28-Apr-2012, Under way to the Marquesas, S10-03 W135-09

Forgot to mention in yesterday's post: We finally switched Namani's "ship's time" back another hour yesterday afternoon. We're now 9 hours "behind" utc. We checked the Nautical Almanac and it seems the only place we currently share this time zone with are Alaska's Aleutian Islands west of 169°30'W during the current daylight savings time there (the Aleutians east of 169°30'W are apparently in a different time zone, currently only 8 hours behind utc). So: Greetings from us to the Western Aleutians!

Another nice and relaxed sailing day today. If we can continue ro average at least 4kn we should be reaching Hiva Oa around mid-day on Monday.. All is well aboard, stay tuned...

09 - Pacific Crossing

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27-Apr-2012, Under way to the Marquesas, S10-06 W133-29

As expected two days ago, the wind has stayed rather light and our progress is a little slower than before. We now hope to make landfall in Hiva Oa on Monday (30APR). Despite the lighter wind the past few days have been very enjoyable with relalxed sailing under Parasailor during the day and twin headsails during the night. Seas are down to a meter or less now - taking morning and evening sights/fixes is a breeze now compared to doing it while rolling in 2-3m seas a week or two ago... Made a trip up the mast today to fix the tricolor light on the mast head - no land in sight from up there yet either ;-)

Today is our 26th day on this passage - the duration of our Atlantic crossing. So this will be a new record for us. We like our daily routine and continue to enjoy our days under way so far (clearly helped by the past three weeks with good sailing conditions). Surprisingly, even Nicky doesn't seem bored yet. He/we got a lot of schooling done while under way and he keeps busy with reading, drawing, some games and stargazing at night (he's asleep in the cockpit at the moment). We do look forward to landfall of course - not least because we are curious to finally meet some of the people whom we have talked to daily on the SSB for the past four weeks. The first ones of our little radio net already arrived a week ago and have moved on and others are still a week or two behind, owing to different departure dates and boat speeds. But we do hope to overlap with a few in Hiva Oa, including some of the German boats with other kids on board.

We'll also look forward to more than 3.5hrs of uninterrupted sleep. Once we got used to it again, the watch schedule has worked quite well though - nobody feels sleep deprived at the moment.



All is well aboard Namani - stay tuned...

09 - Pacific Crossing

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25-Apr-2012, Under way to the Marquesas, S09-22 W129-49

.. on Namani today. After two weeks of wind from the SE...ESE with true wind speeds solidly in the 12...15+kn range and good progress at an average boat speed of 5.5kn, someone flipped a switch today and we're now moving at around 3.5...4kn in 8...10kn of true wind. Fortunately, seas have gone down as well, so it's not uncomfortable. Also, even at this slow speed, the bioluminescense in our current patch of ocean is so strong that you can almost read the paper in the glow of Namani's wake - quite a sight. On today's weather fax it looks like the ITCZ has dropped down all the way to 5S west of 120W and it seems we may have rather light winds for the remaining approx. 500nm to the Marquesas. No complains though as we've had a full two weeks of uninterrupted tradewind sailing under sunny/starry skies.

With crossing 127-30 West longitude we did enter a new time zone yesterday (now 9 hrs "behind" UTC). We chose to postpone the switch for Namani's "ship's time" though and to stay with Alaska's DST for a few more degrees of longitude in order to enjoy dinners at sunset rather than in the dark. One of the perks of sailing in mid ocean - you get to pick your personal time zone ;-)

We did make radio contact with John on Arctic Tern III tonight (we sailed on his boat in Alaska a few years ago). He's already left the Marquesas and is now bound for Tahiti. Also moving slowly in light winds but doing well.

That's all for today... all is well aboard, stay tuned...

09 - Pacific Crossing

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