September 21, 2009

Monday’s Sail Southbound
It wasn't long after the last message was sent that we started helping the sails out with a bit of motor, and then in a couple of hours put the sails away entirely. For almost 12 hours we used the motor to keep our speed above 4 knots. The main reason for keeping it moving is that in 3 more days, a low pressure system will cross longitude 170E, and if we're down to 30 degrees south that will put us in a strong but favorable wind flow for the rest of the way to NZ. We were about 400 miles north of 30S at that time, so needed to make over 100 miles a day to catch the ride. By midnight the wind was back enough to use some sail with the motor, and by 8:00 AM it was in the west, good enough to fly the spinnaker. By 8:30 the big red & black sail was pulling us along at 5 knots, and the motor got a rest.
At about 10:30 we got a surprise, as what appeared to be a large business jet dropped out of the sky to an altitude of a couple hundred meters, and flew by our east side northbound at a couple hundred miles an hour, then climbed back out of sight. We haven't a clue who that was.
A bit after noon the wind had come around to SW, on the beam, and the spinnaker wouldn't fly right any more. So we've spent the afternoon back under mainsail and jib, making about 4.5 knots in a very moderate sea. Forecast continues to look good. I'm calling in to the Pacific Seafarers Net, so our position should be posted on their "Yotreps" page on the internet. Thanks for the short emails, glad you seem to be enjoying the reports, though they're pretty bland right now. We'll take bland over heavy weather! Ted