With the forecast of light airs until we reached 5 degrees south leaving the Galapagos, we were not too excited that the engine might be apart of our initial commencement and journey towards French Polynesia and our first stop into Hiva Oa in the Marquesas.
Luckily as forecasts usually can be (be it good or bad), there was enough of a puff to get us sailing at an acceptable speed up until the evening of the first night. There was a solid motor to take us through when it got really light, but more than anything, this provided a little comfort for the crew through the roles, and saved the sails from some flopping and taking a beating.
The wind returned the following morning and we were off to a start of our sailing 200 mile -plus days. The spinnaker was put into action and we were loving what the Trade Winds had to offer, plus at least a knot of current in our favor pushing in the right direction.
With the full moon due to hit we had great moonlight to navigate us through the evenings. We attempted to leave the spinnaker up on the second night, but unfortunately a small tear noticed earlier in the day, turned into an entire blow out of the foot of the sail that night. The crew reacted very quickly and had the sail down and back on the boat and stowed in less than ten minutes. With the spinnaker out of commission, it was up to the jib, and good sail trimming, to get us down the Marquesas. We had not problem holding speed on this configuration and maintained 200+ days for the next five days.
With the wind heading in more of an easterly direction (opposed to to se we were banking on). We tacked the jib to the port side and went wing on wing. This provided a better wind angle and put us more on course, though it did cut our speed down. The loss of speed was no bother though as Casey our guest and crew member for the trip (participant of the 2010-2011 World ARC on Wild Tigris) called each day Ground Hog Day. One cannot complain though if their ground hog day consisted of fresh fish, open ocean, beautiful sunsets and good sailing. I think it beats snow storms in Punxsutawney.
Our wing on wing took us a bit too south of our rumb line, so we tacked at about 10 degrees south to get closer to the desired latitude, otherwise we would have ended up in the Tuamotus ahead of schedule.
On the fishing front, we were not too fortunate, landing a tuna our second day once we passed the Galapagos restricted waters, but then incurred a dry spell for the next week. We attribute this to Wind Dancer being way too fast and it was just impossible for the fish to keep up.
The Wind Dancer Crew