Morning all, yes more Boobies and more boobie poop to go with it…. HOWEVER, this was one of the much rarer “Red Footed Boobies” rather than the more common blue-footed or masked. (clearly we spent too much time in Galapagos to know this). They only nest on one of the smallest isolated islands up on the top of the Galapagos archipelago and we didn’t think there was any chance we’d see one. Very cool it decided to drop in for a room-only reservation. It flew off before dawn, so we couldn’t get another photo. Did you know, the reason for the red feet is that they eat squid, rather than the fish the blue footed eat?!? – there you go, fact for the day…..
Another solid 24 hours sailing – the current has stayed with us; albeit, it’s weakened a bit. The wind has been pretty steady too at 15 – 18 knots too, which has meant relatively calm sea and decent averages.
Today we’re going to put the clocks back one hour and got to Nautilus Standard Time (NST) – (you can to these things when there is nobody to tell you otherwise…) the formal change doesn’t happen to 115W but last night it didn’t get dark till 8pm and wasn’t light till 7:30am (oh yes, we’re on the equator, so 12hr days all year!). When we get to French Polynesia, they are 3.5 hours behind where we started, so it makes sense moving the clock now so we don’t get jet lag.
As we get close to the halfway point, the big question is when to we hop off the current train and point directly at the Marquises… As with all things there are options….
I have two different weather routing apps I use and a 3rd for tracking conditions. The models take wind, waves and current as their input, use the boats characteristics and spit out suggestions. There are 4 different wind / wave models i’m using and 2 different current models, so you get lots to choose from!…. Anyway – at the moment, it’s giving us options from 1650 – 1850 nautical miles to go and anything from 9 to 12 days. As you might imaging, the model and reality can we very different.
The real choice at the moment is so we turn early or not….
Option 1 – Shortest – I’d not go before tomorrow, but it’s the shortest route and gives the better wind angles for the rest of the trip… the problem is 1) you’re giving up on this awesome current, and 2) next week there are some big waves coming up from a system in the South Pacific and they could make life uncomfortable.
Option 2 – “Probably” the Quickest – We stay i the current until the weekend to make the most of out if. Then we sail hard down to the Marquesas. It’s probably quickest, but only if the winds hold up, it also avoids the waves in a few days time. BUT, coming down late means you’re potentially for some tough sailing next week as there is a stronger wind blowing in from the East and it’ll be on the beam (side).. Its not a comfortable point-of sail for a catamaran and we have less options for running off if things get gnarly.
At the moment, i’m leaning towards option one and hoping the large swell isn’t too uncomfortable. That said, we’re using a weather forecasting service from “Met Bob” and i’m going to chat it through with him before making a decision.
That’s it for now – i’ve been on watch since 2:30am, Tates is asleep. We have the small spinnaker up and we’re flying along at 10knts in the current in 17 knots of wind. Made a new banana bread that is now in the oven.
