Another great day sailing after a long night motoring. During my watch last night, the winds died to nothing and we were ranging between 1- 3 knots, so I woke up Neil and said we need to make a decision about if we were going to motor for a while until the wind picks up, or continue to listen to the sails flogging as there is not enough wind to keep them filled. Neil and I decided to put the gennaker down and turn the engine on and try to keep north of our rhumb line and motor sail with the main. During Neil's shift he had more wind and put up the headsail and that is what we have used with the main all day. We are still heading off our course a little as the winds are still from the east and northeast.

I thought I might explain to my non sailing friends the reason why we can't just sail a direct course to the Marquesas as it is downwind. We are 1041 nautical miles away at this present time, but it will take us longer as we have to gybe (zig zag) our way there. That is because when sailing a boat you cannot just sail any direction. It all depends on the wind direction and how you can set the sails for that direction. A sailing vessel cannot sail directly into the wind and can only sail 45 degrees off the wind from either direction. So if a compass showing north at zero/360, then we can't sail a course between 0 and 45 degrees or between 360 and 315 degrees. When sailing close to 45 degrees, then you are sailing as close to the wind as possible and that is when the boat is the most heeled over and is called close hauled. When sailing with the wind around 90 degrees off your beam (side) then you are sailing a beam reach. When sailing with the wind around 120/130 degrees, then the wind is more behind you, but still on your side and this is called a broad reach. This is the reach I like best as usually I don't get sick and often the swell/waves are behind you as well and so the boat doesn't roll as much. When the wind is directly behind you that is called downwind sailing. The problem with downwind sailing is that your normal two sail (head sail and main) sailing doesn't work as the main and head sail are on the same side of the boat and the main sail blankets the head sail so little wind can fill the sail. When this happens you get the head sail flopping in and out and this is not good for the sail as it can damage your sail. To sail downwind properly you need a whisker pole to hold out your headsail on the opposite side of the boat to the main sail. The main sail is always on the side where the wind comes from or in the case of downwind sailing the predominant wind side. That is our problem, we have a broken whisker pole and Neil doesn't think it will be able to be fixed until we get to New Zealand. This is an issuefor us doing this trip, as so much of crossing the Pacific is downwind sailing and we will have to do more zig zagging and being more selective on which islands we can get to using the 2 sail reach method. Very disappointing for us, but I am hoping that maybe something can be done in Tahiti. So even though we have 1040 nautical miles to go now (1 less now while writing this blog), we will sail further than that due to us having to zig zag our way to our destination. If however we get winds from the south east or the south then we can sail straight on our rhumb line as we can do 2 sail reaching and will have the wind on our side. This is what we are hoping for, but not what Predict Wind is showing us we will get from today's upload. Hopefully that Sailing 101 lesson might help some people understand our predicament and why we can't sail in a straight line to our destination.

This Pacific region is known for the south east trade winds, but we have seen little of them this journey. Maybe the El Nino effect is still around. Neil did want the trip to be interesting and not just a set the sails and forget them type of journey, but I think now he would eat those words as he is very frustrated with the lack of wind and the degree of wind direction change that happens all day and all night long. We, the sails and the boat are having to work hard to get to our destination. I think it will make us appreciate the journey, our achievement of sailing the longest sailing passage most people ever do and the destination more when we arrive, whenever that will be!!

Running low on fresh fruit and veges now. We have half a pineapple and 2 apples left, plus some limes and lemons (hopefully they will last for our many celebratory cocktail drinks when we arrive). Our vegetables consist of about 8 potatoes, 6 onions, 1 carrot, 1 cabbage, 4 tomatoes and heaps of garlic. Getting harder to be creative and might have to open some tins soon.

Our current position is 7 degrees 46.912 minutes south and 121 degrees 37.630 minutes west. Our current course heading is 236 degrees True. We have winds from ENE at the moment at 10-12 knots. Our boat speed is currently 5.6 knots. We now have 1037 nm to go on our rhumb line to Hiva oa.