Day 193, Year 1: Easy Ride–Day 7
Date: Friday, April 28, 2006; New Time Zone EDT
Weather: Clear Skies with Cumulus Clouds on Horizon (Cloudier Morning)
Water Surface Temperature: 79 degrees F
Air Temperature: Nighttime 79 degrees F; Daytime 82 degrees F
Latitude: 05 degrees 44 minutes S
Longitude: 104 degrees 31 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 7
Miles to Go: 2057 (~146 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: ~879
Things are going well out here. The wind is still with us and because it is behind us, we are having an easy ride. This is why they call this the Coconut Milk Run. When things are working as normal, this is a great passage. The days are absolutely gorgeous with clear blue skies and just a few puffy clouds around the horizon. There is a swell but it is gentle and the winds are consistently 15 to 20. Each day the temperature is rising just a tad, but it really feels cool in the breeze. The forecast is for more of this for the next five days except the seas are supposed to build. I’ll have to wait and see how that affects the ride, but right now it is fantastic.
Yesterday after I sent the log we caught a small Mahi Mahi and had it for dinner. What a treat. We didn’t put out the line today as Mark was doing “investigative” work in the engine room. We are hypersensitive now to every little noise and we wanted to check all connections of engine to transmission to prop shaft one more time. It seems like all is well in the engine room, but we have no fish for dinner tonight.
There are two other boats that are very close to us, but not within sight yet. When we check in with the evening net, we will see exactly where they are. This morning when we reported our positions, the net controller joked about us being able to meet and have a barbeque with the other two boats. It is interesting that having a boat within 60 to 100 miles feels close! There are now four more boats that we know of that are behind us and numerous boats just ahead of us, so we have lots of company. We like checking into this net that we all established twice a day. It helps us feel connected. Our friend Patrick of Aqua Magic is net controller for the evening check-in and since we are further back, Mark helps with the relays from boats that are even further behind.
We have traveled almost 900 miles in our first seven days out here. Our average daily distance traveled has been 138.5 miles per day. If we can continue that, we will be in Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas in about 16 days from now. That’s the best case scenario, but it sounds good to me.
