Day 15 Ticking along

I feel like I should get my weather routing certificate at the end of this journey lol. Oh man as I type this I can hear a bird circling me. I'm not a bird person. I'm lovin having an enclosure to keep them out. ). It's so nice to have the full moonlight on night watch.

Makes it so much better. Tonight we are flying along. The latest models have us going more south to avoid the rain and lightening storm Monday night. This means sailing with the wind forward of our beam. It's fast but not as comfortable as downwind. A bit more spicy. Less Julie style sailing lol. So heeled over and ploughing through the waves. Grahams sleeping on the couch so not to far away for me to holler for help if we need to reef. 

Surprisingly I haven't got bored yet. Still luxuriating in being able to do whatever the heck I want with zero guilt. LOVE IT! oh god there's that squeaking bird again. Well have a good night. I'm going to grab the fly swatter just in case. 

Not Scared

 It was funny as we passed Galapagos

I forgot to consider we wouldn't be seeing land for another 20+ days. It's been a couple days since we've seen any boats as well. Truly feels like we are all alone. Aside from the birds, the flying fish and yesterday a whale!

We finally got to the trade winds yesterday around 5pm. We brought the spinnaker in and reefed the main for the night. We are still flying along at 6.5 knots.

It's my watch now 3am to 6am. The moon has set so it's pretty dark.

There are lots of clouds around making the night seem more ominous.

We are leaned way over and the sound of the wind and the swell pushing over from the side make this 13 knots of wind seem more dramatic.

I'm not scared like I use to be but I'm not gonna lie to you... look forward to the sun coming out. It's weird to think we have everything we need on board. Today we might make carrot ginger soup and tea biscuits. Yummy!

We have been studying the wind and current and we are 99% sure we will change our destination to Nuku Hiva in Marquesas. It looks like a better sail, less time, better weather and easier flight access for the girls and for Tim to fly home. I calculated and we have 2600 nautical miles to go. If we avg 5.5 knots an hour that's 473 hours which is 20 days . We will see.

Nasty Night

Mother ocean is making us pay. Large confused seas and steady wind. We have been trying to keep it slow so we arrive in daylight but this has made it more uncomfortable. Had a couple splashes in our very high cockpit.

Everything is a mess down below. Just had a tanker pass us way to close for our liking. I called him just to make sure he saw us. He wasn't stressed at all lol.

We are in good spirits. We can smell the land and see it illuminated in the distance. 15 more miles to endure. It's 2am so we will slow even more in a couple hours. Holding on tight. Yeeehawww

Getting our exercise

The wind has been directly behind us since we left only varying slightly from side to side. It varies enough for us to question if we should move the pole holding the sail out to the other side.

Inevitably we do (this process is not fun in the big rolly sea) only to find we need to move it back! 4 times so far. 

Last time we were in the thick of it and a dolphin did a triumphant jump and spin in the air right next to us. Startled me and I whooped out loud. I heard Graham from the front of the rolly boat yelling 'focus on the task at hand'!

Off to Santa Marta

We made it off the customs dock in Aruba around 8AM. A little squally out right now, buy this is supposed to clear off.