George/Richard
Thu Oct 23 10:15:00 EDT 2008

Fishing boat passing us by. We have seen very few other vessels so far.

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Richard
Sun Oct 19 11:15:00 EDT 2008

We are still in the Southeast Trade Winds, almost underneath the present latitude of the sun. Winds are still light to moderate, mostly blue skies, no squalls...pretty much perfect conditions for pleasant, easy sailing.

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Richard
Fri Oct 17 18:55:00 EDT 2008

We have been making 150+ mile runs in the last couple of days, which was really nice. The wind has moderated a bit today (Force 2&3 instead of 3&4), so we'll only make 136 miles today. We continue to sail hard on the wind, into the Southeast Trade winds, which are very warm and pleasant. We've had some rain, but not enough to add any to the water tanks.

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Richard
Wed Oct 15 1:12:00 EDT 2008

We crossed the equator this morning at 0612 GMT, under a full moon, and are now in the South Atlantic ocean. The picture above shows the ocean at the equator, which looks just like the ocean anywhere else :).

Now we need to get used to winds going clockwise around lows and counter-clockwise around highs (opposite to the northern hemisphere), and start looking for the Southern Cross (four stars that can be used to find South).

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Richard
Mon Oct 13 20:30:05 EDT 2008

Picture is of George doing a great job of fixing the windvane today. It got overloaded today during a sail change and an eyebolt ripped out of the plywood.

The windvane was built by the previous owner, from plans in a magazine, and has been quite reliable. Comparing this windvane with a commercial unit (Windpilot Pacific Plus) that I had on another boat, the commercial unit would be able to steer downwind in 3-5 knots less wind than this one (when there is lots of wind, all windvanes work, light air downwind is where the windvanes with least friction continue to work longest). Unlike the commercial unit, which required parts from Germany when anything broke, parts for this one can be obtained in most hardware stores.

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Richard
Sat Oct 11 19:15:05 EDT 2008

One of the nice things about the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone, an area of calms, squalls, variable winds and rain) is the number of rainbows you see. Sailing thru the ITCZ is more work than in most places, as you need to frequently set, reef and douse sails. We hope to be out of the ITCZ and into the Southeast Trade Winds in another day or two.

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Richard
Thu Oct 9 2:00:00 EDT 2008

We are in the ITCZ (doldrums), and have had good conditions so far...only one real squall, and not many hours of flat calm. We expect to be in the ITCZ for a few more days, so expect to see several more squalls. All day today we have been pleasantly beating into light headwinds from the south, with sunny skies and small waves.

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