Friday, April 8, 2011

Day 16

It's amazing how days at sea can be so different and so much the same- all at the same time! Today is like every other day in that we can not see land, the sky is blue and the sea is dark blue, we are sailing, we keep watch, we are trying to cook, sleep, eat, read, write emails while on a heel of 15 degrees (although it feels like 45 degrees!) But today is different in that we have 15 knots of wind and are traveling at 8 knots per hour under genoa and main! Yesterday we had ten knots of wind and sailed our spinnaker all day. We didn't heel so much yesterday either! Today there are clouds and rain squalls to dodge and white caps on the water. The voyage is beginning to feel long although when I reflect back at how far we have traveled it seems amazing and fast! 2400 miles at six knots per hour........ Neal, however, says at least twice a day, "this is amazing! I could go on like this forever!" Gulp!

Shipboard life continues to be trouble free and routine. We all show up on time for watches, we take naps during the day. I just finished reading Cutting For Stone and am now reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Corie just finished White Tiger and has started Wolf Hall. Neal just finished Wolf Hall and is starting the new Zadie Smith book. I made curried vegetables for dinner last night. Corie is making us fried rice for breakfast. Our fresh food is beginning to run low- we have apples to last through the week end, a couple of oranges, a BIG cabbage, onions and potatoes. We are blasting through the amp hours on our batteries trying to keep our frig and freezer cold while running our radar and auto pilot! Neal made a repair to the impeller on the genset water pump including making a new o-ring. All other systems are working well.

We continue to listen on the radio to those boats just a few days ahead of us make land fall in Hiva Oa. It is very exciting and keeps us motivated when hearing their stories of seeing 2ft baguettes being loaded on to boats amidst palm tree and mango tree strewn hillsides! We have passed two boats in the last 24 hours that left four days before we did! We have our sights on making landfall on Monday so the end is in sight!

This beautiful Pacific Ocean is a big place.

R of Rutea
05.33.1 S
135.14.3 W
327.4 Miles To Go
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At 4/7/2011 11:52 PM (utc) Rutea's position was 04°06.29'S 133°45.11'W

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