Current Position: 37 04S / 022 49W
24 hour progress: 123nm, 5.1kts avg SOG, 11.5 hours of engine time. Overall progress for the passage is 2,054nm, approximately 1,553nm left to go via a great circle route to St Helena.
We spent the first 6 or so hours of day 16, sailing a starboard broad reach that moved up to a beam reach. We were making a good course under full sails with 10-15kts of wind. It was nice sailing in beautiful weather. "Champagne sailing", but we didn't open a bottle.
Gradually the winds lightened, our speeds dropped and a gray fog bank approached. The winds went down below 10kts and we decided to turn on the engine. The fog and drizzle seemed to signal the last of the good wind had passed us for awhile.
In the late afternoon we passed the halfway point and threw a little party - music, chocolate, dried fruit, silliness. We also did some haircuts and then showers. Daxton's hair was quite long and curly. He looks older with the shorter cut. Jon completely shaved his head before we departed Stanley so he got a clean up on the sides. It is the first time in years that he has had a haircut within 3 weeks of the last cut (this was also the first time he had ever shaved his head to a short fuzz).
We enjoyed fish tacos for dinner - no we did NOT fish. We had bought Patagonian Toothfish cheeks back in Stanley, successfully kept them frozen against our refrigerator plate and decided it was the night to enjoy them. (Now we will have even more pressure to fish because there isn't any in the refrigerator.)
We continued motoring until the middle of the night when the winds filled back in to 10-15kts. We began sailing close hauled on a port tack (again!). There has been a lot of windward sailing on this passage. Our course was east and we pressed on hoping to make more north to go with the east.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise and put 2 reefs in the main as the winds picked up to 15-20kts. We expect the wind to move to the north and then the northwest and our course to improve. (This feels very familiar!) Hopefully we won't have to wait too long, but it always seems to be longer than the forecast suggests on this trip.
We again had the door open all day and some of the evening. The stars were incredible! Daxton was the first to break out shorts and changed into them after his shower. The cats have been sunbathing and seem to be deciding that laying in beds with blankets might be too warm, though they aren't committed yet.
In yesterday's bird watching, we again had very few visitors. But there remain a handful of giant petrels and albatrosses. No other sea life has been spotted by us.
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