Mexico to Marquesas Day 9 - Running For It
07 April 2013 | 04 26'N:122 46'W, 250 Miles North of the Equator
Jeff
Well. Hmmm. OK. Our world has changed. But before we get into the gory details, let me get into the regular gory details.
Position: 04 42 102N, 122 35 885W, Speed 7kts, Course 200T, Wind E 5-7kts (gusts to 30!), Temp 81, Humidity 87%, Barometer 1012 and fluctuating all over the place.
We are definitely in the ITCZ, in all its glory of storm cells, wildly erratic winds and confused, lumpy seas. After a night of sails banging around, we decided to put them away this morning and turn on the engines. Or rather, turn on the engine (singular), as we are running only one at a time to conserve fuel. Today feels like being bandits making a run for the border and around every corner is a posse gunning for us. The border, of course, is the equator. We have altered course to head almost due south in a bid to get through all this ITCZ/Doldrums stuff as quickly as possible. And the posse? Big, dark rain squalls aiming to knock us around and dump rain on us.
The rain part is actually not so bad. It's refreshingly cool and has done a nice job of cleaning the salt, bird poop and dead squid juice off the decks. It's also kind of fun to see serious clouds, which we have not seen much of since leaving the Pacific Northwest. Dark, grey and misty, it almost looks like home. Except for the 80 degree temperature part. That's definitely not like home.
Cassie demonstrated the squall shower-shower for us this morning, hanging out on the nets in her bathing suit and letting the rain completely soak her. She claims it's better than coffee for its morning wake-up effects. We're all going to take her word for it.
Yesterday was pleasant, uneventful sailing, although the changing environment was definitely in evidence throughout the day, just not as intense as we experienced last night and this morning. We sailed wing-on-wing throughout the day, surfing our way SW. Mostly we all spent the day reading our books, napping and taking shifts babysitting the autopilot, punctuated by mealtimes. Not a bad day at all.
Just before dark last night, we passed the halfway mark of this passage. We have traveled 1450 miles and now have 1300 miles to go. So far, we have used barely any fuel, but anticipate running the engine(s) now for quite a while. How long they will remain running is hard to say, but given that we have been able to sail this far without firing them up much means we have plenty of fuel on board and could probably even motor the rest of the way to the Marquesas. I do hope that does not come to pass given that extended motoring, besides burning fuel, is just plain boring.
Onward we go. Get ready Neptune, we're almost there.