LTY Starting Stats: (I’ll use this same list each day for those of you who like to keep track and experience the sail a bit more this way)
LTY (local Fiji) time: 18:42 Nov 7th, 2016 (LTY time/NZ time = UTC +12)
LOCATION: about 150nm south of west end of Fiji
POSITION: 20 32.210 S 175 36.655 E (can cut & paste into Google Earth)
SOG: 6.7 kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 213 (COG = Course over Ground, our GPS based compass heading)
WIND: 06 kts SE
SEAS/Swell: A bit lumpy due to neighboring squalls but smooth enough ride
WEATHER: Became grey, overcast and drizzly as we sailed south
SAILS: About half & half sail only vs motor sailing as wind comes and goes
AIR TEMP: 75.6F 24.2C
SEA TEMP: 84.4F 29.1C
HUMIDITY 78.6%
BAROMETER: 1012
DISTANCE TRAVELED last 24 hrs: 140nm
TOTAL DISTANCE TO GO: (Opua, NZ): about 1050 nm
DAY #1 & 2 Ahhhhhhhhh, THAT’s more like it!
After over 15 months confined to the marina, lovely as it truly is, and most of that up “on the hard” on land it feels SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO fantastic to be back on the water and back on passage! Christine and I both love the very special state of being that we experience when out here all on our own, just Mother Nature, LTY and us. We both found long passages to be awemazing when we were both doing them as single handers so now to be out here on passages as two still very twitterpated “Naughty Grandparents” is ………………………………………………… sorry I don’t have the words for it.
We got a good start leaving Momi Bay yesterday at about 09:40 as per the previous LTY Update you should have received. As I mentioned in that, there are LOTS of boats all waiting for a weather window to make their way out of this cyclone belt and get to points south and so our good friends Chuck and Lauri on “Free Spirit” also ended up anchored not far from us in Momi Bay for the past 2 days and they were right in our wake as we both headed out the pass and then turned south on a heading of about 200 degrees to make the gradual arc through the good weather down to the north end of NZ.
Even after all those months and months of work having literally every surface inside and out and every system within her reworked, cleaned, painted, rebuilt and renewed, Learnativity took the bit in her mouth and we saw some of our best speeds every doing just over 8.2 knots a few times in 15-18 knot winds, while they lasted. Our first night on passage went well and now as day two winds down with the sun setting off in the west somewhere amongst all the cloud cover, we are settling into the rhythm of a passage which we cherish so dearly. Unfortunately, the wind has not cooperated as well today (Monday) and we lost our blue skies and Mr. Moon overnight and have had grey overcast most of today. Drizzles of rain off and on all day but nothing too much and no nasty squalls to go around, just some big lightning shows way off in the distance for a few hours late last night. We were able to make good time sailing most of the day but have been motor sailing all afternoon and looks like we’ll be doing more of the same through the night as the wind has run off elsewhere it seems. But better that than dodging big squalls or winds so we’ll take it gladly and enjoy another night under this big sky with nothing but blue watery horizons for every one of the 360 degrees around us.
Well, that’s all for tonight folks! Dinner is about to be served so I’m off to enjoy that and will be back to give you tomorrow’s update. Thank you VERY much for coming along for the ride with us. We appreciate you doing so and makes this experience all the more special for both of us.
Night for now!
Christine & Wayne
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