Day #4
Break on through to the other side! We ran right smack dab into the weather system that was causing us all the grief for the past couple of days. We haven’t broken free yet, the skys are still gray, and rain is all around. The waves and winds are becoming less chaotic and more synchronized.
Before shaking the reefs out, some long naps were in order to recharge and make sure the weather we were seeing was going to continue. All good since this morning, little motor sailing when the winds went real light, but back on sails alone now that the winds are over consistent above 8knots. Going to be another dark night, clouds, sliver of a moon and a very late moon rise at that.
Its been slow going, hopefully we can get moving a bit better with the improving conditions. Supposed to have some decent wind and weather for a few days. The waves will remain large at 4M, er 12 footers, might still be bouncy.
See the image attached, that rest stuff on the right of the photo is what we were going through. That RED on the bottom is what we were definitely NOT wanting to get involved with. When we left Easter the most comfortable direction was directly west which we would have run right into that big RED. Only spotted that on the weather reports after we had already gone 25 miles toward it. Yikes, thus the next days were trying to head north up that other red zone is where we were getting bounced around a bit.
999 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]
At 4/4/2019 @ 2:50 AM UTC Our position: 26°26.43’S, 117°03.76’W Traveling 6.3 heading 283T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-26.44050,-117.06267

Storm on passage to Gambiers

Welp, we are on our way to French Polynesia.
Enjoyed our stay in Easter island. We did not find the Easter Bunny nor a Cadbury Farm, and all the eggs were just the normal brown and white variety. Some interesting Moai and history that is somewhat incomplete and vague.
Our “tourist visas” were up, the port was closed due to weather, there wasn’t any sign the weather was going to get better on the forecast so we managed to find a way ashore and top up the gasoline for the dinghy and honda generator and of course some normal colored real “Easter Eggs” and cleared on out of the country with a destination of Gambier Islands some 1400 miles away.
Forecasts and the fact that the port was closed we strong clues that the wind was strong and coming out of the North. So we raised the main sail in the first reef and slowly peeked past the protection of island to see what we were up against. Perfect 1 reef and just over 20 knots of wind and fingers crossed the waves would mellow out as soon as we got away from the islands shallow spots.
Of course that was not gonna happen. Rocking along for 5 hours getting bounced all over the place the wind picked up some more and that was enough of that, pull down some more sail to the second reef position and slow the boat down and try and pick an angle on the waves that was not as bouncy and that is where we are. Sails are set for 35-40 knots of wind should it come. Boat still moving along decently at 6-7knots, still bouncy and gonna make getting any decent sleep tonight a challenge. Spray from the waves all over the boat, including covering the solar panels some 10+ feet above the water.
12 hours of bouncing done, over 200 more hours to go, hope it smooths out at some point, but the forecast does not support that )*hope*. At one point the GPS said it was going to only take 6 days, but that was when we were rocking along at 9 knots.
Daggerboards down and heading into the wind we go.
1344 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]
At 4/1/2019 @ 2:32 AM UTC Our position: 27°23.44’S, 110°43.09’W Traveling 7.0 heading 259T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-27.39067,-110.71817

One week down(Saturday), we left Robinson Crusoe (Juan Fernandez) last Saturday. Rough math has 1000 miles in that weeks time. Some motor sailing, but mostly under sail.
After dancing with squalls some with rain showers all night, the morning saw the end of them. The wind was still cooperating despite being predicted to be absent. We were treated to a beautiful day.
Kept on Keeping on.
I woke Christine up to look at one of the clouds, right smack dab in the middle of a puffy white cloud was a rainbow splotch. Took a picture but hard does it justice, looked like someone had taken a paintbrush of rainbow and just accidentally touched the cloud. No big arch just a smudge. Pretty cool.
The waves and wind built during the day and we struggled to keep pointing to the mark and have a comfortable ride. Just before dinner we had resolved in taking a reef to make a nicer night, and after dinner the winds dropped down to 14, which is perfect.
Was just a beautiful day, tried shorts and t-shirt, worked in the sun but with the breeze it was still pretty cold. Looking forward to hot and muggy, but then will be wishing for cooler temps, I’m sure.
All is good will be under 500 miles before midnight (Santiago time) The trip computer has a nice 7.7 average since midnight (local time), knocking off 140 miles with 6 hrs till it resets.
Ran water maker, topped up both tanks. One bank of solar panels was not shaded by the sails and was able to support the boat and water maker within reason. Will have to run the honda generator at some point to night to catch all the way back up.
One apple left, rest of the fruits are gone, last avocado gone. Some lettuce and bell peppers and potatoes, onions, garlic are the remaining fresh food items – should be plenty for the next 4 days without having to resort 100% to canned items.
I hope that sunset photo from last night made it to the blog/facebook. Took lots of attempts on the SSB, one was 2 mins from finishing after 90 mins when the connection crapped out. I got time, but its still frustrating.. 😀
Cheers.
1610 of 1624 miles left to go. [realtime]
At 3/24/2019 @ 12:02 AM UTC Our position: 30°07.05’S, 100°23.01’W Traveling 7.9 heading 292T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-30.11750,-100.38350