Our last day of the long Pacific passage. We had calculated our angles and speed vs the time we would like to make landfall at Hiva Oa,(after daylight) and crazy enough, after three weeks of chasing the wind, today, when we need to only average five knots of speed per hour, the wind is from the exact perfect direction at 16-17 knots! We sailed all day with a reef tucked in, but that still wasn’t slow enough, so at 18:00 we rolled the Genoa all the way in, tacked up to 50 degrees, pulled the main in to the midline , sheeted fairly tight, put the wheel over about ten degrees to leeward, locked it down, and hove-to. This is an old school sailing skill that we don’t practice enough, but when we do achieve stopping the boat’s forward motion and that fabulous “slick” of pudding water starts boiling from under the windward side of the hull, the waves hit it and dissipate, and the motion becomes quite comfortable we are very thrilled. We ate our dinner of yesterday’s tuna, cut into medallions, with little canned new potatoes slightly smashed and fried crispy in butter, and green peas. It is wonderful to have the luxury of time to enjoy our meal, listen to music, watch the clouds roll by, and not feel rushed. We really savoured our last evening at sea for a while in our Sweet Dream.
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