Stairway to Heaven ~ Day 17 to the Marquesas

07 August 2015  ~  Position 08 28S 132 39W at 1730 UTC, 0930 Boat Time (Alaska Time)  0530 tomorrow NZ Time.

Course Over Ground 245dT, Speed Over Ground 6.6 knots,  24 hour run 163 miles again.  

Fabulous weather couldn't ask for any better.  Clear skies, starry night, back to a Mezzaluna (halfmoon) which comes up after midnight now. Wind now ENE and eased 12 - 15.  Still flying double reefed main, (probably should put it all up really) jib poled out to windward, staysail out to leeward, broad reaching to keep boat comfortable over the swell which just wont go away.

the wind died out completely for a few hours late afternoon

 

Todays big news is that Wapiti, one of the four of us out here just had 36 miles to run this morning into Hiva Oa, they left directly from Panama City so have been 27 days at sea, a mammoth effort.  We are closing in on Ole who left 36 hours before us but unlikely we will catch them, Mezzaluna are now about 130 miles behind us.

Another fish free 24 hours, the others aren't catching any now either so we don't feel so bad, just a couple before we arrive would be good though.  

So we are slowly climbing the stairway to heaven, must almost be on the top floor surely.  All reports of the Marquesas are that they are absolutely magical so we are definitely looking forward to our arrival, and not leaving for a very long time.

ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?   It's 3pm local time now and the GPS tells us we now have 354 miles to go, hoping for a Monday arrival before dark, but winds easing all the time.  GETTING THERE!!!, tick tock, tick tock. 

   

You can see our progress  on a map on our mailasail blog.  

Position at 2300UTC when sent via satphone 08 42.47S  133 11.17W