06:54:66S 125:42:68W
The Adventures of Sunboy the Sailboat
Al Sparkes and Deb Swain
Fri 4 Jun 2010 16:19
Distance covered previous 24 hours: 175NM
Current conditions: winds 16 knots ESE seas moderating, partly cloudy, nice and warm
Sail set: Full headsail, 1st reef in the main
Sailing 120 degrees apparent
Distance to go: 865 NM
Hello everyone, greetings from the navigation station of Sunboy this 4th day June in the year of our lord 2010. Again, happy to report all are fit and well on board, after now handsteering for our second day. Conditions moderated big time yesterday hence the big reduction in our passage miles. Conditions were pretty good yesterday and each watch was done without any fuss and bother and I think everyone is pretty well into the groove of things. Big excitement last night as the sun set, we could see some lights on the horizon, wowee, another boat, human contact at last after 12 days of not seeing another human being!!! Well it wasnt another yacht as we had hoped, (someone we could actually talk to on the VHF) it was a very big fishing boat who had long lines out that we were able to avoid fortunately. The last thing you want to do is get 100 klms of fishing cord wrapped around your keel and or prop in the pitch dark with god knows how many tons of fish trying to pull the thing apart. We didnt even bother trying to call them up as the chances of anyone on board one of those things out here speaking english is pretty slim.
We did the usual and put on deck lights and all our navigation lights and signalled to them we had seen their markers and were staying well clear then set the sails and cleared the area as quickly as we could. So apart from that little interlude, life has been pretty much the usual.
We have increased the size of our mainsail area this morning as the winds have lightened off a bit and we want to try and pick up and or maintain our pace a bit. The wind has backed more to the east as predicted in our latest weather files but hopefully that will veer again towards the south to give us a better wind angle i.e. more speed!! for our intended first port of call. We have had lots of emails from mates on other boats who have gone before us, giving us lots of info about the Marquesas and now the Tuamotos where a lot of them have reached, en route to Tahiti. All sounds pretty amazing and we are all looking forward to getting there as you can imagine.
Having a few more pods of dolphins come and greet us now and again which is always special, no matter how many times or how many you see, they are still one of our favourite creatures.
So thats all folks for now, hope to report all well around the same time tomorrow...........