Detour!

I don't know if yall can tell from our track on NoForeignLand, but we made a pretty hard left turn and ran east for a while last night.

When I posted the "golden hour" log entry, a note came in from my Dad.

He informed us that he could see on a MarineTraffic.com website that there was a cluster of AIS targets directly in our projected path.

In our preparation for this passage Jeff and I had read reports about fishing practices in this region. What my dad described in his email was consistent with reports of Chinese fishing boats leaving to drift, or towing a long net, and marking the net with buoys that transpond an AIS identification signal.

My dad sent several emails with clear description of how many, how far apart and how long all together... and where we were projected to intercept. Text book traffic control!

We had some funky latency delays in our email exchanges... but! We had a pretty good idea what we were looking for.

At the local level: weak sea-level buoy transponders and the not incredibly powerful antenna that we have on the mast, meant that we didn't pick up the targets until they were about 6 miles away.

At which point we already had a plan.
We furled (automatically rolled up on the foreatay) our jib, tightened up on the mainsail, fired up an engine, and turned east. We ran a course that anticipated would take us along the net (a few miles distant) to what we thought was the end, after the last buoy.

That's when I went to bed. And when I came back up for my midnight watch, the guys were shutting down the engine, setting the sails, and heading north again.

Just a little 4 hour maneuvers drill. These are your prayers in action folks!! We got to run east. We avoided what may or maynot have been a thing* we had some ideas of what was out there even though we couldn't see a thing!

* the net could have been at se significant depth that we wouldn't have noticed of we'd crossed it... but then again... maybe not! We could have hooked something without rudders and then who knows?! (Not me. Because we took a detour!)
Love and light
Fair winds
~e.

Golden Hour

It's the golden hour before sunset here in the little latitudes. And it couldn't be any prettier. 

(I'll call myself a liar in half an hour at sunset, probably.)

A quiet day here on Hiva Oa. Light winds (under 10 knots) all day. Right now we are doing 5knots in a light 7.5 breeze. 

The wind waves have diminished to sweet lapping ripples and a totally manageable easy swell rolling in from California (or that direction anyway).

And now just before dinner we shut down the generator (which is working like a champ - thanks again to Torsten's many hours of labor) after running it and the R-O water maker for about two hours to refill the starboard water tank.

Plus we took the opportunity of making water to use some! We all showered! Washed another t-shirt or pair of shorts ... and cooked pasta!

We are all comfortably settling into our evening and prepping for a quiet night.

As my friend, April, says: "Love hard and pray hard." (Or something close...lol)

Love and light,

~e. 

Light winds

Another light wind day, but strong sun!
We are all sticking to our big shady cockpit or inside work today... and wearing sunblock!

The wind was down to about a 5 knot average this morning and we actually ran engines and sail for a few hours 0530 to a little after 1000.

Now it's like 7-8 on the mast and 5-6 on deck. We've got all the biggest sails trimmed for max boat speed, and we are letting autohelm keep us at about 52° off the wind.

We are heading north-northwest, which is a little disconcerting to be giving up our "east" that we had "banked" already, but...

Que serà, Serà. and...
This is cruising. (apparently! LOL)

It's a quiet afternoon. I think we are all pretty well caught up with any sleep deficits, and so we putz with little projects (fix this, reattach that, wash some stinky t-shirts) read our novels, do some sudoku puzzles, look for text messages, and emails (hint, hint!)

Love & Light,
~e.

Little latitudes

On my midnight watch turnover, Torsten pointed out that we had reached singe digits of latitude in our GPS position, as we get steadily closer to the equator. 

I'm noticing the wind speed seems to be getting smaller, too. We'll see if that trend holds. 

We are also noticing more current. Our magnetic heading varies from our course over ground. We are getting set a little bit west. This was anticipated and why we've been sailing northeast, instead of due north. Hopefully it works to give us a good approach to Hawaii. 

The instruments tell us that the ocean temperature is 82 degrees. Nuts, right? 

( Here comes that shrinking moon, almost 2am tonight.)

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

Success on the 5x5 goal.

At 5pm our trip log actually showed 503 nautical miles (for a daily total off 117). 

We are into the single digits of latitude!! That's a first for all of us, I think! 

The sun is setting (at least into the cloud bank at the hoizon) about 5:30.  The sky is lovely all the pastel shades from salmon through a creamy buttery color through white to all the blues, lavender and rosy pinks.

Wish you were here! 
Love and light,
~e.

Passage Day 3

Observations

Last night the waning Cresent moon rose at about 0100, looking for all the world like a big yellow Cheshire Cat Grin.  

Before that the milky way had my attention for being the most engaging spectacle.  We find ourselves in one of those really remote dark places, and the air was pretty clear & dry (for the surface of a warm ocean) and we could see DEPTH! and color! 
 ... I mean  you had to use your imagination a little... but it was phenomenal!  

(Side note, the guys are laughing at me and insist that I share with everyone that I had to take ibuprofen this morning because my neck aches from stargazing) LOL

I think its super cool to watch the Big Dipper rotate in the sky (rise and set E>W) in front of us during the night and watch the Southern Cross (and its buddy stars) rotate in the sky behind us.  One of the very cool things about heading consistently north.

Setting stars is    a funny  thing to try to watch with so much distortion at the horizon.  I think that must be why the Polynesian Wayfinders found that a hands-width was the way to go. 

We've caught glimpses of bioluminessencse in our wake. Usually earlier on the night, and not so much later. For some reason, that I don't know, and can't look up right now. LOL

Today is windier, steady 18-22 knots, white caps, and some pretty sizable wind-waves have built up.  We are moving around a lot, as we slide across the surface of big blue.  The water is super sparkly and such a pretty blue. 

It's pretty noisy on the boat: wind and waves, creaking lines, waves slapping the hulls. We have to raise our voices and speak very directly, to be heard clearly. 

Our number goal for today is "5x5" :
500 miles on the trip log by 5pm

Love and light
Fair winds
~e.

Seabird observations (days 2-3)

Sea birds. We still see them! At least 3 kinds that I can tell. Although I can not identify them.

We see frigate birds. Iwi in Hawaiian Not sure if there are varieties? Probably!

Also, what I am guessing might be layatian albatross??? Solo fliers, a little bulky (kind like a giant gull, lol) but a pretty buff brown color. Beak looks almost bluish.

They occasionally get curious and come fly around us, ride the wind with us & the smooth bits from the "wake" our sail makes.
I always offer to let them land on us if they want.. so far, no.

If someone wants to email/text me a description (no links, no pics) it would be cool to confirm what it is.

We also still see the groups of fishing birds.

An angular, zippy looking white (w. black) guy with a long thin tail, cruised by this morning.
XOXO