Welp, we are on our way to French Polynesia.
Enjoyed our stay in Easter island. We did not find the Easter Bunny nor a Cadbury Farm, and all the eggs were just the normal brown and white variety. Some interesting Moai and history that is somewhat incomplete and vague.
Our “tourist visas” were up, the port was closed due to weather, there wasn’t any sign the weather was going to get better on the forecast so we managed to find a way ashore and top up the gasoline for the dinghy and honda generator and of course some normal colored real “Easter Eggs” and cleared on out of the country with a destination of Gambier Islands some 1400 miles away.
Forecasts and the fact that the port was closed we strong clues that the wind was strong and coming out of the North. So we raised the main sail in the first reef and slowly peeked past the protection of island to see what we were up against. Perfect 1 reef and just over 20 knots of wind and fingers crossed the waves would mellow out as soon as we got away from the islands shallow spots.
Of course that was not gonna happen. Rocking along for 5 hours getting bounced all over the place the wind picked up some more and that was enough of that, pull down some more sail to the second reef position and slow the boat down and try and pick an angle on the waves that was not as bouncy and that is where we are. Sails are set for 35-40 knots of wind should it come. Boat still moving along decently at 6-7knots, still bouncy and gonna make getting any decent sleep tonight a challenge. Spray from the waves all over the boat, including covering the solar panels some 10+ feet above the water.
12 hours of bouncing done, over 200 more hours to go, hope it smooths out at some point, but the forecast does not support that )*hope*. At one point the GPS said it was going to only take 6 days, but that was when we were rocking along at 9 knots.
Daggerboards down and heading into the wind we go.
1344 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]
At 4/1/2019 @ 2:32 AM UTC Our position: 27°23.44’S, 110°43.09’W Traveling 7.0 heading 259T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-27.39067,-110.71817