Morning squall line
448 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]

Day #8
Spinnaker run most of the day, light winds and organized seas. A great day to coast along. Waited to raise the spinnaker till the morning clouds/showers had made themselves scarce. Set without issues, only tied one sheet, left the lazy sheet of because we hardly every jibe the spinnaker. So you know that means today we needed to when the wind shifted and drug us 40 degrees off course. The optimist in me tried to wait out the return shift. An hour goes by and its not coming back, infact we are catching the dark clouds that prompted the off course wind. Okay fine, we’ll jibe it. Pulled it down, tied the missing lazy sheet, then it clicked. The off-course wasn’t opposite sides of the boat as the wind shifted, just came from the beam of the boat. So no need to re set the spinnaker, back to working sails. Doh. 8knots of wind and we barely make 4 knots of boat speed, up and down the swell.
Forecast says the winds die further tomorrow and the next day. Well I guess we will resort to motoring a bit. We should have plenty of diesel to motor the last miles but its close, another day sailing would have given a more comforting feeling. We shall see if we decide to just float around for a bit, or power on through for 2 days. Or better yet the forecast changes some. 🙂
All good on board. Topped up the water tanks, down to the last apple. Still have some green bananas that are taking their time ripening up. Taters/Onions/Garlic are still in good supply, still eating and snacking alot between napping.
Wait is it Day8? We left on Sunday, its Sunday now.. maybe my math is off.. oh well, must just be an ‘off by one’ programming error. Have also noticed that some posts haven’t made the blog as well. Trying to figure that out, have re-sent one and it appears to have gone through. Investigation might have to be once we have internet again.
Cheers.
452 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]
At 4/8/2019 @ 2:48 AM UTC Our position: 25°02.81’S, 127°04.82’W Traveling 4.9 heading 294T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-25.04683,-127.08033

Day#6
Yippie, Made the 1/2 way mark of 707 miles between Easter Island and Gambier.
As the sun rose and the first light started to show the world around us, those first sights were none too pleasant. Squall lines all around and a huge one formed behind us in the picture. Luckily we were cruising along at a decent clip and were able to stay in front and take advantage of the fresh breeze and keep on trucking. Successfully avoiding the rain that was falling all around us.
Another nice tranquil day of sailing, knocking off the miles and napping as the swell and winds caress the boat toward the destination. Beam reach with quartering monsters. All is good till rudely awakened from a nap to the sounds of “fish on”.
Yeah. What will it be this time, Tuna? Wahoo? Mahi? Well, wait it is taking ALL the line. Slow the boat, it is still peeling line. More drag, slowly cause we’ve all learned that lesson too many times. Hmmm. Full drag and still loosing line. Oh oh, it’s going to be a long battle. 90 mins later finally near the boat but no sighting. Oh my. Marlin. Too too big, Tried everything to retrieve the lure, but he was not getting near the boat, and 3 meter seas did not help, sorry to the beautiful fish, and hope that hook rusts out soon. 🙁
2 more days of wind in our forecast, followed by 2 days of not much, hoping tomorrow is spinnaker weather and the seas mellow down some.
Have also made contact with the SSB Radio net that meets twice a day to track boats and keep everyone up to date on where people are and how to locate resources in French Polynesia. The Magellan net meets at 0400z on 8.173 and I think the othe time is 1800z but haven not confirmed that yet. Just another way to keep in touch and find out about local happenings, tonight was a way to get discounts on things in Tahiti.
Cheers Happy Friday
699 of 1414 miles left to go. [realtime]