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Exody - Days 70-72 - Last Lap



Thankfully normal trade wind business seems to have been resumed today Monday 23rd as we are back to 6 knots wing on wing pointing direct to Hiva Oa 150 miles away planning to arrive in time (just!) for nightfall Tuesday 24th. It has seemed a long haul this last 500 miles- on the one hand you think you are nearly there, but on the other, 500 miles is a significant distance in itself and even more so when the winds reduce Our last three noon runs have been 116, 135 and 110 - several boats have reported 24 hours engine use in 24 - our max was 18.5 day before yesterday.

The Pacific has been very benign these last few days- we have had all hatches and windows open day and night - great to have some air through - but it still reached 32 degrees inside the cabin today. The nights, with new moon and generally clear have been magical as we orient ourselves toward the southern hemisphere view of the constellations. Saturday night we motored on an oily smooth sea - on the several occasions we turned the engine off to try for wind the silence (ie with no sea running, no wind noises etc) was incredible.

The fish are still escaping Marian's enticing lures so we have enjoyed chilli con carne (corned beef), quinoa with bacon, toad in the hole for our last few meals - mainly from the non-perishables stock. The first canned tuna threatens tonight if still no joy on the lines!

We are growing a small garden of goose barnacles and weed on our transom, sugar scoop and stern counter- and other boats have reported much more extensive hull-barnacling slowing their progress. Hopefully ours is localised since it is only 11 weeks since we antifouled Exody in Carriacou and 5 weeks since her bottom was cleaned before Galapagos!

We have been warned that all internet in French Polynesia is via satellite (ie slow) and that bandwidth is likely to be further constrained by the arrival of a 15 strong internet-hungry fleet - so it may be a while before we get our main blog at http://exody.wordpress.com updated and photos uploaded !

Peter (Skipper)




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