Day 3 started just Ike any other normal day. You get up brush your teeth, grab a news paper and check the news for crimes, shootings, and stock tips. WHAT? Who am I kidding we were up all night, rocking and rolling just like any passage should be.
With a nice day 2, could day 3 top it? Sailing is all about speed and comfort, day 3 had all of that. The waves were nice and organized the wind was just nice and the boat was moving along. When sailors talk about passage making, it normally boils down to your daily estimate you use for deciding on how long a passage will take. The normal average number of miles per day varies by boat but 150 per day is considered a nice number. We use it, cause the math is easy to calculate in your head. Well so is 100 but we almost always average better than 100 miles per day. The 200 mile per day is a goal for most cruising boats. A difficult to achieve if you take it mean 200 miles toward your destination. To achieve a 200 mile day you need to average 8.1 knots per hour for 24 consecutive hours.
Yesterday our average toward the New Zealand was 8.4 knot. Wahoooo! That made our day 204 miles, with the 194 the previous day really are TRUCKING right along. Later today we will cross the 1/2 way mark. Still not there yet, and lots of weather lurking to spoil our run at any point.
Rough calculations have us trying to arrive sometime on Tuesday the 2nd of November, just ahead of the Cold Front that is forecast to arrive on the 3rd. Still a little too close for comfort so we will keep on trucking as long as possible and then when we exhaust the wind, turn on the motors and use some diesel to finish the journey ahead of the cold front. Well that is the plan for now.
Gumbo for dinner, we saw okra in the farmers market so Gumbo had to be made. What a wonderful warm meal as my toes are starting to ask for mittens for the feet. Dropped down to 22c or about 71 degrees last night. Long sleeves were accompanied by a wind breaker. Even during the day now the long sleeves are staying on. How long do you think it will take to get used to to sub 80degree temperatures?
Ps. Didn’t break go looking for the sock thingies yet.
Photo of the ships log on day 3.
