Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Opua here we come

Day 5 0615
23 nm from Bay of Islands
SOG - 9.8 kn


Conditions:
Partly sunny
Wind 18-23 Kn ENE
Bar 1014
Seas 6' ENE

Our boatspeed remains impressive, averaging 9.6 kn over the past 3 hours. We sailed through a short
rain squall on my watch last night and I closed the pilot house doors to keep the PH dry. It was
quite erie - we were speeding through the water but I could not appreciate it - with the doors closed
it was more like we were floating on a cushion of air.

It became unusually quiet as I could not hear the water rushing by. I could not see the swells passing
in the dark, and the rain flattened the seas so that I could not feel them - a very strange sensation
when you look up and you are hitting 11.2 knots and you can't feel it, seemingly skipping above the
swells. (note: we run a dry boat on passage so it is not what you are thinking).

Another fantastic 24 hour run. We will be in Opua around 10:30 AM so the 1025 nm passage will take us
5 days and 2 hours, or just about 202 nm per day for 5 days. That ain't shabby!

All is well on board. The Captain knows a good thing when he has it, and declares an extra ration of
grog tonight for this fabulous crew (and one for the captain too!).

Smooth seas,

Bill

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