Day 9 - Another Exhausting Day
06 April 2016 | 8 04'N:122 12'W, On Passage, Mexico to French Polynesia
Mark
Days at sea completed: 9
Distance sailed in the last 24 hours (nm): 156 Distance sailed total (nm): 1335 Distance to go until French Polynesia, as the crow flies (nm): 1457
Wind Speed & Direction (knots): NNE 20-25 Waves (ft): NE 6-10
--- See the map on our blog for our current location---
The last 24 hours was another long, exhausting day. On the positive side, we had good wind all day and covered lots of ground. I don't think I saw anything less than 20 knots and it was always coming from behind us - a nice point of sail.
On the other hand, once it got dark, we were continously assaulted by squall after squall, bringing high winds, big waves, and torrential rains. On Dee's shift, she was stuck in the same huge squall for 3 hours. This type of sailing is mentally taxing and completely exhausting! Not to mention that it is hard on the boat.
We are hoping that the coming 24 hours brings some relief so we both can get some much needed rest. We are entering the ITCZ now and the forecast is for the wind to start diminishing late this afternoon and be nearly completely gone my mid-day tomorrow. Then, of course, we will be begging for more wind!
Another piece of equipment is having problems today, unfortunately. It looks like some water seeped into our chart plotter in one of the squalls. I tried to fix it this morning without success. I'll try a more indepth repair in a few days if we get into some settled, dry weather. I can see that the plotter is working, but the buttons to control it will not respond. Like everything, we have backup systems for all of the chart plotter functions, except for the radar which is not that critical.