Who noticed? Who noticed there was no Day #08? Am I afraid of the number 8? Some superstition like no floor 13 in buildings? After lucky 7 there is no need for more numbers? Or have I just lost my mind and all days run together….

Delirious is what I’m going to stick with. Typing in the dark on a bouncing boat is a bit mental anyway. So today is the Real #9

Another lovely day on the water. Setting the spinnaker at daybreak and ticking off the miles is always fun. Ran for about 4 hours before the wind picked up, a threatening cloud was preparing to blow in our direction. So took it down for 20 minutes and re-hoisted it. Was so wanting to set the biggest spinnaker as the winds were light to be able say we flew everything we had at the Fiji passage, glad I skipped the big one when the winds picked up.

We have a saying… On Sugar Shack, its not called “fishing” … its called “catching”. Today was no exception. This morning I spotted some flying fish for the first time in a while so dropped the 3 trolling lines in the water. Nothing all day. Noticed one line tangled with another, pulled in the cedar plug and untangled the lines. Put the plug away, decided we were going to fast and I did not want to stop to pull in a fish. So put the one other line away. So only one line remained, I’ll get to it at some point. Still watching the horizon I spot birds. Birds mean fish, well what the heck. Drop one of the stored lines back in the water and watched the birds off our port side move far away.. Oh well, I’m not going to chase them down while under spinnaker.

Spot something floating in the water over where the birds were. Went inside to get the binoculars to see i could see what it was that was floating. Coming back with the binoculars .. the zing of the fishing reel goes. Fish on.. Struggle with the binoculars still want to see if it is a FAD (fish attracting device) used by fishing fleets that end up washed a short on the islands as trash. I believe that is what was attracting the birds and the fish now on the line. I go over to set the drag a little more, and zing goes the other line. The new lure works after all, the first hit was a tried and true squid based lure, the second lure to hit was gift when we were in the states. “Blue water candy” jig-a-hoo – Thank you Big Matt it works!

I screamed with excitement when the elusive (to me) fish jumped and I recognized it.. I had been wanting to catch more Mahi-mahi and thats what jumped out of the water. Tuna are great but having a variety is super nice. The boat is going 8 knots so pulling in a fish is a challenge, always is since we can’t really slow down and back down on a fish like true fishing boat. And add that today the seas are 2-3 meters, 10 foot seas. And if it would have been a tuna, it would have been a struggle since tuna dive down deep when hooked. Luckily it was mahi that a flat and stay near the surface so you can ‘surf’ them back to the boat on their sides with a lot less struggle.

Is a challenge to stay on the boat and clean the fish while it’s bouncing about and you have a very sharp knife in your hand. All good, guess what is for dinner!

All good on board

529 miles to go

We should cross into Tonga tomorrow night. Would like to go past the outer banks in the daylight .. will depend on the wind.

[tag Live,Passage,underway]

How do you top whales? well I can’t think of anything bigger.

However today we are still rolling along, slow and steady wins the race. Or at least that was the story from the turtle and rabbit story. We have lots of sail choices onboard, and so far on this journey we have used all but one. Our biggest spinnaker is for really light air and since it is so big it needs to have relatively calm seas which we do not have currently and I doubt we will in the next couple of days.

Today we put up the middle sized spinnaker, and I might have been too eager as there will still squall clouds around. We flew it for little over an hour before one of those said squalls got too close and brought enough more wind, that i decided to take it down. Oh well, best effort for day break.

Back to jib only and it’s making decent boat speed, but there has to be more.. so lets try wing on wing. Get it all set up and its just slightly better boat speed. That ran for several hours, then the winds appeared to be slowing down .. so intently watch the gauges for an hour and looking at history on the instruments. .. Oh Okay put the big boy pants on and put the spinnaker up again.

Yeah, its flying and nice speed .. 20% faster then the wing on wing setup for roughly same condition.. of course by now the day is about to become night. And at dark you cannot see the impending dark doom clouds well enough to know which ones have ‘an extra’ little wind hiding behind them so the spinnaker comes down for the night.. daybreak it’ll go back up.. well if the conditions are good enough.

It’s exercise, its math, its fun? Masochistic? Whatever it is, it keeps the boat rolling and passes the time since we can’t just pull into a KOA, La Quinta or even Best Western for the night when we get tired. I guess we could put the anchor out, except I don’t think that it would reach the bottom or anywhere close since its around 5000 meters deep here.

Another great day, miles keep ticking off and the sun was nice no rain.

660 miles to Fiji.

Trinidad Chicken Roti for dinner on the veranda watching the sunset. Of course while going 6 knots up and down over the large swell, another good day on the water.

Picture of medium size spinnaker (150 m2 – square meters – thats almost 1400 sq feet)

Ps. A few hours later, a crystal clear sky with mostly full moon and not a squall once – could have left the spinnaker up … Doh!

[tag Live,Passage,underway]

Today we cross the 1/2 way mark just about exactly 6 days after we left.

Half way is defined as the distance left to go as the crow flies. So far we have sailed 900+ miles with an average speed of 6.2 knots and max speed of 14 knots. Half way says we only have 832 miles left to go. But since the first half was over 900 miles, I’m sure the second half will be more than the mentioned 832. The downsides of not being a crow. Plus I don’t think the crow could fly non-stop for 1664 miles.

Hmm.. 1664? I think I just realized that is one of them beers I used to drink in London when there for work.

We reefed down for the night, course it was a beautiful night as the moon was bright and not a cloud in the sky. So really could have keep the sail up. Oh well. Just when the moon set a couple of squalls came out to play so it was good thing at 5am (still using Tahiti time onboard) that the sail was reefed down.

Back to 1 reef, trying find a comfortable direction today is proving a challenge. The waves have built and the wind is just a bit much given the waves to run a spinnaker without the potential for a shredded sail to deal with. The waves are quartering so they push this brick shaped boat up down and over as they go under the boat. Not terrible but there are much more pleasant angles to sail, just wouldn’t be taking us to where we want to go. We could go to NIUE if it was open. We are pointed right at it right now.

The 1/2 way celebration was not complete till the guests of honor arrived. No not us, but a bunch of friendly whales. I think they were dolphins in a previous life for the amount of time they were playing in the waves and swimming all around Sugar Shack. They were probably as excited to see us as we were to see them. We were so excited watching them play we missed some great photos. We managed a few from the moving boat in the seas. One swam right under the port hull that I was standing on looking down. I’m sure it was deeper that she looked but there wasn’t much clearance. Too bad we were outside or we could have checked the depth gauge.

A great day.

854 miles to go, All well on board

Celebrated 1/2 way with pork chops and smashed tatters per Christine’s request.

[tag Live,Passage,underway]