12 deg. 21.425 minutes North
116 deg. 48.984 minutes West
Wind 20 knots at 035 mag. (NE)
Sea conditions 6-7' north swell with 2-3' wind waves
Sky overcast, possible showers later
1900 zulu 24 hour distance covered: 144 nautical miles
Total distance from La Cruz: 823 nautical miles
Distance remaining: 1860 nautical miles
Anyone who knows Deb knows she's a bookworm, so it should come as no surprise she is on her fifth book (in five days). Deb has also done all the cooking and cleanup so far, so it's a wonder she has found tome to read so much. It's also amazing she hasn't insisted John do some cooking etc. (but hey, if it ain't broke-don't fix it!!). We may watch a movie this afternoon, stopping every 15 minutes to pop up on deck for a look around. Night time movies are out though because Deb starts her sleeping watch at 2000 hrs (8:00 PM) local time, just after dinner and sunset. Other afternoon activities have been playing Gin, and Mexican Train. John is enjoying the card games immensely, Deb, not so much.
We're kind of loafing along now doing about 7 knots under jib alone, but sailing almost directly towards the Marquesas. One alternative is to return to mainsail and jib, but then we would need to steer either West on starboard tack, or south on Port tack. We would go faster for sure, but the question is, would we close faster on the islands? Another option is to set the asymmetrical spinnaker (the A-chute) and mainsail where the angles are better, but still require more distance sailed. No decision yet.
We are used to listening to the sounds Moonshadow makes while underway, cataloging each individual sound as an OK sound, or something we should trace down and eliminate. The passage to the Marquesas is notorious for how "rolly" it is, sailing with sails eased so much they play little part in arresting the roll cause by trade wind swells. We roll along almost unable to identify all the sounds associated with this degree of rolling. There is a symphony of sounds that blend together such that an individual sound is indeterminable. About every 8-10 minutes along come a larger package of swells and waves which have the effect of turning up the volume, which is your notice to hang on! It was during one of these sets that our improvised boom vang (line and blocks) broke and went unnoticed for some time.
By far our favorite pastime is reading emails from friends and family. Further down the list is overhauling the toilet, during which it became painfully obvious how much smarter it would have been to tackle this job back at the dock.
All is well aboard Moonshadow!
John and Deb
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