Over 200 miles in 24 hours
– by Hugh
Well folks, it happened, we broke the 200 mile barrier! 3 days ago, as we entered the southern Trade Winds proper, we had a 24 hour run of 207 nautical miles! It was incredible. I’d love to tell you that it was a result of amazing seamanship, multiple sail changes, and crack driving. But honestly, we just set the sails and hung on, Khulula did all the work. The wind was 25 knots on the beam (right angles to the boat). We set our mid-sized genoa sail, put 2 reefs in the main and kicked back for the ride. It was great!
We’re now firmly in the southern trade winds and it continues to be a sleigh ride. Winds are hovering around 20 knots from the East, the sails are set, waves keep rolling by, and we’re trucking along. We’ve been sailing under ‘white sails’ mostly because it allows us to maximize chilling out, and our speed had been pretty good.
However, this morning skipper Ryan called for the spinnaker (aka the chute, as in parachute) to be flown. 1st Mate Patterson and Cabin Boy Bryson jumped to it. In a matter of minutes (30 – 45) Khulula was cruising along at 8 – 9 knots under the smaller of her two chutes. Ryan stayed on the helm and managed to keep the boat under control, Bryson stayed at the ready to release the sheet should the sail over power us. All went well until the Foreguy broke, sending the spinnaker pole out of control skyward. The crew quickly managed to douse (take down) the chute before the ‘out of control’ became more than just embarrassing. We resumed sailing under white sails. My task for tomorrow is figure out a way to fix the foreguy with our limited hardware inventory.
Other than that excitement we’ve been keeping busy thinking up new meals to cook and ways to catch fish. Bryson produced an excellent pasta with re-hydrated turkey and veggie’s (thanks again Neil), I baked a batch of my signature cookies, and Ryan continued to be eluded by tuna and any other fish that went for our lures.
We’ve slowed down a bit in the past 2 days, with average runs of 160 miles. Having come 2600 miles so far, there are only 340 miles left to the Marquesa’s. We were hoping to make landfall on Saturday afternoon, but it looks tight. We don’t want to arrive after dark, so we will make the call tomorrow to slow down a bit to arrive early Sunday.