In Search of Wind

In Search of Wind

Position: 13D56'.059S  153D29'.585W

560 nautical miles left to sail (too many)

 

Sunday, August 14 - After 2 days out at sea since leaving Bora Bora we have still not found any decent wind to sail on.  Our northerly heading to find the predicted stronger winds have not produced any results yet.  We are now downwind sailing in a northwest direction with a light 7 to 8 knot wind producing only 4 knots of speed. At this rate it will take us 8 more days of sailing as opposed to the 6 days in total we estimated for the trip sailing directly west from Bora Bora. We are really no closer to Suwarrow then when we left 2 days ago and our morale is low.  Ian was awake most of the night as the sails were flapping in the light winds and we kept having to change our heading.  His airforce issue earplugs were ineffective at blocking the noise from our unhappy sagging sails. This morning we pulled the main sail in and put out the stay sail to reduce the flapping and try and get more speed.  I have been on watch all morning while Ian sleeps and I'm willing the winds to increase to a steady 15 knots.  We haven't seen any other yachts or vessels on this trip and although the sea is very calm there doesn't appear to be a lot of marine life either.  Every now and then a few booby brids will glide by our yacht giving us a close inspection in the hope that we are a fishing vessel.  It is a very lonely part of the South Pacific and the vastness of this ocean seems to be exaggerated by our slow speed.  Unfortunately there isn't a lot we can do to improve our situation except to wait for a new weather window. On the bright side the sea is very calm and we are gently bobbing along allowing us to relax and read books for a change.