Day 13, Passage to Puerto Montt

2000Z 04OCT19, Day 13, Easter Island to Puerto Montt, Chile. We've made direct and steady progress. The engine remained on through the night. We were happy to begin sailing again after sunrise. The winds steadied out to the predictions - giving us 10-15kts from the northwest so we could set up a good course under sail.

Current Position: 39 44S / 081 39W
24 hour progress: 125nm, 5.2kts avg SOG
Overall progress for the passage is 1662nm with approximately 375nm to the entrance canal to get to Puerto Montt. Today was a rather gray day with cloud cover and drizzle which is the first rain we have had in awhile. We are currently sailing a broad reach with full sails. The winds are 20kts +/- 5kts and the seas remain calm. So we are moving along nicely making good speed.

The crew are all doing well. We had pizza last night and cinnamon rolls this morning so morale is high. We are starting to look like we will arrive near the canal (the various natural passages between islands are called "canals" in Chile) entrance sometime on Monday, 7 October. From there we can anchor to wait for the tide (and weather, though predictions say weather should be good) as needed. After that we will have about 70nm to get to Puerto Montt. Those 70nm will take a couple of days. We will sail during the day and anchor at night. We are looking forward to seeing land and making the last bit of the passage in the inland waters of Chile!

We moved better under engine last night so perhaps we were being set by a current yesterday and then were being assisted over night. The hull is certainly ready for a cleaning too. We continue to get spurious readings from our boat speed indicator that has been acting up since leaving Ecuador. This means that it is difficult to tell how we are being affected by the current through our instruments and onboard computers. We hope to be able to dry out and clean the hull and sensor in Puerto Montt, and hopefully that will straighten out our sensor inconsistencies.