Cruising the South Pacific with Tackless II
Tackless II, along with her two captains, Don and Gwen, cruise from Fiji to Australia
Monday, August 4, 2008
080804 -- At sea!
The light winds hung around for about 24 hours, although the last six hours or so it picked up to a nice gentle ten knots, which, with full main and genoa, drive Tacky along right nicely. We shut down the engine and enjoyed a good dinner and got in our first round of sleep. But shortly after midnight, things got busy! The wind popped up as we approached some seemingly small, blackish clouds, and Don had to haul me back out of bed to take a reef in the main, set the staysail and furl the big headsail. Since then we have rollicked along making about seven knots under shortened sail. Guess that bottom job was worth doing!

After I went back to bed, I guess I missed a little excitement. One of the boats up ahead of us in our group of six experienced a steering failure, and had to bear off under emergency tiller away from Tanna to Port Vila on Efate, the only place in Vanuatu where technical assistance can be had. Since they were ahead of us, Don hadn't expected to see them, so was right surprised when a bot'as bow lights appeared on the horizon. This brings our group down to five.

So at 0800, we have 178 miles to go, over half way. Apologies about the GPS stamp; apparently the small GPS I was interfacing conflicts with my iridium modem. So I will do this by hand.

At 0800, Tackless II was at 18*50S; 172*32E, on a course of 244*M, making 7 knots. The wind is 17 knots from the SE, seas 3-5', sky is clear, Barometer is 1011, and temperature has warmed up to 82*

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Written at 6:06 PM by Gwen and Don.
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