Drifting and eating

Current position as of 0000 UTC July 10 is 30° 31’ N 156 ° 39’ W Current Heading: 15°M Total distance made good (DMG) = 539 nm DMG last 24hrs (0000UTC-0000UTC) = 67 nm Engine hours = 4.25 Avg true wind speed (TWS) = 6 kts Avg speed over the ground (SOG) = 3 kts Avg swells = 1.6 ft Recap of Day 6 Well, we are still here floating in the calm, peaceful Pacific, sometimes sailing, sometimes more drifting than sailing. We have tried many different sail combinations including a poled out genoa with and without the mainsail up, but for the majority of the time with the slight rocking from the swells the light wind can’t even seem to fill the poled out genoa. At some point we broke down and turned the engine on for a couple of hours to stop some of the rocking and quiet the nosie from the flogging sails. We have been eating very well on board. We bought many bunches of green Hawaiian Apple Bananas before leaving Honolulu. Last time on Makara, these lasted wonderfully, ripening one banana and one bunch at a time. This time around, it has been quite different, a few days out and they were all starting to yellow quickly. Luckily, despite being very ripe looking, they’ve lasted very well, and along with some banana breads and banana pancakes, we’ve been having banana smoothies everyday. I also made a blended black bean dip, layered with our homemade yogurt, tomato and onion. For dinner, we had an eggplant that was starting to get soft, so that got breaded and fried up in chips to dip in leftover spaghetti bolognese sauce. Yum. Come evening, the wind was still light, but enough to keep the sails nicely filled and kept us moving along. We’ve been using the autopilot more than usual for most of the trip, because with the wind this light (3 to 5 knots), there just isn’t enough breeze passing over the windvane to actaully move the vane back and forth. However, overnight we got just enough wind to acutally get Dan setup and steering, which was a relief for our batteries, which have been working hard to keep the windvane going day and night. We’re hoping that once we get to around lattitude 35° or so the winds should be more consistent. The good news is that we are still about 2 days ahead (in terms of North progress) than where we were with Makara, thanks to those good winds the first few days out of Honolulu. That’s all for now, cheers from us! Hillary & Ty