GETTING YOUR SEA LEGS
Everyone is different, but on our boat it usually takes the crew a day or two to get their sea legs. Everyone just sleeps, reads and watches movies. The broken sleep, of the night watch system, always takes a couple of turns to get used to. The movement of the boat makes all activity a little harder. My humans always pre-make a few simple meals to keep galley time down. But after a day or two we all adapt and life goes on.
EQUIPMENT FAILURE
Stuff breaking down at sea is always a pain. The movement of the boat always makes repairs a little harder and a little more dangerous. Most stuff you can live without until you get back on anchor, but some stuff you have to sort out. Our first break down is the head. The humans were just saying that perhaps they had the piston in the toilet finally sorted. Then it gammed again. Darn! The Grocco toilets are a simple piston system, and easy to fix, but not necessarily on a boat pitching about at sea. So the humans have decided to wait for some calmer weather to take the head apart. For now they have set up an ‘el fresco’ head out the back of the boat.
HOW IS THE WEATHER?
We have been very lucky. The winds have been between 15-20 knots, which is a very comfortable speed for our boat. The swell is about 1.5m with an extra 0.5m on top of wind driven chop. We have had the wind on the beam (side of the boat) or just forward. This has meant we do get the occasional wave splashing up over the boat, but generally dry and not too salty.
But the skies have been pretty clear, light cloud cover, but thankfully no squalls. That was our biggest worry on this trip as it is the rainy season. Passing squalls really mess up the wind direction and speed, making sailing more difficult. For that reason we hope to continue to avoid them.
HOPEFULLY WE WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE FAIR WEATHER SAILING!
TAHITI TO GAMBIER ISLANDS about 890 nm
You can not sail a straight line between these two areas as there are a few small atolls in the way. If fact we are turning a bit south at the moment to pass under a small atoll 45nm ahead of us called Hereheretue.
STATISTICS FOR DAY 2
Distance traveled (as the crow flies): 129 nm
Distance left to travel (as the crow flies): 645 nm
Number of fish caught: Zero so far.
You are getting this blog by the miracle of radio waves, so you will have to wait for the pictures to be added later ‘when’ we get some internet again.
END.
