May 19, 2009

Favors of Fate
Evidently the Fates approve of the decision to hang a right. Maybe we're scheduled on the predestination books to see Vanuatu, but things sure got easier once we tacked toward Port Vila. By the way, I mis-spoke in the notification email. As of tacking, at noon yesterday I should have said ETA was the day after the day after tomorrow. It was still a bit rough and I was in a hurry. Anyway, it's Tuesday afternoon now, and we're a bit over 200 miles from Efate. We've kept our average speed over the 5 knots I was hoping for. Until late last night, we kept her reefed down to about half the sail area, to make it more livable as we sailed into the big swell arriving from the south. By midnight the wind was easing a little, from 15 plus to more like twelve knots, and by morning we had to start adding sail area to keep up the speed. Now we're flying all plain sail, just barely staying on the target pace, but the sea has become very gentle. Last night, even while it was still a little rough, it was great sailing. The sky cleared to reveal a brilliant Milky Way arcing down to the Southern Cross, lighting the sea with stars until the wee hours, when a half moon rose to bathe us in its orange/yellow glow. The wind shifted and gusted some, so a little attention was required in trimming sails to get her to steer easily, but most of the night there was no spray on deck, and it was easy to make time. Today we're under a brilliant blue sky with a handful of puffy clouds, the sun blinding as it reflects from the white decks.
The closest thing we have to a schedule for arrival is to get finished with customs and immigration before Friday evening. If we miss the government office hours, we aren't allowed ashore until they re-open and we can check in. Unless the wind goes very light or very foul, we should be at anchor by early afternoon Thursday, and be cleared before that night. A worse case lets us clear in on Friday. Pretty unlikely that we couldn't make that deadline. We'd been hoarding a last few foods that we actually like, to let us break up the monotony if we had another 10 days or more at sea. Now it's open season on ginger cookies and butter!
Some of you may have heard my rendition of a trip I made in 1976 to the national road races at Louden, New Hampshire. It was a classic case of The Fates telling me at EVERY STEP that I was NOT to go. I'll see if I have it on a disc somewhere and maybe post it. That trip made me believe that you really should take cues rather than be unyieldingly obstinate. I think we got this part right. Ted