Some days are better than some nights. We had a great sail from noon until 9pm and another great sail from 6am to noon, but those hours in the dark were very trying last night.

Instead of blowing a nice 16-18 knots from about 45-50 magnetic (like it seems to do all day), the wind decided to drop to 8-10 and back all the way to 80-90 magnetic.

This wind angle meant we really had to sail wing and wind dead down wind but since it was night time, no one really wanted to wake someone else to get them up to help set the pole. Jean tried to go downwind without the pole and there was such a horrible noise I came up to see what was going on and we decided to run the motor. Then when I came on shift the wind was up to about 12-14kts but could not make up its mind on what direction it wanted to go so I ended up gybing three times on my own and loosing autopilot control once while I almost did a 360 in the complete dark with only the main up!

Because of all the messing around and less an ideal wind angle we only managed a straight line run of 140 miles, while we sailed closer to 150 miles with all our zip zags.

However, we did finally try fishing yesterday and true to Asunto form we got the fish on board only to be unprepared and lost it back overboard. It’s ok as it was a tiny (and I mean tiny) Mahi Mahi and would have only fed us a single meal if we had even decided to keep it.

I did get all the fishing stuff ready so that if we catch one today we’ll be having it for dinner!

Position update at 1200 local time April 1, 2016:
17 43.517 N
128 06.659 W
140 nautical mile noon to noon run
1726 nautical miles to destination
8.3 Kt. SOG
279 COG

We have had a pretty good 24 hour run, essentially on a beam reach. We never got above 90 degrees apparent but we saw as low as 130 before we decided to dive a little deeper and go wing and wing with the updated weather route.

The boat was just humming along, carried full sail into 21 kts true wind was was making good speed over ground at 7-8 kts.

It’s amazing how much better everyone sleeps when the boat is happy. Compared to the other night with the clanging and banging, I think everyone was really able to get some good rest in.

That being said, I know everyone had a decent ab workout yesterday with the boat on a 15 degree heel. For the first time on this trip we had to reef down the main while Jean made dinner.

Everyone is settling in nicely, books are getting read at a tremendous pace and I think we are all starting to eat a little less now that we’ve been confined to our 50′ x 15′ island for over a week.

We have some friends leaving Puerto Vallarta bound for Hilo tomorrow and I’ve told them I’ve been dropping lime peels over the side so they can follow us but I’m starting to run out so they had better hurry up! Good luck Yare!

Position update at 1200 local time April 1, 2016:
18 04.687 N
125 38.546W
161 nautical mile noon to noon run
1861 nautical miles to destination
6.0 Kt. SOG
250 COG

Nothing to extraordinary really, but man what a night.

My shift from 9 pm to midnight saw us lose about half our wind. Instead of blowing a great 18 kts from behind, the wind decided to drop to 8-10 kts but stayed right behind us such that the apparent wind speed was so low it would not keep the sails full even with the pole out and the preventer on. Plus to top it all off, we were taking the swell almost beam on, but not enough where we could change our sailing angles so we just banged and clattered all night.

After my shift I couldn’t sleep because of the shake rattle and roll as I thought the rig was going to come down top of us (not really of course).  I read myself to exhaustion (which reading the Game of Thrones gives you ample opportunity to do). The wind would pick up at times during the night and we probably average about 5 kts SOG through the night which is respectable considering the lousy start.

I made “fancy” quesadillas for lunch today. I say fancy because they included fried onions and peppers and I even cut up an avacado! Everyone said they were good but I’m pretty sure there were being nice considering the night before I made stir fry and my secret ingredient was…. Soy Sauce.

Maybe this passage making with make a chef out of me yet!

Position update at 1200 local time March 31, 2016:
17 52.090 N
122 49.725W
144 nautical mile noon to noon run
2003 nautical miles to destination
6.6 Kt. SOG
268 COG