April, 2012:

It’s been a good 24 hours. This past night was much more pleasant with only a few passing rain sprinkles. We’ve been sailing with a conservative sail plan at night, in order to make reefing easier for the person on watch with squalls still all over the horizon. Last night we sailed with our genoa and mizzen only and made 3-4 knots all night. Slow, but steady and the sails stayed full.

Today however, has been a day of perfect tradewind sailing. Full sails up, 15 knots just aft of the beam, light SE swell running. We’ve been making nearly 6 knots the entire day. So nice. We are thinking that we may be shouting land-ho! tomorrow evening but our landfall will likely be Thursday morning.

Leah wrote a message and we sealed it up in a bottle and tossed it over this afternoon at 07 45’S, 136 24’W. If you find it on a beach somewhere, do let us know.

Total miles at noon: 2487
Miles since yesterday: 101
Miles to Hiva Oa: 204
Limes ready for margaritas when we arrive (since there were 0 tuna caught for ceviche): 77

We are getting so so close now. If our speed can keep at 4.5 knots or above, as it has been today, then we are looking at a Wednesday evening landfall. If it drops below that for any length of time then we’ll likely arrive Thursday morning. Either way, that’s just a few days away, two or three more sleeps, and we are just delirious with excitement at stepping foot on this distant and exotic land.

There has been some serious convective action in the sky around us the past few days. The thunderheads form mostly at night; the days have been relatively clear and sunny. Perhaps it’s because the atmosphere cools at night. I’ll have to google that when we next have internet. We are starting to miss the internet, a little.

Anyway, as night falls the thunderheads grow up into the stars around us, lightening flashes in the distance, lighting up the towering clouds. Much of the time they seem to route themselves around us, which is good. When the moon disappears though, it’s time to keep a close watch.

Last night, just as Michael was set to get off watch, one of these monsters swooped in and grabbed us. It was like a scene from White Squall: the wind whipped up from 5 knots to 30 in mere seconds, rain was pelting down on him as he fought to furl in the wildly flogging genoa. And as if that wasn’t enough there was a blindingly white flash of light illuminating everything, then a few seconds later – much too soon – a rumble of thunder like I’ve never heard before. It rumbled and growled and shook the whole boat for a good 15 seconds. I was shaking too. We all were.

Matt had scrambled out of his bunk and was up in the cockpit to help Michael get the headsail tamed. More blinding flashes, illuminating my own bunk through the tiny portlight. I began to count. Thunder rumbled through the sky all around. Thankfully it was farther away this time. The sail secured, the fellows came below to safety and to dry off.

There was more lightening and thunder over the next hour, but the wind and rain eased and we were able to get sailing again. Eventually the racket ceased, and the storm rolled to the west of us, away.

Total miles at noon: 2386
Miles since yesterday: 96
Miles to Hiva Oa: 305
Barracudas with huge teeth caught and thrown back in: 1
Oranges remaining: 3

Today’s report is from Leah:

Today at Easter I got a stuffed animal rainbow chameleon in my basket. I named him Swirly. And my sister Holly got a pink and purple and white unicorn. And I even got little mint balls and chocolate candy almonds, highlighter pens, Big Big World DVD and a playdough toy. All of the hidden eggs were full of M&Ms and some of them had M&Ms with peanut butter inside them! And when I woke up in the morning I found in the pockets in mama’s bed two Easter eggs with M&Ms inside.

The day before Easter me and my mama did lots of math with our new Math Dice. I love love love love love love love love love love doing math!

Total miles at noon: 2290
Miles since yesterday: 113
Miles to Hiva Oa: 401
Easter bunny visits: 1
Rotten cabbages thrown over: 1
Hours of fantastic sailing with 12 knots on the beam: 40

O happy day! The SE wind filled in last night after battling a series of wind and rain squalls. (Why do they only come at night?) We’ve been flying the genoa, main and mizzen all day making 5-6 knots ticking the miles steadily off. We realized that it had been a week or two since we’d last seen any sea birds but they have started to make their appearance again which can only mean we are getting closer and closer to land.

Sometimes it hits me how life just continues to go on here at sea on the boat just like it always does. This afternoon I was puttering in the galley putting a cucumber/bean/salami salad together for dinner. The girls had just finished coloring in big Easter eggs they’d drawn and had hung them on the mast for the Easter bunny to find.

They were now each playing quietly with their little toys and figurines at the table and in the hall, with the soft mumbling and exclamations that come with the sweet little stories they tell. Paper, pens, tape, toys, games were scattered across the entire back cabin, evidence of an afternoon of small busy hands. If it weren’t for the gentle rocking of the boat and the occasional roll to starboard with the larger waves we could be at anchor getting ready for dinner like any other evening.

Total miles at noon: 2177
Miles since yesterday: 99
Miles to Hiva Oa: 514
Easter baskets ready on the table: 2
Plastic eggs to fill and hide: 37

The wind dropped to around 8 knots yesterday evening, about the same time that some lumpy swells joined us from a number of different directions. This is the perfect recipe for slatting, popping, banging sails. All. Night. Long. All to keep us moving at around 2 or 3 knots. During Matt’s watch, around 3 am, Michael got up and together they hoisted the spinnaker. We’d been reluctant to do that, since there were dark squall clouds on the horizon all around us. But since none of them had yet gotten close they put our lightest sail up in the hope that it would pull us along quietly and smoothly.

Thirty minutes later Matt hollers down: “Michael, there’s a dark squall real close, think it’s going to get us. Can you help me take the spinnaker down?” Before Michael could answer the wind came shooting down at the boat like a rocket and we heeled over sharply, our poor spinnaker heavily overloaded. One of the guys blew the sheet to let the air out of the sail. It was flogging wildly and took the both of them to get the sock down over the sail and lower it safely into its bag. By the time Michael was tying the top of the spinnaker bag shut the wind squall was over and a light rain was falling in it’s wake. We rolled out the genoa again and the wallowing continued. Phew, that was close.

The spinnaker is back up today, with the horizon now clear of squalls. We had to put nylon tape over a small tear that appeared from the chaos early this morning but are thankful our workhorse sail — at least for this trip where we’ve been plagued by light winds — is still pulling us along.

The weather forecast is for well under 10 knots of breeze for the next few days. Think wind for us, please?

Total miles at noon: 2078
Miles since yesterday: 95
Miles to Hiva Oa: 610
Eggs that have failed the good-eggs-sink test: 4