Day 15 to the Marquesas
04 April 2012 | Outbound Cabo, Inbound Marquesas, French Polynesia
Day 15 = 121 nautical miles...over halfway there. Jibing down the rhumbline towards our target 05N 130W (latitude 5 degrees north and longitude 130 degrees west) has been successful but a bit slow since we're sailing back and forth down the line instead of directly on course. The sailing has been excellent though, with winds in the 15-25 knot range allowing Buena Vista to run at up to 7-8 knots (slow for a car but fast for a sailboat). Buena Vista's crew is working like a well oiled machine. Right now we're approaching 129 W and will jibe to the SOUTH and stay on that course for many many days. The ITCZ and it's sometimes squally and rainy conditions, sometimes no wind at all, will be directly ahead and we hope to pass right through it and on to the equator over the next three days. The reason we are all the way at 130 W is that right now there is very little wind south of the equator. Many puddle jump boats that took off ahead of us are there and becalmed. So we thinik that we might as well get as far west as possible up here where there is wind. From now on the further south we go we will find that the big winds and seas of the northern hemisphere that we have been moving through will slowly dissipate and as we cross the equator the wind will begin to fill in from the southeast (and soon we hope). I am really looking forward to this change. Hey - big news - we caught our first fish today, a maui maui (aka dorado). It's our favorite and we can't wait to have sushi for dinner tonight.