Current position as of 0000 UTC July 13 is 34° 30’ N 154° 10’ W Current Heading: 45°M Total distance made good (DMG) = 861 nm DMG last 24hrs (0000UTC-0000UTC) = 120 nm Engine hours = 0 Avg true wind speed (TWS) = 14 kts Avg speed over the ground (SOG) = 5.25 kts Avg swells = 3 ft Recap of Day 9 It looks like we are finally getting the cool down, with a slight chill in the air and completely socked in by cloud now we might have seen the last of our warm sunny days. The good news is the fishing has been great, this morning we hooked a huge Mahi that we fought with for a while with him leaping in and out of the water. What was spectacular about this mornings fishing is we could see the fishing launching at our lines, diving in and out of the water (another name for Mahi – Dolphin Fish) and speeding through the water with streams of flying fish leaping and flying to escape them as well. We could stand on the stern and just watch the Mahi attack our lures from the side and we managed to land a couple but had many more get off, our key here has been the right speed and the cedar plug lure. It has ben a very long time since we last had a cedar plug on Varuna and they work just as well as we remember, pretty amazing for a simple piece of wood. The wind continued to pick up throughout the day and we went down to a single reef in the main and also furled in our genoa a little, with the staysail in place we were moving along in relative comfort. We have been having trouble making a more northerly heading with the winds coming almost directly out of the north which is not what we expected just yet, the only really problem this poses at this stage is that we are running pretty tight on the wind which makes for a less desirable passage. Reefed in for the night we are ready for day 10 and hope to gain good ground with this wind. Cheers! Ty & Hillary
