1915UTC (1215 PDT)
With a following wind of ENE 10kn - and a course of about 245T (almost WSW), boatspeed is only around 4knots. We're not exactly going to break any speed records on this passage!! The first boats to leave early for the Marquesas from Puerta Vallarta (Mexico) have had good winds (around 20kn) and have just arrived.
Spent ages this morning finally switching the pole from starboard to port side - so now we're goosewinged again (as we should have been yesterday... Inner forestay has added another little step to the process!) Makes the boat far more stable laterally, so windsteering should cope better - it has been sending us off course regularly for the last day & overnight so we're slightly south of our intended course. On a long passage like this, that really doesn't matter a great deal.
I now have 3 days of Position Reports (including today's) waiting for a connection to Winlink. Unless some kind person can send me an email address for sending reports direct to Shiptrak or to the Winlink website page via my Sailmail address - which has been working occasionally - they'll have to wait for whenever I get through to Winlink finally.... My last few daily logs have been kindly posted for me by Bryan & Mike of 'Nightwinds' who have now enabled me to post direct via Sailmail, assuming that connection can continue to be made every so often.... The further from land I sail, the more difficult the connections are - until I get closer to stations in N.Z. &/or Australia, or solve my transmission problem (unlikely at sea!).
Having a 'fruit' day today, with lovely papaya (paw-paw) and orange - need to keep a constant eye on my fresh fruit and veg now they are all getting very ripe, to use them rather than lose them!!
Interesting - I looked in my logbook for Nereida's furthest west position to date. On the way up to Alaska from Kauai last year, I was almost at 163W, skirting around the N. Pacific High. My landfall in the Marquesas will only be at about 139W. Not until I get to Suvarov, between Bora-Bora and Samoa, will I have sailed further west.
1800 GMT position: 10deg 29' N; 117deg 19' W . 24hr distance run by log: 100 n.ml.