Day #8
Spinnaker run most of the day, light winds and organized seas. A great day to coast along. Waited to raise the spinnaker till the morning clouds/showers had made themselves scarce. Set without issues, only tied one sheet, left the lazy sheet of because we hardly every jibe the spinnaker. So you know that means today we needed to when the wind shifted and drug us 40 degrees off course. The optimist in me tried to wait out the return shift. An hour goes by and its not coming back, infact we are catching the dark clouds that prompted the off course wind. Okay fine, we’ll jibe it. Pulled it down, tied the missing lazy sheet, then it clicked. The off-course wasn’t opposite sides of the boat as the wind shifted, just came from the beam of the boat. So no need to re set the spinnaker, back to working sails. Doh. 8knots of wind and we barely make 4 knots of boat speed, up and down the swell.
Forecast says the winds die further tomorrow and the next day. Well I guess we will resort to motoring a bit. We should have plenty of diesel to motor the last miles but its close, another day sailing would have given a more comforting feeling. We shall see if we decide to just float around for a bit, or power on through for 2 days. Or better yet the forecast changes some. 🙂
All good on board. Topped up the water tanks, down to the last apple. Still have some green bananas that are taking their time ripening up. Taters/Onions/Garlic are still in good supply, still eating and snacking alot between napping.
Wait is it Day8? We left on Sunday, its Sunday now.. maybe my math is off.. oh well, must just be an ‘off by one’ programming error. Have also noticed that some posts haven’t made the blog as well. Trying to figure that out, have re-sent one and it appears to have gone through. Investigation might have to be once we have internet again.
Cheers.
452 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]
At 4/8/2019 @ 2:48 AM UTC Our position: 25°02.81’S, 127°04.82’W Traveling 4.9 heading 294T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-25.04683,-127.08033

Day#6
Yippie, Made the 1/2 way mark of 707 miles between Easter Island and Gambier.
As the sun rose and the first light started to show the world around us, those first sights were none too pleasant. Squall lines all around and a huge one formed behind us in the picture. Luckily we were cruising along at a decent clip and were able to stay in front and take advantage of the fresh breeze and keep on trucking. Successfully avoiding the rain that was falling all around us.
Another nice tranquil day of sailing, knocking off the miles and napping as the swell and winds caress the boat toward the destination. Beam reach with quartering monsters. All is good till rudely awakened from a nap to the sounds of “fish on”.
Yeah. What will it be this time, Tuna? Wahoo? Mahi? Well, wait it is taking ALL the line. Slow the boat, it is still peeling line. More drag, slowly cause we’ve all learned that lesson too many times. Hmmm. Full drag and still loosing line. Oh oh, it’s going to be a long battle. 90 mins later finally near the boat but no sighting. Oh my. Marlin. Too too big, Tried everything to retrieve the lure, but he was not getting near the boat, and 3 meter seas did not help, sorry to the beautiful fish, and hope that hook rusts out soon. 🙁
2 more days of wind in our forecast, followed by 2 days of not much, hoping tomorrow is spinnaker weather and the seas mellow down some.
Have also made contact with the SSB Radio net that meets twice a day to track boats and keep everyone up to date on where people are and how to locate resources in French Polynesia. The Magellan net meets at 0400z on 8.173 and I think the othe time is 1800z but haven not confirmed that yet. Just another way to keep in touch and find out about local happenings, tonight was a way to get discounts on things in Tahiti.
Cheers Happy Friday
699 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]

What a difference a day makes.
Van Morrison said “There would be days like this”. Today was pretty much the quintessential big wave sailing day. 4 meter waves, with an actual period between them, so much better then the washing machine of days gone by. With any luck those washing machine memories will be replaced with more of the blue skies and smooth sailing, even if it means climbing mountains all day long.
Winds under 15 knots, clocking from 220 this morning to a fine beam of 170 to our 270 course toward them Gambier islands. Occasional dips into double digit SOG, surfing down the back sides of these horizon eclipsing waves.
Even drug the fishing lines today, no joy so far, but it is a signs of a good easy day. Under 900 miles to go, three apples left, 3 avocados too, so that means 3 more days right? Only in a plane, we are gonna be arriving without apples that’s for sure.
As sun was setting, the all too familiar squirrels (squalls nicknamed on the Pacific Puddle Jump – a group of boats crossing the Pacific each year) reared their heads on the horizon. To avoid the squirrels at night you try and head up wind round them, or since I’m lazy reef, that and there are many this evening. So just at sunset we reefed the main down to second position and no sooner has the sun set, squirrel #1 descended on our position with some rain and some wind, having a little less canvas meant no problems. Adjust for changing wind direction and return to course as soon as we are past this squirrel. Interesting that we used squirrel to mean those stinky creatures that are all over the Galapagos and San Francisco bay. The Galapagos squirrels are also to be avoided as they are stinky and leave presents that no one really ever wants onboard.
Cheers
866 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]
At 4/5/2019 @ 2:42 AM UTC Our position: 25°58.56’S, 119°27.99’W Traveling 6.8 heading 290T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-25.97600,-119.46650