south of Hilo. Day's run 108 miles.
It was very pleasant sailing all day with flat water and just enough wind
to keep us moving along at about four knots. We are not going to set any
course records that way, but given the choice between that and slamming in
heavy winds and seas, I'll take the slow road any day as long as we are
not slatting. We are slowly putting a little easting in the bank as we
work our way north. The easting will help in the expected heavier trades
north of the equator, and besides northeast is the fastest point of sail
in these conditions.
There was lots of me time today. I rebuilt my canvas bucket by hand
stitching it together and got a lot of reading done.
Tony sailed past a manta ray basking on the surface during his morning
watch. That's the only sea life we've seen in the last day.
The good times lasted until 1030PM when a big squall rolled through and
sucked all of the wind out of the atmosphere. We powered for four hours
until the wind started filling in from the southeast, and since then have
been zipping along on a broad reach under full sail at six knots. Perhaps
we've gotten out of the light air zone?
The gribs have really been wrong so far on this passage. This is the
first time that I have seen them so far from reality. They have been
saying that we would have light to moderate but steady easterlies since we
departed Bora, yet we've had to power for twenty six hours. Right now the
gribs say we should have fourteen knot easterlies and we are seeing eight
knots from the southeast…
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