Great sail during the day and into the first part of the night but then it the wind oscillated up and down.  We took out reefs to put them back in again during a rain squall.  Then we headed nearly south to stop the main bagging about in light winds.  At the moment the radar can see about 10 different rain clouds each with their squall of about 7 knots more than the background wind, but we are back close to course

We will be changing our clock back today.  The propagation to the radio station for the e-mails is getting worse especially in the morning.  Soon it will be better to try in the evening 24:00 GMT.  So don’t be surprised at no afternoon e-mail.  Currently we are have land at Easter Island 1292 miles away, Clipperton Island (10N,110W) 946, Hawaii 3164, Galapagos 1074, Marquesas 1821.  Approaching the point of furthest distance from any land.

We check into the Panama Pacific Net at 14:00 GMT and the Pacific Passage net at 23:00.  The 51 Catamaran, Beach House, usually makes more miles in the day but we are just 140 miles behind after the first 1000 miles so should be just 3 days behind him into Marquesas.  All the rest of the boats (6) we manage to do a few more miles.  After the net we chat with Beach House, feel we already know Scott, Cindy and Mike.  You create a mental image of what they look like – I wonder what the reality will be.  You can know first as they have a blog at www.svbeachhouse.com.

Position: [-5.488,-108.503] at 07:00 local, 14:00 BST
24hr run: 172 miles by GPS, 163.4 miles through water.
1837 miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands. ETA at 5 knots: 20:16 GMT 22nd June
Wind: ESE 13 knots (20 in squalls) Sea: Swells SW .5m, S 2m, SE 1.5m
Sky:  Rain Squalls

Wind came back yesterday morning and we had the “pinkie” up*.  I “had” to hand steer for about 3 hours to keep it full.  Great little patch.  Then the wind was enough for just genoa and has stayed that way giving us a good day’s run.

Like you we have a full moon and I was admiring the seascape at 2am listening to Bach’s St Matthew Passion on the iPod when up came a pod of 20 dolphins and played in the wake.  They get so few boats that they were very excited and stayed a good while!

Position: -4.906,-105.683 at 07:00 local, 14:00 BST Sat 6th June
24hr run:  155 miles by GPS, 158.5 miles through water. (current against us)
2009 miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands. ETA at 5 knots: 06:48 GMT 23rd June
Wind: ESE 16  knots Sea: S swell 2m SE swell 1.2m
Sky:  10% cloud cover

*Pinkie is the pink spinnaker

Wind died yesterday lunch time after we had had a lovely pink spinnaker run.  Motored all night but now there are signs of a sailing breeze.

Passed a number of milestones – 1/4 the way from Galapagos to Marquesas; pass the 10,000 miles for the trip so far from Scotland and Giselle has passed the 50,000 mark.

There were no clouds last night so we got out the computer with the star programme stellarium.  Pinned down canus major with Sirius and Centaurius above the southern cross.  We see Jupiter later at night but we no longer see Venus as it is already dawn.  Stellarium shows that Uranus is on a line between the two.  Too faint to see but always a talking point in our family since the discoverer of Uranus – William Herschel in 1781 – is an ancestor on my mother’s side.  He wanted to call it George but was overruled!

Lost the current for a while as you can see GPS and LOg nearly the same.

Position: -4.727,-103.093 at 07:00 local, 14:00 BST
24hr run: 139 miles by GPS, 134.6 miles through water.
2164 miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands. ETA at 5 knots: 13:45 GMT 23rd June
Wind: None Sea: smooth with SSW swell 2m SE well 1.5m
Sky:  40% cloud cover

Wind eased back last night and went around to the east.  Not what was predicted but I suspect the forecasts in this area won’t be very accurate given the distance from any data collection and lack of anybody to appreciate the forecasters skills!  Still managing 5.0 knots over the ground just and going the correct way.  If uit drops anymore will either have to motor or head off south to get the apparent wind speed up.

Position: -4.574,-100.756 at 07:00 local, 14:00 BST Thursday 4th June
24hr run:  168 miles by GPS, 155 miles through water.
2303 miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands. ETA at 5 knots: 17:37 GMT 23rd June
Wind: East 10 knots Sea: SE swell 1.0m SW swell 2.5m

What a lovely day sailing in the trade winds.  Giselle held 9 knots over the ground for most of the day and nearly 8 over night even though we had 2 reefs in the main to make it relaxing for the watch keepers.  We have earnt the respect of a fast cruising 51ft catamaran up front who thought they would walk away from us since they put up spinnakers and reachers.  They are about 1 knot faster.  Can see their boat at www.svbeachhouse.com.

Position: at 07:00 local, 14:00 BST
24hr run: 196 miles by GPS, 173 miles through water.
2455 miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands. ETA at 5 knots:  03:04GMT 24th June
Wind: SE 15 knots (was 20-22 last 24 hours) Sea: choppy with S swell 2.5m
Sky:  20% cloud cover

Great wind all day and a knot of current for most of the time.  RECORD day’s run of 180 miles, that’s an average of 7.5 knots.  The weather files (GRIB files) have us holding in the better wind for the next few days.  Boats behind will have less.  The swell we get here has come all the way from the storms in the roaring forties so are coming from the south or south west.  You can see the swell coming across the ocean on weather files like the ones in www.passageweather.com (link on the RHS of blog)

Position: -2.818,-94.901 at 07:00 local, 14:00 BST
24hr run:  180 miles by GPS, 159.3 miles through water.
2651 miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands. ETA at 5 knots: 18:33 GMT 24th June
Wind: SE 17 knots Sea: S swell 2.0m
Sky:  100% cloud cover

We have been steered by the windpilot with the new rudder for over a 1000 miles and when removed in Galapagos it looked good. So I think we can claim some success for the new rudder we made while in Shelter Bay, Panama. It was surprising quite how many people contributed to getting the final rudder the way it was.
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Left Wreck bay at 07:55.  All the boats know that you are leaving for the “big one” so give you a good wave and sometimes hoot their horn.  Motor sailed to start with to fill the water tank from the water maker.  We have a good hot shower when we are making water!  Then a lovely reach sometimes holding over 8 knots for long spells.  As we went past Santa Maria, (Floreana) there was 10 knots wind acceleration and then a wind shadow.  Finally got to predicting this after the same thing happening off the Canary islands and Cape Verde Islands.  Lots and lots of Storm petrels.  The side of our wake seems to bring what they eat to the surface.

We have another boat close by that left at the same time.  Beach House is a 51ft Catarmaran.  We check into the Radio nets.  There is one in the morning at 14:00 GMT and one at night at 23:00 GMT.  You get to hear progress on the other boats and their weather.

Position: -1.874,-92.044 at 07:00 local, 14:00 BST
23hr run from Wreck Bay: 157 miles by GPS, 152.3 miles through wqter.
2847 Miles to Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands ETA at 5 knots: 00:04 GMT 25th June
Wind: SE  10-15knots Sea: SW swell 2m

We plan to leave early Sunday 31st May. There are lots of new photos in the gallery, including a few extra for Panama City – links below. If the Pacific lives up to its reputation it will be quiet enough to drop down from daily reports to longer between reports. Will try and update the position everyday though. Do remember that communicating via radio is an art form and failing to get an email through is as likely to be linked to sunspots and thunderstorms close to the receiving station as problems on board. [Read more →]

The big day arrives, tyres are tied on as bumpers along both sides of the boat, water tanks full, long lines ready, line handlers on board off we go. Now this is when you hope the engine won’t play up, there will be no room for sailing down the canal. We arrive at the flats as they are called and wait for our advisor/pilot. He boards gives us the go ahead to move on towards the first lock gate. We are going through rafted up, that is three yachts tied together, biggest in the middle, the raft will sit in the middle of the lock. We tie against a very smart yacht, you notice that the yacht in the middle has used his fenders rather than the tyres he has stacked up on deck. The centre vessel drives the three boats together towards the first lock Gatun Lock. The Caribbean closes behind us, oh what are we doing, no turning back now! [Read more →]