Today our noon to noon run was 170 miles. Sounds impressive except that for fifteen of those 24 hours we were motor sailing. Somehow the ITCZ is much wider than we expected this time. Four years ago we traversed the Pacific from Panama City to Nuka Hiva.. That was 4,200 miles. We have already run the motor more in 600 miles than in all of that first trip! The barometer dropped five points in 24 hours and the swell from the south west has grown to over three meters, despite the utter lack of wind. We keep doggedly motoring southward trying to find the tradewinds, but so far they have proven elusive and hard to get. Even in the squalls which we have been experiencing since 15:00 this afternoon, there is very little wind, (and what there is, is coming from exactly the wrong direction...south west), just rain and confused seas.The ride is very uncomfortable with the boat rolling side to side, and lurching erratically on the confused waves and big swell. This is not the Pacific I met four years ago, and have been so keenly anticipating. We are both very disappointed.The brightest bit was the beautiful dorado Lars caught yesterday morning before we began motoring. I’m so happy we had time to land it, clean it and cook it before the sea conditions deteriorated. It was delicious. We ate it at 10:45 in the morning...a true fisherman’s brunch, with potatoes peppers and onions. A Sweet Dream of a meal.
image1.