Half Way There

In addition to following a route on our electronic chart plotter, each day we also manually plot our position on a paper chart. Currently this effort is being accomplished on chart of the entire Eastern Pacific. It is a good idea from a navigational standpoint to know where you were if you had to complete a passage without the aid of electronics (yes, it can still be done). The manual plotting also creates a written record of a passage that will one day be fun to look at. There is one problem with plotting your position daily on a paper chart scaled to 1:10,000,000 - you seem never to get where you are going. With each good days travel being represented by a line not much longer than one inch on a 48" x 48" chart, it can get a little depressing; however, each day I diligently plot our position and you start to believe that maybe you will get there. If fact, today, we saw proof that it is true. At 1927Z, we were exactly half way between Cabo San Lucas and Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia! After 10+ days at sea, we have traveled 1,328 miles. Now a mathematically astute reader might observe that we are only traveling 133 miles per day and they might also think that 133 miles per day is not that fast. While looking at our progress on our chart of the Eastern Pacific we would be inclined to agree with both observations. That said, we are pleased to note that we are among the fastest boats this year making this passage and that if winds hold for us, a passage time of 21 or 22 days will be envied by many sailors sailing a boat in the 35-45 foot range.

In other news, we continue to have increasingly cloudy squally weather as the ITCZ gets closer. The squalls do contain a lot of rain but are not big wind makers yet. One has to be careful of squalls as they can bring short term very high winds, just like their land cousin, the Thunderstorm. We continue to read a lot, cook good meals even though this can be a very trying experience in 8 foot seas, not to mention the 18-20 foot seas we have had!

Well, I need to wake the watch so I will sign off for now

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