Days 9, 10, 11 and 12 of Pacific Crossing
08 May 2012 | 12 24.321'N:122 06.704'W
Day 9: 101nms, Day 10: 106nms, Day 11: 111nms, Day 12: 121nms Miles to go: 1669 We continue to do some good sailing every day. Some days the winds are lighter than others, and some nights the winds are stronger than the others. Ya just never know. But we are making some good miles and distance.
Day 9 was a goal making day. We passed under 2000 miles to go! Besides giving a WOOHOO, we also gave each other a High Five. Very exciting for us! We were also visited by a big pod of dolphins at sunset. They swam and played around Tanga for about 30 minutes. They are always a lot of fun to watch.
On Day 10 we caught our first fish!! A 6lb Mahi Mahi and he was delicious! Within 20 minutes of the kill, we had him filleted, seasoned, seared and eaten. A tasty treat! Also, in the middle of the night, on Tom's watch, we had our first flying fish jump onto the boat. This flying fish soared far back into the cockpit, smacking into the open companion way door and landing right beside the opening of the companion way. He was very close to landing inside the cabin area! Tom took a picture of him and then shucked him back into the ocean.
Day 11 was just another beautiful sailing day on the pacific. Also, it was laundry day. Hand washing and line drying a few clothes. It was also another goal making day for us, we hit 1000nm sailed!
Day 12 greeted us with white caps as far as you can see. The great winds brought along large steep swells which kept us on our toes all day long while sailing. Around sunset, a Boobie Bird flew right into our rigging and he crashed onto the boat, right beside the cockpit. I yelled down to Tom, "bird on boat, bird on boat." He came up and helped get the birds wing untangled from the life line, took a picture of him, then shooed him away. We were glad to see that his wing wasn't broken but we didn't want him to stay the night because of big bird poo.
Some of our thoughts so far about the crossing is that it is, dare I say, easier than we thought. The hours of the day click on by and before we know it, we are getting ready for our night watches to begin. We haven't seen another vessel, radio contact or airplane for 9 days. Comments left on our website, during the voyage, will not be posted until we arrive in the Marqueses and we find internet, due to the limitations of our satellite phone.
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