Saturday
Wind was VERY light all morning - I'd poled out the genoa to weather again & was sitting having a lovely mango after lunch, as a reward for having changed the generator oil that morning, when it suddenly occurred to me that just accepting a boatspeed of 2-3 knots really wasn't good enough.... I should do something more! So I got out the cruising chute (being on a run) & ages later we were going along nicely - at 5 knots, with the wind having increased a bit. It continued up over the afternoon, but
eventually backed into the north - so down came the pole and the spinnaker - we were broad-reaching, and continued so in the usual overnight lighter wind. Lots of cumulus around at sunset.
Contacted the Pacific Seafarers Net at 0325GMT - one of them actually heard me on the radio trying to check in..!! As a single-hander, I'll be first on the roll-call in future. Find that around sunrise and sunset seem to be good times to try to make radio email contact on 18 or 21 Mhz- still often difficult, if not well nigh impossible, though.... bad time in sunspot cycle isn't helping.
Beautiful full moon...
Noontime position (1800GMT): 13deg 27' N; 110deg 46' W . 24hr distance run by log: 111 n.ml.
Sunday
'Wyntersea' managed to hear me this morning & get my position - they are only about 45 mls away to the N and 'Jade' about 90mls to the NW. I'm hearing everyone else perfectly....
Light winds again - poled out the genoa and we're almost on a dead run downwind, going at about 4-5knots. Wind still only NNE, around 10 knots at best - either the NE Trades are light or they're being elusive!! Boatspeed well down, most of the time, making for very poor daily runs. Seems to pick up a little usually, in the afternoon, & then die down again overnight
Spending some time reading while sitting out in the cockpit - keeping out of the sun!
Seeing more gannets regularly, as well as the occasional dark petrel (white-rumped - Leach's?) and shearwater. A good-sized flying fish presented itself for a bit of a Sunday meal.
Light overcast most of the day. Air temp around 30C - very pleasant! Swell fairly small (around 1m) Every now & then, a larger wave comes through & knocks us about - but not too bad.
Noontime position (1800GMT): 12deg 43' N; 112deg 27' W . 24hr distance run by log: 103 n.ml.