Day Long Spinnaker Run!
05 March 2018 | Pacific Ocean on route to Hawaii
Helen/Mark
We ended up taking down the spinnaker after getting in a few hours prior to the sun set. It's too difficult for one person to handle so we didn't want to fly it thru the night. Another reason is that the wind stayed downwind but kept changing from port to starboard and vice versa. Our speeds overnight were very slow as there was not much wind and we only ran with a full jib sail. Again, the wind changed back and forth which meant the jib would collapse and need to be pulled in on the opposite tack. The waves were sizable and rocked the boat. That pretty much was the picture all night until Mark finished his second sleep. On the first shift we listened to an AM Radio station from California. At the top and bottom of the hour, they have news. So, we heard a little bit on the Oscar news. Not sure I would recognize the names of any of the movies. Best picture was the Shape of Water. Both of us watched the movie Tomb Raiders, Cradle of Life separately on watch early this morning. After breakfast, we hoisted the spinnaker and furled the jib. We had to change once from starboard to port tack, but the sail has been flawless. Our speeds have been any where from 4 to 8, depending on wind strength. I was wondering why I was feeling so hot all of a sudden. Today, was a much warmer day. In fact, the salon temperature is 81 degrees with the door and hatches closed. The sun arrived and promptly hid behind the thick clouds. However, the clouds have thinned out greatly. Our solar panels are charging, despite 100% cloud coverage. We may have to run the engine, but will see how it goes. The waves are sizable in the big swell. Mark thinks they are from the North and there are other waves from the East. The wind is blowing the correct direction for the Trade Winds, but not sure if this is the Trades that we are experiencing. We started using our solar powered light cube, from our good friends, Scott and Avery. Our led lights in the salon are too bright when you have to go outside into the dark and check for lights from approaching vessels. So, we started lighting up the cube. However, it stopped working last night for some reason. Mark put his engineer hat on and worked on it. It was hung up and wouldn't turn on or off. Mark was able to figure it out and the light works once more! With the warmer weather, Mark enjoyed a short nap in the cockpit this afternoon. I rearranged bedding for tonight's sleep shifts, since we are downwind sailing, the front of the boat is not getting pounded. We will return to our cabin tonight. 1688 nautical miles to go! Yeah! We are within a couple of day of being half way to Hilo. We are running the water maker for a few hours this afternoon. Everything is going well. We are being pushed by some very large waves but it's a smooth and quiet ride. We just enjoyed some tortillas chips and humus. Mark commented that the Mexicans really know how to make great tortilla chips! Mark was elated to find out that we have another loaf of bread, which means sandwiches for another week. We bought several before leaving Mexico. We have other options for when they run out.