Last night was very squally and the squalls packed a punch. We'd have 15kts and within 3-4 minutes it would be 33kts. Very difficult to set sails for those conditions. We had the second reef in the main, too little at 15kts, but in the squalls (steady 25-30) we would roll up the jib and sail with just the main for 30 minutes while the squall passed by, then unroll the jib. After midnight the squalls ended, but the wind was fairly erratic until early morning; we'd have 20 minutes of 16kts, then 20 minutes of 24kts; too many sail changes. It finally settled down to a more manageable 18-23kts and that has continued through today.
At the same time the wind direction has varied from 070T to 120T which is a pretty big range. The seas are somewhat confused with waves from the ENE on top of a swell from the SE. As long as we keep the boat speed up New Morning moves well through the seas, though there is a fair amount of water flying from time to time when New Morning, the NE waves and the SE swell all try to occupy the same space at the same time. Through it all we have made 191nm each of our last two days, essentially an 8kt average.
The forecast for the current time period is 13 at 095T when in fact we have 18 at 095T. This what the cruisers refer to as "GRIBs + 5". The GRIBs (gridded binaries - digital forecast we receive from NOAA) always seem to be about 5kts below the actual wind. This is a pretty big bias error, but manageable as it seems to be fairly consistent.
We expect more squalls tonight and should reach the ITCZ tomorrow night. When it gets too light and variable we'll motor for a day or so until we reach the NE trades at about 7-8 degrees north. And did I mention it was HOT? The sun is very nearly directly overhead so the solar panels are very happy, but the crew is baking. For entertainment we've seen three Korean fishing boats, although only one would acknowledge our radio call. Lots of flying fish, but none land on the deck, unlike our passage to the Marquesas when we had a dozen or so flying fish and squid on the deck each morning.
Earlier today, just before 9am, we crossed the equator. There was no sign saying "Now Leaving the Southern Hemisphere - We Hope You Enjoyed Your Visit", I just saw the plotter change "S" to "N" on our latitude. It's nice to be back in the Northern Hemisphere.
