We have 606 miles to go so I'm expecting to arrive very early on the morning of Thursday the 12th. Since we don't make landfalls at night we'll probably have to heave to for a few hours somewhere so we can match our arrival with the sunrise on Thursday. Funny how our perspective has changed and now 600 miles seems like the "home stretch". That's longer than from San Francisco to San Diego, or about like Newport to Bermuda, neither of which would have seemed like a short distance a few years ago.
Fay and I often talk about "the brochure". A usage example is "this was not in the brochure". Pounding into 30kts with waves breaking over the hard dodger on the way to Bermuda was not in the brochure. We've concluded that going east in the tropics is not in the brochure. Most of this passage has not been in the brochure. The brochure showed pictures of long smooth Pacific swells with a 16 second period which we would glide over at 8kts while a 1kt current pushed us gently towards French Polynesian paradise. Instead we've had mostly short steep wind waves from the SE pushing us into a SW swell, combined with who knows what else to create what a cruiser on the net this morning described as a "washing machine". I think she had a rough night also.
But tonight is probably in the brochure. A quarter moon is lighting up the cockpit and reflecting off the ocean from the starboard bow to the horizon. We're broad reaching in 18-22kts of true wind with a reefed main, reefed jib. With a steady 8+kts and about .5kt of current we did 104 miles from noon to midnight which suggests we'll have another 200 mile day. When the waves align correctly the autopilot guides us down their faces at over 11kts. A full set of stars illuminates the sky and the only squalls on the radar are a dozen miles away. Most importantly the boat is not jumping around spasmodically as she's slapped from side to side by confused seas; she's just slicing through the water. The waves aren't entirely orderly, but the rambunctious ones come in sets and not often enough to destroy the illusion.
Three hours later, my midnight to three watch. The breeze is up slightly to 20-23kts and our motion is a little bumpier. The moon has set, leaving a much darker night. New Morning is not so much gliding along as she is rushing through the darkness with conviction. It's in the fine print of the brochure.
