Beautiful weather, but ...
African Innovation
AJ
Mon 3 May 2010 18:01
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We ended up doing a bit of motoring yesterday ...
in fact, in the 42 hours since we left San Cristobal we have done a
whopping 25 hours of motoring ... which is not great, considering that we have
2800 nm to go. We are pushed along by a 1 knot current, so we are currently
doing around 5 knots, with the engine going at 1800 rpm. At this pace we will
get to Hiva Oa in about 22 days.
The good thing is that we did have a stint of
excellent wind in the night, so we hoisted the gennaker and flew along at close
to 10 knots in winds around 15 knots. So when we find wind we will move, but
right now we're stuck in the muck.
Looking around now, we have clear blue skies, 30
degrees in the shade, a gentle rolling in long waves and 2.3 knots of true wind,
so we don't have a lot to work with, which is why we motor, hoping for more
wind.
The only excitement happened early this morning,
when we were approached by a launch sporting a
75hp Yamaha outboard asking for ciggarettes and oil. They came from a bigger
mothership in true pirate style ... we had none to offer, but gave them
a couple of cans of fake coke instead. They were happy and took off. Though
tey might have looked like pirates, they were fishermen eager for contact with
people.
Right now I'm hoping for positive news from the
grib file (a type of weather file I download, that shows me where there is wind
and how strong it is).
Until we find wind we will motor along, keeping the
fishing tackle trailing hoping for a freshly caught dinner ... so far neither
the fish nor the wind have responded to our pleas, but optimisim is
high.
- Andreas
2:02.43S 92:43.42W
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