Sailing along in light airs

It is the start of our fourth day out and we have started to settle in to a routine of 4 hour watches at night and naps during the day. Last night Cindy made some great chili with beans that we put a fresh poblano pepper in. We will sorely miss our fresh veggies when they are gone by eating or just going bad, hopefully not the latter. We brought 7 dozen eggs that have never been refrigerated and they will keep if you turn them every day so that is one of Cyn's jobs.

Yesterday afternoon we turned off the engine again in light but steady wind and I rigged up the Monitor wind vane which will steer the boat by the wind direction. This allows the sails to keep full as it will turn the boat when the wind direction changes. So we set the boat up in the direction we want to go and then set the wind vane to stay the same relative to the wind and away we go. The down side is when the wind changes direction too much, you have to adjust the wind vane and trim the sails to match the new relative wind. Sounds complicated but it's not when you get used to it. The wind vane steering does not take any electric power which we have to manage very carefully on board.

We keep hoping to get to the steady winds of the Northeast trades but they are farther out. We are over 300 nm out now and heading more or less west still. The ocean is fascinating to watch. We are the only thing in any direction as far as you can see. When there is no wind, the water is smooth and reflects either the sky or the clouds, and when there are both, the water continually changes colors in an amazing fashion. The blue is a steady cobalt blue. The clouds of course give it a grey color but very sharp and defined. The waters in the distance move up and down with waves forming in endlessly different patterns. It reminds me of fields of wheat in Nebraska with its endless fields of grain blowing in the wind. Of course, the wheat can't move up and down the same magnitude as can the ocean. The water is always coming at you from from one or direction or other and then moving away from you at the other. When the swells are large it is pretty cool and sometimes a little spooky.

We are doing some reading for fun and some for learning. I am studying weather chart analysis and forecasting and Cindy is studying more on navigation. I have to do some more troubleshooting on our newly rebuilt watermaker which is still not producing fresh water. We have lots of water on board but it sure will be nice to be able to make more on demand. We listen to the radio nets about 4 times a day and the big one of the morning is on now. We checked in and told everyone where we are at and called Ranger and Oz behind us to join us on a local net at 9am so we can compare notes along the way to the Marquesas. Time to go back to the boat and breakfast.