Day 24 to the Marquesas
13 April 2012 | Outbound Cabo, Inbound Marquesas, French Polynesia
Day 24 = 62 nautical miles. I KNOW! Are we ever gonna get there? It's days like today that me and Don feel like the worst sailors in the world. We just can't seem to find the wind to get the boat moving in the right direction. Where are the southerly trade winds we've heard were down here? We're at 3 degrees south and are still getting light north-easterlies or no wind at all. Our desired landfall is 500 miles away at 220 degrees, which is southwest. All I can seem to sail is 150 or 280. We did fly the spinnaker for 4 hours yesterday, but today, with squalls all around it's just crazy. I've got another squall story but not sure I'm up to telling it. Suffice it to say - no matter how much you want to sail through the night with a full mainsail...Don't! At 5am this morning we were sure happy that we had reefed down the night before. During this morning's squall event there were a few moments of hilarity that I will share. We made it through the first squall, 25 knots of wind, dark, so so wet, boat flying at 8 knots. I looked at the radar and saw a lineup behind us, with squalls the same or bigger than the first. There was a few minutes break (down to 15 knots) between them so we decided to reef down even more. Don put his harness on over his sarong and stepped outside. His sarong immediately blew off leaving him completely naked, except for the harness. No time to waste, he reefed the sail butt naked in the pouring rain. Wish I had my camera handy but it was too wet to contemplate getting it. When we were done we were both drenched. After the squalls were over Don made us both a cup of coffee. We stopped to reflect upon this last drama. I said, "At least it's fresh water, I feel nice and clean" a moment later a wave hit us to port and Don lost his balance and his coffee went flying, mostly over me! Laugh, it's funny! Later I went into the aft cabin and found that the hatch above our bed had been left slightly open. All of our bedsheets, bed, pillows are drenched. Then I went into our reefer looking for something good to eat to make us feel better...I found a half rotten cantaloupe at the bottom of the veggie container. I tell you, the other half was just divine.