Day 6, 8th March: Is it the doldrums? This Pacific ocean has lived up to its name, gentle, calm and peaceful. Our first week at sea has been fair weather cruising by any stretch - beautiful calm seas, easy reaching, dolphins, whales, turtles. Sunny skies by day, starry by night - even catch of the day appears on our menu. The sails that we beautifully set in the Galapagos have barely been touched for over 800 miles, this is the dream, crossing oceans doesnt get much better than this. That was until now, when the constantly changing weather is out to test us and banish rest & idleness. One minute sunshine, the next an overcast mugginess, then perhaps some rain. The wind is getting in on the action too, it blows a while, stops a while, veers a little, backs a little. When it blows... oh yes... its great, with the help of some rather lovely ocean current we are almost in double figures... but when it stops or backs, we wallow on the ocean swell, sails flapping and boom crashing which is enough to get at least one of the skippers out of their bunk (its a case of paper, rock, scissors) to try and trim, change course, and eventually turn on the engine. The engine is a wonderful solution, or would be if we had endless fuel, so when in 40 minutes the wind comes back - the dance starts again. Head Sail, Runner, Staysail, Main trim - skipper to bed... Paper-rock-scissors... Bring back the trades! Dan
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 03:11:48 +0000
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