Pacific Crossing Day 4 - 5th June 2020

Pacific Crossing Day 4 - 5th June 2020

Midday position local time (1800 UTC):
- 04 degrees, 01 minutes South
- 100 degrees, 13 minutes West
Sailing on port tack wind at 100 degrees apparent
Sea State: slight on top of big rolling swell of 2.5m
Wind: 10 knots from South East
Speed over the ground: 5.8 knots
Course over the ground: 260 degrees

I guess there's no going back then! We just crossed 100 West and early this morning the sea calmed and it's champagne sailing again, it looks like we have found the trade winds - what a difference a day makes…

It's fair to say I wasn't at all happy last night. By this time into a long passage I get so tired that finally I can take a nap or go a bit mad then fall asleep anywhere, but last night in a ridiculously uncomfortable sea and virtually no wind I felt on the edge of insanity. Our bed was jolting side to side and the noise of the autopilot fighting the sea was unsettling, the bow was bouncy the saloon and the sea berth vibrated as the sails crashed around - no goldilocks bed to be found. After Andrew witnessed me staggering around the boat with a pile of pillows and a sheet trying to find somewhere to sleep grumbling and moaning at him as my off watch was dwindling away, he came to my rescue and put the engine on. My knight with a yanmar! And then he let me sleep all night - he napped in the cockpit and we woke to a much brighter day with calm seas a more south easterly wind and wondered what all the fuss was about.

Ah yeah the thing that sent me over the edge was probably the metal shackle that securing our boom gybe preventer exploded just as I was serving dinner. It must be metal fatigue and luckily the preventer flew forward and missed the forehatch window and we were able to quickly haul in the main sheet before any damage was done. Seriously every evening is there something?? The lasagne was of course better for being a bit crispy by the time we sorted that out with a temp fix til morning.

Partly as a result of our 'motor sailing cheating' overnight we have gained on De Zouterik who are now about 42 miles south of us - they also had a rough night but had wind for sailing, which probably explains why our sea state was so bad. We are both right at the point where we join the tradewinds and as you move further south they get stronger. Our plan is to slowly move a little further south and then run along west at a point where there's enough wind to make for a comfortable downwind sleigh ride but not too far south as the current isn't as good….. that's the kind of plan anyhow.

Sorry honey for being grumpy - I like this afterall x x

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