Misto - March 10-12 2019: Misto crosses the equator - again!

On March 12 2019 at 00h23 Misto crossed the equator from South to North. It brought back happy memories of our first equator transit in the Pacific with Chuck and Sharon on board in early 2016 - it seems like a long time ago! We celebrated with a small glass of Amarula, as conditions really did not allow for much more.

Talking of conditions, they have been pretty abysmal for the last couple of days. With the wind at around 60 degrees apparent, blowing 17-20 knots most of the time and really lumpy and confused seas, it has made the motion in a catamaran reminiscent of being shaken (and not stirred) like a martini. The current has been really favorable and, even with 2 reefs in the main, we are sailing at 8-10 knots much of the time. In fact we just had a 212 nm 24 hour day. Squalls have been fairly prolific and we hope that as we approach 2 degrees north and we get out of the ITCZ, that these will abate.

We had a nasty surprise yesterday when we saw that the locking screw holding the foil into the furler had worked loose. It took us a while, but we managed to take the pressure off the forestay and get the foil realigned to get the screw back in. We have left the spinnaker halyards attached to the bow sprit and bow as additional insurance, but it should be OK now.
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At 3/12/2019 3:48 PM (utc) our position was 00°59.28'N 045°37.17'W
Our course and speed are 306T at 8.1kts
Wind is 14.6 kts at 049T.