Boisterous, fast, Trade wind sailing over Day 20, crossing the Pacific
Having finally got the pole hoisted for the genoa and in use heading downwind on Monday, the wind piped up and veered overnight - so I had to furl in the genoa and take it over to starboard - all in pitch darkness as we rolled around every time the good-sized waves hit us... which was often!
Tuesday continued with 'boisterous' sailing in strong winds and big seas all day long, but no squalls. We were frequently making 7-7.5 kt and surfing at well over 8-9 kt.
With the wind gusting up to 20kt as night fell, I reduced the genoa quite a bit more - we were swinging about rather wildly at times and I felt it best to avoid that overnight, even though it meant we slowed down a little - but not much, since I'm still seeing us making 6-7kt.
The Marquesas (or Iles Marquises, as they should more correctly be referred to) are now less than 600 miles away.... equating to 4-5days... and the wind is forecast to be good all the way.
Landfall is looking like possibly late Saturday to early Sunday, so I might have to heave-to well off, if we get too close nearing night time.
Our time zone is now Z-9 but we've been keeping to Banderas Bay time of Z-7 up to now - I need to adjust the ship's clock!
Present position is 05 32S, 130 12W and we should continue pretty much on our present rhumb line course of 247T all the way - see the Predictwind tracker page for Nereida (see the link on my website) for our track to here.