LTY UPDATE for passage from west side of Fiji up to Majuro Marshall Islands with one stop in Rotuma
Day #11
Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
(Remember we are on the other side of the International dateline than most of you)
LTY time: 18:00 (LTY time = UTC +12)
Location: about 600nm NNE of Rotuma, Fiji
Position: 03 52.856 S, 176 21.949 E (you can cut & past this into Google Earth to see on map)
SOG: 4.2kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 311 (COG = Course over Ground, my GPS based compass heading)
Wind: 18-25kts NNE Apparent
Seas/Swell: 2m @ 6 sec out of NNE
Weather: overcast but no rain and some blue patches, clouds on all horizon as night falls, nothing ominous
Air temp: 90 F 32C
Sea temp: 88 F 31.0 C
Barometer: 1012
Distance travelled: 601nm
Distance to Majuro anchorage: 648nm NNE
SAILING & SUFFERING SILENTLY THROUGH THIS ADVENTURE
Last night we were back to going through swarms of squalls with their higher velocity swirling winds and rain. Mother Nature decided to throw a few dashes of some good thunder and lightning to the mix in the early morning hours before first light from about 4-6am. Christine’s watch is typically about 3-7am (mine 11pm to 3am) so she got to enjoy the sound and light show and I was vaguely aware as I snoozed beside her up in the cockpit. As light came up and the sun rose about 7:10 this morning and we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, things began to settle down and the winds died right off and we did a few or our pirouettes as the we lose steerage, the sails back and we get on course by simply letting the light breeze turn LTY around in a full circle and then the sails catch the wind again on the right side and we slowly move off. Made for a lovely breakfast time and then the wind freshened up and rose to the steady state of 15 to 24 knots apparent (wind as we feel it on the boat, not as you would on the ground/sea), so we were soon back up to good speeds all day since then running from lows of 4 to highs of 7 knots.
The skies have been mostly overcast and a bit gray but lots of blue patches to keep things brighter and no rain so it has been another very pleasant day of sailing, chatting endlessly, writing, showering and reading. The sun is now making its daily dash for the western horizon off our port side and Christine is just serving up our nightly tradition of “appies” (appetizers) of Cambazola (creamy blue), vintage Cheddar and creamy peppercorn cheeses, salami, bread and spiced olives. I know, I know, oh woe is we and yes our theme song is “Nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen” However we will continue to do our best to suffer through all this hot, humid, grueling adventure and help you enjoy all the more, the snowy winter wonderland which so many of you are currently experiencing. ;)
We are closing in on crossing the equator in the next few days and in a few hours we will cross the half-way point between our start in Vuda Point marina in Fiji and the anchorage inside the Majuro lagoon in the Marshall islands so all is going very well. Christine and I are apparently amongst the few who absolutely love these longer passages and get a bit melancholy when they end. Even though this one isn’t really that long we continue to revel in the rapture of our shared time and experiences “trapped” together inside this vast private bubble of a universe we almost embarrassingly have all to ourselves. We hope that you too are enjoying your bubble with friends and family and that you similarly have 2014 off to a great start.
We’ll be back tomorrow with more updates from our aquatic universe and till then wish you sweet dreams and happy days.
Christine, Wayne & Ruby the Wonderdog
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