We catch a couple of showers from passing squalls but that’s about it on my second watch. We limp pathetically slowly across the Pacific, doing as little as two knots at times. It seems that Mike’s plan to avoid buying me a necklace in the Tuamotus is coming to fruition. However I am not too worried as I know there’s a really expensive pearl shop in Tahiti and expect this fact to eventually spur him on to putting the engine on when the realization that there is no escape from the inevitable hits him. I go down to bed as soon as Mike comes up but as usual, as I am supposed to be sleeping, I can’t. Eventually, I give in and get up again.
There is nothing to look at apart from the squalls that continually appear on the horizon. The ones in the distance seem to take all our wind. This is what Mike says anyway but he could be telling me a lot of dodgy BS and if it’s anything to do with sailing, weather at sea or astronomy I automatically believe him. To this effect, I really must do some reading!
I notice that the green algae is already starting to make its appearance again just above the antifouling and along the rubbing strip on the transoms. Great. More scrubbing.
In the mid afternoon the wind starts to pick up until at last we have a bit of good sailing (the pearl necklace gods are obviously favouring me here). The wind gets up to 18 to 20 knots and we romp along doing over 8 knots. Then a large squall appears on the radar and we have to reef right in as we have no idea how strong the winds will be within it. We get rained on really heavily but the wind doesn’t actually get above 25 knots in the end and Mike puts all the sails back out. I manage to fall asleep after this, lying reading on the sofa and wake up feeling quite refreshed.
When Mike goes for a shower he emerges a few minutes clutching something in his hand wrapped in toilet paper – a crab! About one and a half inches across and black, he looks like one of the crabs that we found living in the long, green Galapagos beard on Jeannius’ hulls. Now homeless, he had probably climbed up the hull, scuttled across the top and fallen into the bathroom via the open hatch. As Mike opens his hand to show me, the crab jumps out and scuttles off, nearly getting himself crushed as Mike tries to pick him up again. I’m standing there screaming – it’s like having a spider on the loose at home, but Mike manages to catch him and throw him overboard again.
The winds continue to be stronger during the evening and we take in the genoa just in case. Throughout the night we average about 5 knots. I am beginning to see some pearls on the horizon …… !
Our position is: 12 deg 16 min S, 143 deg 55 min W
Distance so far: 6068 nautical miles
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