphins passing in the distance (I was just told by
Jacob).
More to follow tomorrow.
- Andreas
1:13.32S 90:35.61W (In case you are wondering what
this is, it is our position, so that the map will update our current
position)
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