It's been almost 4 days out, and we have not been making much way. In fact, we've had to motor just to maintain steerage. I guess the "Pacific" was aptly named, and for awhile, I was worried about either a 45 day trip or running out of fuel. Finally, this afternoon, in desperation, with about 8 knots of wind almost dead aft, we put up the spinnaker. Of course, it was the usual fire drill--Joey claiming I'd hoisted the wrong side of the headstay and Rose claiming she knew nothing and had never been on the boat with the spinnaker up (a complete fabrication, by the way, and, once reminded of the 'round Tortola where we came in dead last, she relented but said Jim Linskey or somebody else did all the chute work). I, of course, was my usual totally calm self, and we, finally, on the second try got it up, after I apologized to everyone, only to have the wind die completely. Left it on the tramp, and, finally, late afternoon, the wind kicked up to 12-14 so we are now actually sailing along at about 6-7 knots. This is a great relief as the GPS is now predicting an arrival in about eighteen days compared to 60 this afternoon!!!! The good news is nobody smuggled cigarettes on board (although Joey has suspiciously been in his head quite a bit) and we are resigned to quitting. **For the record, I (Joe) had been sick the last few days and also had baked beans for breakfast, and that was the reason for the frequent head breaks** For some reason, we're not too crabby either. Guess it's the final commitment to quit and the fact that we are not hitting land for another two and a half weeks.
Well, it's now two weeks, and we have another 5 or 6 days to go. It finally turned warm, and we have been sailing virtually the entire time on the spinnaker alone, making 5-8 knots with an occasional 10. We've had relatively calm seas with ocean swells from behind, and, all in all, it's been great and comfortable sailing. The shackle attaching the spinnaker to the bag broke, but, miraculously, we recovered the chute from under the boat with no damage!!! Crew performed admirably, and Rose actually came forward to help. We're trying to break her of her trepidation on the tramps!. We've caught several fish, mainly wahoo, and lost a couple of big ones. Joey is in charge of the fishing. Almost landed a nice Mahi but it threw the hook on the sugar scoop! We've had phenomenal weather and delightful sailing. Very few ships out here, although we have one pass by about every 3-4 days. Saw some kind of weird research vessel, we think, just out of the Galapagos. The smoking has been going well. While I was going fairly crazy the first few days, I am now okay, but the other two are in a major craving phase(notice that he says he is always okay and it doesn't affect him...lie). It's a good thing we have several more days or they'd be right back to it when we make landfall. It would be a shame to go through all this aggravation only to start up again, so we are all hopeful and cautiously optimistic. anyway, we're all pretty bored with the routine and are ready for some island activity. As you can tell there's just not much excitement out here, except for extraordinary sunsets, a full moon that Rose mistook for the sun, and the dolphins and whales.
Well, everything was going great . We'd had the chute up for about a week, the wind finally picked up and we were surfing down waves at 15 knots. GPS predicted arrival time had dropped from 3 plus days to two minus days---just in time for Joey's b-day. Of course that was too good to be true. As Rose was coming on watch at 6 PM, down comes the spinnaker--ripped at the top, and over the side again. Once again, the crew performed admirably and got the thing on board and tied down. We're now under jib only (seas were up and we didn't want to come around to raise the main) and doing 6-7 knots. We'll decide what to do tomorrow. That was my old sail and had served nicely for over 6 years. Fortunately, we have a brand new spinnaker ready to go when we have some daylight.
Put the spinnaker up in the morning and arrived in Hiva Oa at 3:00pm local time, safe and sound after 19 days and a little over 3,000 miles at sea. The backup GPS says we've done 5,100 since leaving Tortola. All in all it was a beautiful sail with nice trade winds and moderate seas from behind. Will check in with the Gendarmerie tomorrow and start to explore the island. More later from these beautiful lush volcanic islands. (we're anchored under a 3,500 foot peak!!).
Tim, Rose & Joey
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