25 49.4S 179 33.7E
108 Miles in last 12 hrs = 9.0 kts Average
As usual Visions has quickly taken us along our route, this time crossing the 180th maridian into the Eastern Hemisphere (a first for the girl). Wind is nicely aft of the beam at about 110 degrees True Wind Angle making for good speed and a moderated ride. We are still fairly heeled over (10+ degrees) and the motion is jerky, especially when we are running faster than 9 knots, but all and all, it is not too bad to be flying along at 9 knots with a double-reefed Main, Staysail, and partially reefed Jib in 21 knots of breeze. So far we are holding position to get into New Zealand late morning of the 16th, but we suspect we will be slowed down at some point along the way.
Departure from Minerva was faster than we had hopped, but luckily we did get to do an amazing dive and walk the reef, my two goals. It is a place I would love to get back to some time as it is a magical place.
The Windlass wouldn't work (control box problems) when we went to leave, but luckily we have two windlasses and were able to pull the chain up using the port windlass without too much trouble (just had to shuttle the chain across to the correct hawsepipe as it came up...thank goodness for backups! I will try to figure out what is wrong in Opua and worse case replace the control box with a spare we have aboard.
Otherwise things are uneventful (good for being offshore). It is cooling off dramatically outside, but it is still shorts and T-shirt weather in the pilot-house.
No comments:
Post a Comment