Well I got Isabel up for her watch at 0200, about 2 hours later than I used to. Turns out that brownies have sugar which gives one a buzz. Combine that with the brain stimulation provided by House MD episodes and remaining awake late into the night is easy. Who’d a thunk it? Got 2 of my needed blocks of sleep, 1.5 hours each, and found myself awake about 0545. Another block of sleep would have been great, but the whistle of the kettle and the smell of fresh coffee got my motor running. That’s one of the problems sailing with wind on the stern – coffee aroma wafts into the master cabin and turns my brain on. Anywho, up I came and found Isabel relaxing in her favorite watch position, kicking back on the stern bench seat where she could see the world going by, and our most successful fishing lure already deployed.
The first couple of days at sea on a long passage are the toughest, then we get our resting rhythm going. The worst passages are single night or 2-night trips, just enough time for one’s body to get confused but not enough time to establish necessary rest patterns. Whatever, we’re not going to slow the boat down to make the trip longer, and we can’t make the wind blow harder than it wants to. Overnight and right now the wind is lighter than forecast which is a bummer, but we’re still averaging around 4.5 knots or more and should arrive just around dark tomorrow night at the latest. I’ve alerted the marina to enquire about their night lighting and slip availability, but if we’re running a bit late we’ll sail into the bay on the leeward side of Point Venus and drop the hook. It’s a nice sheltered anchorage, black volcanic sand bottom, and it’s not unusual to see mamma whales and their young’uns in there during the calving season.
We’ll find our way into Marina Papeete by Monday morning at the latest. Last night the PolyMagNet SSB net had a number of vessels underway checking in, several of which were headed to Tahiti. We seem to be leading the pack, and as it’s a dead downwind sail for almost all of us we’re likely enjoying the most pleasant sailing. Monohulls roll like nuts in these dead downwind conditions when they’re sailing wing and wing, but for us we just putter along with our simple little simbo rig, doing around 45 – 50% of true wind speed. We ride up and down the swells as they pass under the stern moving forward and the gentle motion is quite relaxing. Yay catamaran!
There will be a forecast update on Predictwind at 0910 local time. Let’s hope it shows a steady 15 knots from the East for the remainder of the voyage, and that the real weather actually behaves like the forecast. For now we’re just kicking back thinking about that next fish we’re hoping to catch, wondering if the solar input will top up the batteries today, considering what we ought to eat for breakfast, etc. Ours certainly is a high pressure world.
Thinking back to the 4th of July fireworks displays we’ve enjoyed together, perhaps the most spectacular was in San Diego bay. In 2013 we joined Thad and Kristen and some of their friends on their boat, SV She’s No Lady to watch the amazing fireworks display launched from several barges around the bay. Everything was synchronized to the music broadcast by a local FM radio station – really well done. Perhaps the most unusual display, the one that really stimulated all our senses was in Silverton, Colorado. We were camping up there and had driven into town to enjoy the evening with new friends we had met in a boutique rum distillery. Silverton is at 9000 feet MSL elevation with lots of big steep mountains around and extremely crisp clear air. The fireworks would launch and go bang, and long after the visual stimulation was over the reverberation of the explosion sounds from the nearby mountains and cliffs were a treat for our ears.
Sounds like coronavirus is going to put a damper on festivities this year. Guess a great backyard BBQ with close friends will have to suffice.
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