Baguette search day #5

Still no baguette to be found not even the smell of fresh ones baking in the distance.  

As day broke, you could see rain squalls on all sidss, I think I counted a magical 7 of them, suited up for battle.  Foul weather gear ready for day of rain.  Happy to report I won the battle, the rain mainly just sprinkled a time or two early in the day and put up the surrender rainbows.   Surprised as the forecast had a bit of rain all day long.  

The battle I did lose was the waves, I stood tall and said go away, but they came anyway.  3 meter waves relentlessly kept appearing out of magical hiding spots.  We were running in retreat which was actually toward out destination as luck would have it.  Found a nice rhythm and boat speed that made most of them tolerable.  I tried to take a picture of the horizon lost with nothing but wave touching the sky, but simply didn’t do it justice.  

Another round or sea sampling was on the agenda.  It’s recommended not to sample in big seas and fast speeds.  We were just under the guideline of less than 12 knots of boat speed, we surfed down a swell at 11 knots on one of the samples.  

Played chicken with 2 cargo ships one in the dark, eventually Christine told him she had right away, well not exactly like that.. simply asked if he saw us on his screen which he said yes ma’am.   We took that as a win and no insurance exchange was necessary.

Grilled our last pork chops and blanched some fresh green beans, and by grilled I mean pan-seared.  Hard enough to cook at the stove that keeps moving about as it goes over 3 meter waves.

Just over 230nm to go, too far to make in the next daylight so shooting for a Friday day break arrival at outer reef, then another 17 miles to the customs and immigration offices.  

Baguette search day #4

The hopes of a second kite run didn’t materialize, the winds were right at the edge of our comfort zone for cruising, racing on some one else’s dollar sure. Oh well, no worries. Still making decent progress with a chicken rig, wing on wing, waiting on the wind to go more east as the sunsets.

What was annoying is now routine. Watching gauges, checking weather, looking for chafe and of course the hunting for what’s broke and we haven’t found it yet.

After end of the sailbag came untied from the topping lift

Napping and munching on snacks are the other part of passages. Christine reads and keeps up on the endless WhatsApp groups all chatting about the conditions and future weather reports.

Second day of collecting samples for citizens of the sea, we drag a collection device and pull in 3 samples that will be analyzed for the health of the ocean. Christine does the actual work I just want to paint eyes on the drogue and use it as a fishing teaser. But alas can’t mix pleasure with science. No we are not fishing on this passage, at least not yet, but I do need to break the bait board in at some point.

Mongolian pork over rice for dinner, new receipt will definitely make the rotation more often.

About 450 nm miles to go. All well on board.

Baguette search day #3

Yay spinnaker day.

Wind gods were smiling on us. We pulled out our medium spinnaker and flew it all day long. Such a nice comfortable ride when the kites come out to play.

Well, it wasn’t without drama, cause nothing ever is. I rigged it all up went to hoist the sock and looked and felt wrong, brought it down. Felt like it was twisted or in the sock backwards. Re tied and re tried, still wasn’t right. A few more goes, finally opened it up and yup all twisted up, must have had a hard take down on our way to New Zealand and I forgot about it. So now it’s flying all twisted up, bring it back down, but at least this time I could see where the twist was so, untie and re-worked the lines and voila success at last. Beautiful day.

Normally when we fly a spinnaker it’s always babysitting to make sure the wind cooperates and there are no squalls nearby. Today the skies were overcast and uniform so we were able to relax and let it fly.

We took it down just before the radio check in, they asked what happened to our boat speed.. 😉 we were busy taking a sail down that is the size of a 2000 sq foot house. Slight exaggeration 170m2 is about 1800 sq feet, I take liberties to exaggerate bad math skills. During the radio check in, wouldn’t ya know it a 25 knot rain spritz came along. Perfect timing.

Bbq pulled pork on a bagel for dinner, redneck kosher.

Dark night lots of clouds and the moon doesn’t come out till nearly midnight.

All well on board, not our fastest passage but we are knocking off the miles, under 600 miles to go.

Fingers crossed we can fly again tomorrow but probably not.