There are good ships and wood ships
And ships that sail the seas
But the best ships are the friendships
And may they ever be...

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Day 12

Date: 03/28
Noon to noon run: 145 NM
Time of position: 22:00
Lat/Lon: 02 deg 05.07'N; 125 deg 01.38'W
Course: 220 deg Mag
Next Waypoint:    East end of Hiva Oa: 1085 NM distance
                  09 deg 45.03S; 138 deg 45.65W

We downloaded a 48 Hr forecast yesterday mornning that predicted that the ITCZ (the Zone) would be in our general area of longitude (120-130W) and between 3 and 5N latitude so we headed approximately due south for 24 hrs. This morning upon entering the vicinity of 3N we started heading more westerly, but could see squall lines forming both N and S of us. The surface analysis we subsequently downloaded from our weather fax via sailmail showed 3 separate Zones. Ok, one is enough, two is too many, but 3? - Come on now, enough is enough!

Well, the weather will be what it will be, so we have to adapt. At 1:30 this afternoon we ran out of wind and started the iron genoa. We motored for about 2 hours heading south southwest and broke through that squall line to find fresh breeze and have been riding with that since. As for tomorrow? We'll see when the sun rises.

On a different subject, we have been using water from the port water tank and making water periodically which has meant that there has been ample water for us. We still haven't touched the 65 or so gallons in the starboard water tank.

That's it for now.  John

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