04.00S 111.59W
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Sat 30 Jul 2011 00:12
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It think I may have been a little hasty suggesting
that we would not cover much ocean today. At 11am today we had sailed another
153NM in the 24 hours period.
Not long after I posted the blog yesterday the wind
started to strenghten. We took down the genneker just after dark because the
wind was fairly quickly rising towards 15 knots.
A couple of hours later we were also reducing the
genoa as we started seeing wind speeds approaching 20 knots.
It was a pretty rough time overnight as the until
now placid ocean started to wake up. There was still little in the way of swell
but the wind had whipped up some fairly choppy seas. Our car on a highway was
becomimg a 4x4 on a rough track. Nothing unsafe I might add, just not the smooth
ride we had been enjoying since leaving Galapagos.
By morning we were still tearing along in 20 knots,
with the occasional gust to 23-24 knots. By now we were down to about half the
genoa and still at the 2nd reef in the main. We were actively trying to slow the
boat down a little just to make it more comfortable.
This wind has held all day and at 5.00pm it is
only just now showing us signs of backing off. Currently we have 16 knots and
the seas are settling down just a little.
As a result of this we are of course off to a flyer
of a start to our next 24 hour period and have been averaging over 7 knots boat
speed for a few hours.
No fishing today as we have been busy sailing
the boat and we are going a little too fast for the lures anyway.
Still seeing loads of wildlife each day. This
morning we had a large pod of dolphins come past us at great speed and every day
we are seeing whale spouts but have only spotted one actual whale. Probably a
good thing!! There are still seabirds to be seen everywhere despite
us being over 1000NM from the nearest land.
Could be a big day for us come 11am tomorrow if
this wind holds.
We are now 1678NM from the Marquesas and we should
see the half way point by late tomorrow.
Andrew Partington.
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