PPJ - Day 2 Who let the wind out of our sails?
04 April 2016 | The Pacific Ocean
Vandy
You could say that someone let the wind out of our sails. After yesterday's rollicking sail, today's was a slow-motion shamble. What little wind there was came in puffs that teased our sails into thinking they were about to do something useful; then a couple of 8-foot swells would come rolling in from our beam and rock us form side to side, spilling the wind out of the sails and negating any chance of their accomplishing anything.
We made 78 miles in the past 24 hours, down from yesterday's 170 miles. Such is the way of wind and weather...
We had a good day, though, in spite of being a bit grumpy and sleepy (and possibly some other Dwarves as well) after our first night of keeping watches. We each took cat naps throughout the day, hoping to catch up on some of the sleep lost the night before. Tomorrow will be better, as we begin to have a routine. We did find time to play our first afternoon card game of the passage, it was fairly rolly though and our fancy plastic cards kept sliding around.
Shortly after the wind died, we took the mainsail down, so the boom wouldn't crash and bang around, and just relied on our big Code 0 and our staysail to keep us moving. SCOOTS spent the day reeling like a drunken sailor in the swells. It's a good thing that neither Eric nor I are particularly prone to seasickness.
A pair of red-footed boobies - a parent and juvenile - circled the boat this morning at sunrise. Yesterday a half dozen circled at sunset. They are the only wildlife I've seen in the past 24 hours. No fish or squid on deck (or on the stove) this morning.