LTY DAILY 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: 17:40 Nov 8th, 2016 (LTY time/NZ time = UTC +12)
LOCATION: about 325nm south of west end of Fiji
POSITION: 22 26.91 S 174 26.850 E (can cut & paste into Google Earth)
SOG: 6.4 kts (SOG = Speed over Ground)
COG: 206 (COG = Course over Ground, our GPS based compass heading)
WIND: 18 kts SE = 50 degrees over our Port bow
SEAS/Swell: 1.5m @ 4 seconds making for a very smooth ride
WEATHER: Ideal sailing weather; sunny blue skies with 15-20 kts wind
SAILS: Both main and Genoa up and filled full
AIR TEMP: 74.5F 23.6C
SEA TEMP: 81.1 27.3C
HUMIDITY 68%
BAROMETER: 1013
DISTANCE TRAVELED last 24 hrs: 140nm
TOTAL DISTANCE TO GO: (Opua, NZ): about 875 nm
DAY #3 A GOLDILOCKS SAILING DAY
Now THIS is what we are talking about! As Christine remarked earlier this morning “This is the kind of day they right about in the sailing magazines that everyone imagines to be every day.” We, and all you fellow sailors and/or faithful LTY followers know that it is not always like this and so we enjoy these kinds of days all the more. Frankly, one of the many lessons that sailing and passage making has taught me is how true it is that the more you put into life the more you get out of it! That saying about there being “No free lunch” is ever so true and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m sure you have the same kinds of experiences and lessons in your life.
For you see, Christine and I have been revelling all day in this glorious Goldilocks day we’ve been having where everything is “just right, just for us”. Our skin has been drinking up the warm sun, our eyes have been filled with the sphere of blue skies and even bluer waters that we find ourselves in the center of. The seas were flat and shiny as a lake last night under a star studded black sky. Today the winds have been 15-20 knots in just the right direction coming over our Port bow at about 50 degrees and Learnativity has been loving it too with her main and genoa (big head sail) filled full and her hull slicing though the azure seas with ease at 6.5 to 7 knots hour after hour. You can understand then how our hearts have been filled to the brim seeing all those months of living “up on the hard” and living in what seemed like a permanent construction zone aboard LTY where there was nothing but dust and grit and “stuff” everywhere be transformed into this day. The transmogrification from then to now is mind boggling and we are thus SO much more grateful and appreciative of the joys and rewards we are now reaping.
I know, I know, I go on and on about these kinds of things but how can I not when my life is filled with them. This IS my life. Better yet, this is OUR life and we do our very best to heed the sage advise to “Live the life you love, and LOVE the life you live.” So we are LOVING our day today!
And so dear friends and family, in a rare display of some rare modicum of bevity, I’m going to leave it at that for today’s LTY Update and go join my Brilliant Beautiful Bride and enjoy watching the sun dip into the watery blue horizon to our west. From the smells wafting up from the galley I think we are going to be enjoying ginger chicken and garlic roast potatoes as we watch this magical day transform into night and slither our way evermore southward towards Opua.
Thanks as always for joining us and we’ll be back for another update tomorrow.
Christine & Wayne
Comments