Lat: 08:05.0 S: Long: 96:55 W

20^th March 2013 – 4 Days after leaving Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, to cross the Pacific Ocean.

As I started to write this we were actually some 600 miles away from our starting off point for the grand adventure of the Pacific Crossing. This meant we were also 2,500 miles away from our next landfall on the Marquesas Islands. The nearest land to us, other than our point of departure, was probably Easter Island (Rapa Nui) if we were to turn due south for about a thousand miles!

Now, March 24^th, the sun has just risen on a clear, bright day, with the seas somewhat smoother. The twin headsail rig, with no main and only the windward genoa being poled out, has been working well. This easy-to-manage rig has just given us a far easier night than the previous ones, where we had been running under full sail, spinnaker and mainsail, non-stop, 24 hours a day.

In fact we might still have kept our spinnaker up, but it was a touch disconcerting to think about maybe having to get it down at night, once the occasional gusts reached 24 knots of True Wind! Also, the wear and tear and chafe that goes on under the extreme loads of constantly running at speeds in excess of 10 knots boat speed does eventually require maintenance, despite our best efforts at preventative care.

The spinnaker guy, on this occasion has done its fair share of work and started to cut through both the Spectra rope splice onto the Lewmar snapshackle, as well as actually wearing away the metal of the shackle where it was holding onto the spinnaker sheet shackle. The metal-to-metal contact takes a real hammering. We are now using the other guy to hold out our poled out genoa, whilst we try to re-splice the old guy.

Nonetheless, the spinnaker has certainly earned its keep on this trip, having been sat in its bag in Richard’s Antiguan garage for two years. It has been far too long since we had a big run like the ones we enjoyed in the ARC of 2010!

We put the spinnaker up at 10:00 am on March 21^st and just only took it back down again at 12:45 on the 23^rd. our noon-to-noon run for the 22^nd/23^rd was Sulana’s best ever, at 218 Nautical miles, or an average boat speed of 9.0+ knots for a whole day and night. That means we had several hours where we actually logged 10 miles…. It also meant we overtook Pandemonium, an Oyster 82, one night, which was quite a milestone in its own right!

All good exciting stuff, and a great experience for all on board (I hope!) to have been able to enjoy this for the short while it lasted, but now we are back to sailing far more conservatively, in order to look after Sulana more carefully over the longer term, so she can look after us in return.