We left Sunday the 6th around 2pm. It was a beautiful day, the pass was no problem and Josh caught a 34 in approx. 30 lb yellow fin tuna just outside of the pass. That was a good thing even though it slowed us down. When we got back situated Moondance was 6 miles ahead of us. That night for the Pacific Seafarer's net we discovered our SSB was not transmitting. Dennis could hear them, but got no response to his attempts to check in. So... project for the next day. Ideally the winds would have been from the east or southeast giving us a beam reach. Alas the wind has been northeast, so we have been on a close haul. It is better than the death rolls we have had, but still is difficult to move around. On the upside, the Tuna was delicious!!
Monday Dennis cleaned all of the connections on the SSB, and Monday night was successfully heard and checked in. You can follow us on their website www.pacseanet.com. Our call sign is KI6HAI. I haven't navigated their webpage, so cannot give you any hints on exactly how to do it, but it can be done. Dennis thinks the connection was loosened at the deck fitting when I strapped down the water jugs.... I don't know, it is another one of those voodoo things that boats have. Josh discovered Monday night that sleeping in his bunk with this amount of port heel is not possible, so he has moved onto the salon settee until we have a more comfortable tack.
Tuesday we discovered diesel in the port food compartment. What a disaster. We unloaded it all, wiped and washed, tore off labels and relabeled with sharpie and put it all back. Only to discover on Wednesday that it was full again. So, repeat the above and add Dennis discovering that some stupid SOB in Evergreen's past thought that fixing a hole in the diesel fill tube with glue and covering it with tape was a good decision. NOT!!! Whomever it was better hope I never find them - it won't be pretty. Dennis cut out the hole and plugged the tube with a wood through hull plug and hose clamp. Today - no diesel, problem solved, food replaced.
The weather has been okay, we had squalls on Monday and Tuesday, no winds above 33knots, was weird to turn upwind, on the way from Mexico we turned downwind during squalls. We have a different sail configuration now, smaller main jib, so turning up feels like I have more control. Probably just my imagination. Mostly the winds have been in the 15-20 knot range. I had a first for me last night - I actually put out more sail. We had lots of wind, but no speed with the partially furled jib, so I put out the stay sail and voila! 6kts. We have been trying to go straight north with as much east as possible. Yesterday we crossed to the west of our north south line from Rangiroa to the equator. Hopefully we will get some southeast winds today (Jamie promised!!!) and will be able to make some of it up. If we continue at 130 miles per day will should be at the equator by Saturday....We'll see.
With the SSB working again, we are able to speak with Doug and Carla daily. It is nice to hear other people. I miss being able to just pick up the VHF and call over. Now we schedule our calls.
So today everyone looks well rested. Josh has been taking the 6-9pm watch at night and 6-9am in the morning. This lets Dennis and I get a 6-7 hour block of sleep, it really makes a difference. He fills in during the day as needed as well. We have been on power rationing, so he has not had as much computer time as he would like. Feeling slightly seasick hasn't helped his desire to look at the computer either. The weather is good, we are cruising along at 6-7 kts at 350 degrees true. A little more west than we would like, but at least we are moving, and at this point everything is functioning properly. Hopefully this will continue so we can settle into some sort of routine. I'll let you know. Now if I can get this to post life will be good!!!
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