Mexico-Hawaii Log1

• Day1: Thursday April 9th 2015

Left 6:30 in a chilly morning. Slowly motoring our way out of mexico. Autopilot handling well the well sized north swell. No wind yet. Feeling a little sea sick as usual when leaving port. Just have to stay on deck for now. Except that feeling great and excited!

Wind picked up at 11:00am from the west at 10knots. We are now sailing full sails out a little more south. Doing an easy 4 to 5 knots. Finally, it feels like the journey really started. Sun is high, it is hot and beautiful out there. The windvane is piloting and we are chilling.

Have been close hauled all day and looks the night will be like this too. Not really what you wish for a first day.

• Day2

Second official day. @ 2am starting my watch. Moon is up. Waves and wind are a bit down. Ride is way nicer and still sailing @5knts. If it wasn't for the cold, it would be a perfect night.

All sail out, good NW wind is pushing up a 6knt. Feeling better today, sun is up, heating people and hearts :) seas are becalmed and only ground swell remains.

Getting ready for the second night at sea.

We are alternating 3 hours watches. Not that we saw a lot of traffic, yesterday we only saw one container ship in a 10 miles radius; which we picked with the AIS alarm anyway. But watches are part of the game. Wind still holding up so far and we are still making good progress at 5knots on a close reach. Not the most comfortable point of sail but at least there is wind.

Feeling way better than yesterday, and I can stay down below way longer, doing the nav and other small stuff to kill time, mostly. The boat is sailing herself. Still flirting with a tiny low south of us, which making the winds variable and kind of weak around us. We hope to catch the trades tomorrow or Sunday and that will be another pace and some wave surfing. And hopefully warmer winds. It is still damn cold on deck at night.

• Day3

We had again a jammed furler this morning. While sailing under main alone, we decided to unroll and reroll it entirely. It gave us some work and kept us busy for a while. Now the sea is building a bit, the long period swell reach maybe a couple of meters. The boat is rocking a bit and we are still reaching Upwind. Tricky to leave always inside a heeled boat. Weather is nicer though and we are leaving the small perturbation behind. Wind is still cold, but during the day the sun warms the boat quite well. Between naps, books and magazines, slow life is organizing itself inside the boat. So far, it has been quite an easy ride. Let s hope it continues, the goal was not to challenge ourselves on a mean sea :) this ocean is already big enough to cross, no need to be mad.