L'Eau Commotion Westabout

8:00pm Friday 29th June 2018 ( UTC-6 )
It seemed a long time coming but I finally made the break and am now heading, more or less, directly for home. The planned route is pretty well on the line of latitude 14S for the next 3000 miles to pass by the Island of Mataiva which is about due North of Tahiti and then on a great circle course to Southport. The distance via this route is now 6280 miles and I don’t expect much will be added to that because of tacking or adverse weather. I sort of jokingly set an arrival at the Gold Coast Seaway ( Southport ) at 12:00Noon Friday 20th August but don’t be surprised if that turns out to be my actual time of arrival. I am now running with a light quartering breeze on the Port quarter with as much as I dare of the jib unfurled and poled out to Port. The WindPilot is now engaged and it looks like it will be able to handle much of the load between here and Mataiva in the expected wind strength of between 12 and 18 knots. I may be able to milk another half knot with the spinnaker but no firm decision has been made on this. We will see if the forecasts match the facts in the next few days. It was another day of sunny blue skies and puffy clouds and now a serene evening with the almost full moon peeping in through the companionway.