Mexico-Hawaii Log6

• Day 15

Morning update: now, at least we have the sun and stars at night. But at what cost ? Those last few days the seas have been really annoying. Quite big, with at least two competing swells directions, short period and ill formed. It wear me down. Every move on the boat is costly, tiring and usually is paid in bruises and slides. Cooking is an experience by itself, a shower is a dangerous adventure. We crawl from one sitting position to another lying one. Reading inside the cabin feels like reading in a car : not for me. It has been a while I am not sea sick bit there are things that are forbidden to me. Daydreaming, napping and listening to music are my main activities. Taking the wheel is rewarding as usually we can ease the motion compared to the autopilot But it get old pretty fast and tiring in those seas. I always said it was not vacations but a boat delivery, now, I know why I was right. Once in a while it would be nice to prove me wrong :(
The good news : 420 miles   And less than 4 days to go. Closing in !

Realize it has been two weeks already. I am glad it will be over soon but I am gonna miss it too. Weird :) doing nothing is enticing somehow - lol.

• Day 16

This morning, sun is shining and wind is blowing perfectly. This is ideal conditions and my moral is up. We are getting closer, I am not tired anymore and the sailing is great. What can we ask more ?

Today: it was a great sailing day with almost perfect conditions. I even took the helm just for fun a couple of hours. No kidding. We are trying to get a landfall before sunset Sunday. Based on the previsional course, it should fit - always weather depending. We took a little harder aim and push the boat a bit. Almost feel we are racing - indeed, if we arrive too late, likely we are gonna spend the night at sea waiting for sunrise to drop anchor in Lahaina. Then now we are on a beam, our fastest point of sail, but the motion of the boat is a little harder to handle. At that point, we accepted the fact that there is a lot of swell in the North Pacific. This is a big ocean and we understand better why Hawaii are the islands of surfing. We have been at the source of it...

In the boat, nothing broke recently and the routine is really in place by now. Conditions have been steady along the trip, and overall very few real actions were needed. We reefed and unreefed a lot, though,  and we are quite good at it now. Today is our 15th day at sea, and weirdly enough, does not seem to be that long and boring. Days fly by, you just have to let go your old habits if trying to do something. You handle the boat demands, and the basics body needs, and after, just let it be. It might be what real vacations are. Unplugging from reality. Some kind of cryogenisation of the mind.  A frozen stasis. Miles after miles. Hours after hours. Dots on a map figuring an improbable but real progress.

• Day 17

Day-1: seems your (Christelle) previsional were good : we are on track to arrive tomorrow before sunset in Lahaina. We had a good 134nm yesterday, which makes us at 140nm Of the north tip of Maui. We are officially "safe" because under the range of a Coast Guard helicopter :) - we are likely to see some fisherman boat now We need to be a little more vigilante. We did not see any boat at all the last 3 or 4 days. Overall we crossed maybe 4 cargo path.

There is still plenty of wind for now and we are doing a good 6 knots at least. The cockpit is unfortunately a bad place to be except in swim shorts. The occasional wave can hit us hard on the beam and the spray would cover you - head to toe. Well, it is already sunny outside, it might be refreshing. We discovered 2 or 3 new leaks on the boat. Funny, leaks appears depending on your point of sail, that will be fun to track them down ! Last but not least, We switch the paper map from Pacific North West to Hawaiian Islands one. symbolic : we are very close now.It will have to be from the North. The wind is now pretty much SE and I don't think we could reach the South Tip anymore FW: But the wind is still very strong and we are doing good speed. At this pace, we could be in Lahaina for lunch :) let s see why happen tonight though.

Last update: we are very close now. Less than 12 hours from the channel between Maui and Molokai. I am feeling impatient. Now I feel the pressure of time again. We are greeted by a small low system on Maui that bring light SE winds, rain and clouds. We might have to motor for the last night. As we did not run the engine the last 10 days or so, we verified it was starting properly. I don't like last minutes surprises. No worries from this side, it purred first try as old as this boat, but solid quality - as the boat. So close from the finish line. I will spread my emotional jam in the next blog posts, for now, I ll stick to the facts. We covered more than 2200 miles in 18 days, across half of the pacific, literally in the middle of nowhere. I believe it is - if not news - a great personal accomplishment.
I want to thanks Gilles to have brought a dose of safety and sanity in this enterprise by accepting to crew for me and trusted the boat to be well prepared enough to reach the other end. Even if we did not encounter anything crazy along the way, knowing I count on on his experience was reassuring enough.
We are gonna celebrate this with French Champagne for sure ! Alright ! Almost there !

Saturday April 25th

Wind map April 25 9pm HST