Miles traveled last 24 hours: 117
Miles traveled to date: 427
Miles to Hiva Oa: 2,741
The wind never did fill in from a constant direction yesterday and the seas were huge and confused (meaning big swells from lots of directions), so we decided to motor through the day and into last night hoping to get out of whatever we were in. The evening reports on the net weren’t too positive from the boats south of us so we kept on motoring. And then the rain started.
When we were in the rainy season in Central America it would absolutely pour, but just for a little while. Even in the ITCZ the squalls usually rained themselves out in a half hour or so. Not down here. It poured and poured for hours last night. And this morning when I came on watch at 6:00 am it was pouring again like here was where all the water on the planet came down from the skies. At 8:00 on the net Axel reported again that it was not any better south of us, so we just kept on motoring through the rain.
Suddenly the wind picked up and was blowing 25, then 30. We were in a monster storm cell and the winds and rain were huge. This was definitely not on the forecast charts! It howled for about 30 minutes and we were finally out of it. Eventually the winds quit getting sucked into the big squally areas and have settled down to the southeasterlies we’ve been looking for. They were 15 for a while, which is perfect, but now they’re down to 8 knots. We’ve got the jib out on a pole and the main prevented to keep it still, but with the residual swells from the squalls it’s rolly and noisy out here. Hopefully the wind will pick back up a bit and the seas will settle. But at least the engine is off again and we’re making 3.5 knots mostly in the direction we want to go.
Maya’s in the kitchen trying to figure out what the little flying fish is about. There were several of them on the decks this morning, so I got a little 3″ one and Rob even cleaned it for her! She’s been gnawing on it and bapping it about for 15 minutes now. Last night at one point Rob was on watch in the cockpit and one flew right into his lap.
Teresa
