UTC/ Locl -8 0140/1740
Latitude: 03 37.307 S
Longitude: 133 06.592 W
Conditions: Sun is shining, had about 40% cloud cover earlier, now it's down to 10%. The swells have subsided a bit to 1.5 meters. The wind is fairly steady at 14 knots. We are still on a close reach as the wind is coming from the south southeast. If it would shift a little more to the southeast as it shows on the gribs, we would be happier because we could stay on course or just a little below. Right now we are working hard to stay close hauled and at 220 degrees south at 5 knots. When the wind slows down we fall off going closer to 232. Hiva Oa is 220 on our current path. It's 84 degrees and about 74 percent humidity. According to our navigation software, at this pace we will reach Hiva Oa on May 5 or 6.
Last night was my night off. I slept sideways in our bed, head on the leeward side, feet on the windward side, a good heel for natural foot elevation. Of course, I also had to have a few pillows under my head to prevent blood rush to the brain! Woke this morning with no toe or foot pain, good news. I heard Russ turn on the radio at a few minutes before 1500 Zulu, now 7:00 a.m. local time. No one seemed to know who was the net control for this morning. The schedule is pretty loose out here as boats head further and further south. Between Russ and another boat Blue Bottle, they were able to muster a half dozen checkins. We are starting to get checkins now from some of the earlier boats that are leaving the Marquesas and making passage to the Tuomotus.
Russ has been dragging our bowlines this morning to see if we can't coax some of the barnacles off our waterline. The bowline on the leeward side is snaking alongside the boat. Not sure it is actually making contact with hull. The upwind side bowline drag seems to be a little more effective. It's amazing that barnacles can find a boat and attach themselves. We've got quite a crop growing, many of them quite a ways above the water line that attached when we were on a starboard tack and heeled to port. Neither of the bowlines extend past the pilot house doors, so we will have some measure of success if we have fewer barnacles in front of the doors.
1930/1130 am Garyn has been looking forward to a sat phone call to Jessica. Today's the day! Jess is in Colfax delivering Cat Balou to Grandma and Grandpa for cat sitting while she joins us in the Marquesas next weekend. We are all looking forward to her joining us.
2030/1230 pm We took some noonsite readings with the sextant. Russ's calculations place us with in 5 miles of our gps location.
0130/1730 pm The wind has piped up to 16 knots this afternoon and the swell has increased to 10-12 feet. We are bounding at 6.3 knots and have finally dropped south of our course line which will give us some leeway to ease off the sails. For right now we are still on a close reach. Every once in a while our ship's bell clangs. At rest the clacker is on a 45 degree angle almost touching the side of the bell. When we lunge through a wave, it doesn't take much for the bell to ring.
We are making good progress today, having traveled 86 miles since midnight.
All is well on Worrall Wind.
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