Marquesas Passage Day 13

Yesterdays Noon-to-noon run was 153 miles.

The tradewinds have decided to go away for a bit. We are seeing winds in the 4 to 13kt range out of the NE, instead of a steady 20kts of SE or E flow. Most of the time we are sailing more toward Hawaii than toward the Marquesas (another destination that Chris is OK with). We decided to jibe and head NW instead of SW as we were getting too far S, about 11*S. This morning we are at 9* 27S. The light winds means we have to watch the course carefully. Every time the wind picks up a bit or clocks a little we point the boat closer to the Marquesas. When the sails are start slatting away as the boat rolls in the swell, we point more northerly. If we see a rain shower anywhere we try and head for the south side of it to pass under it. This gives us a nice boost toward the Marquesas as we can point directly at our target and sail for 2 or 3 hours at 8kts in light drizzle.

We did checkin last evening with the Maritime Net at 14.300MHz - or as Chris calls it the Old Guys Net with BF Antennas. These guys boom in here with crystal clear audio from all over the US. The guy I was talking to was i Tennessee. Its nice to know there's a friendly voice at the other end of the radio if you ever needed it.

All's well on board. 720 miles to go.



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