18.36S 166.43W 18th September 2011
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Mon 19 Sep 2011 01:04
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The weather has been all over the place for us over
the past 24 hours. Our solid 12 knots of wind died out at sunset just after we
were overtaken by a large rain system. We did get some water in the tank but we
were left to motor for most of the night. At 2am we had enough wind to get the
genneker back up but progress was very slow.
At 4am we were hit by a series of squalls. The
first one was large and shifted the wind direction by 50 degrees. The shift was
to the south-east and has persisted all day despite several of these large
systems coming over us. The wind strength has been 12-14 knots for most of
the day and at a great angle to use both the mainsail and genoa. Since 10am we
have been making around 6 knots of boat speed. We are currently 178NM from Niue
and it will be tough for us to make it before dark tomorrow night at our current
rate of progress. We still have 12 knots to push us along and we are hoping it
will hold on overnight.
The sea conditions are perfect with very little
swell and just an easy following wind wave.
Rob seems to have settled into the routine of the
passage well. We have been playing cards in the [frequent] quiet times and
he has picked up his share of the constant watches well. It is also
terrific to have the new music on the boat that he brought with him from
Australia. Listening to music at night helps us stay awake and make the
time go much faster.
Our fishing amounted to little yesterday and we are
going a little too fast to be able to fish today. Our boat speed is okay to
fish but stopping the boat in order to haul in the catch becomes
much harder with this much sail up. The freezer is still packed with some
mahi-mahi, tuna and now several kilos of parrotfish [which are
delicious].
Fingers crossed for a good sail tonight and a
daylight arrival at Niue later tomorrow.
Andrew.
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