Found the Trades!!

Thursday 13th March

Well today at 2.30 we turned more right towards Hiva Oa and turned off the engine. We are now sailing along under sail only, doing 7.5 knots. The plotter reckons on just under 14 days to go at this speed, giving us a passage time in total of 19 days, so we wont run out of food or fuel, thank goodness. It would also mean Paul will catch all his flights with time to spare. I am assuming that south easterly force 4 winds are the Trades. It would be a terrible disappointment if they weren't. Talk about sacrifices to come on this trip - Paul announced today that he will be on board for his 25th wedding anniversary! I only hope he thinks that its worthwhile.

We now show only 2443 miles to run to Hiva Oa, considerably shorter than the Atlantic leg, about 2ce the length of the Carribean Sea leg. the plotter shows the route to be a curve, not a straight line, due to the distance involved and the shortest route is the Great Circle one.

The peace and quiet on board without the mechanicals is lovely, I only hope now that Paul & Shin can sleep without the engine lulling them to sleep at night. However Val & I will have the pleasure of the generator and its accompanying heat to lull us away. I'll try to run the genny during the day only, with just a top up in the evenings for the batteries.

I have been plotting our course on the Pacific Ocean passage planner chart and we have definitely crept away from the Galapagos by at least 2 inches, only about 12 more to go!

Val has been on the tidy up today, so I have now got a tidy chart table, only temporary I'm sure. We also have the new flag pole ready to fly the Royal Irish ensign in port, I had to reduce the diameter to fit the holder. This one replaces the pole & ensign lost overboard on the Atlantic. Its a tight fit in the holder and will not fall out.

Despite both Shin & Paul's best efforts there has not been even a nibble from a fish yet, although on the radio this morning one of the other boats complained that something had removed their lure, line and rod during the night. I wouldn't want to meet whatever it was in the dark.

At about 5.30 Val dumped overboard all the lasagne sheets that were bought in Spain, they were covered in small insects, presumably from the cardboard box. It just shows that you really have to throw away all the cardboard packaging.

We just had a rain squall and accelerated up to 8.75 knots, really flying along, and even now we are showing 7 in the lull.