Day 11: Pacific Crossing from Mexico to French Polynesia (half way!)

We continue on the same course from the last few days, quite cloudy all around, will need to start the generator to charge our batteries without the sun.  We are still experiencing some wind (15-20 knots) and have our Code Zero up, as we approach the ITCZ.

This morning I lost rock-paper-scissors and had to do the dishes we let build up yesterday.  The beam seas have not encouraged us to clean the boat; we’re hoping that we have a bit of calm in the ITCZ to do laundry and clean up inside.  No squalls yet, but we are surrounded by clouds.  Enjoyed a brunch today of fried potatoes, eggs, and oranges.

Around 6pm, skies darkening, temperature decreasing, barometer dropping.  Clouds changing formation and filling the sky, enjoyable to sit in the cockpit and watch the changes.  Still sailing slowly along.  I hung a sun shower inside in our shower stall, kneeling to take a shower, sliding around on my knees in soapy water with the swells; fairly hilarious but it felt awesome to take my first shower in over a week.  The rest of the crew followed suit.  We had a gourmet dinner of blackened wahoo steaks, salad (yes, we still have fresh veg), and black beans.

We can watch rain and squalls on the radar and have been very focused on avoiding them.  Cora and I had an uneventful slow sailing 4-hour shift, no course corrections needed and even created a watch playlist of music.  Calder and Emil, on their shift, noticed a boat in the distance on radar (our first one in quite a while), but  it was not on AIS (Automatic Identification System) so we had no information about it and it stayed in the distance.  Then they saw a small area of rain (or squall?) that was getting closer and we altered course a bit to avoid it.  We can use EBL (Electronic Bearing Lines) to track the squalls/rain and our chance of intersection/collision with them, just like we would use to avoid boat collision. 

When Chris took his morning shift, “things” started happening.  First, just off our starboard beam there was a one-meter-tall post with a green light.  There were more, about 500 meters apart for over a mile, indicating a long line in these International Waters; we definitely had run it over inadvertently.  After being all alone out here for so long, it’s wild to find a fishing line.

The next adventure of Chris’ watch was trying to avoid an area of rain (squall?), but finding it slowly circling us, no escape to be had.  We furled the sail, turned on the motor, and continued on our way; sheets of rain cleaning the boat. 

He continued his shift through rain.  If you ignored the temperature of the air, we could be looking out at Frederick Sound near our hometown of Petersburg, Alaska!  The rain is refreshing and a change of pace.  We continue through a band of rain and the ITCZ, motoring and motor-sailing our way south to find the Southern Trades.  We are half-way on our journey!

Total miles over the last 24 hours:   110 nm

Average speed in last 24 hours:     4.6 knots

Total miles of trip so far:  1,386 nm (half-way!!!)