We sailed 162 miles in the last 24 hours while flying the chute (sorry I spelt it shoot yesterday, but was very distraught over the news of Trisha). The weather continues to shine on us, with steady seas of about 10 foot swells every 10 seconds.
While we have been doing this crossing, we have created our own QuickStar world. We've moved the clocks ahead one hour at a time on three occasions. We decide when to make a time change based on the sunset and sunrise hours. Once we reach the Marquessa's we'll only have to adjust by 1/2 hour.
This morning, Doug and Peter put in 100 litres of fuel while I was at the helm. Pretty interesting to be doing a high seas fuel transfer. If Peter wasn't tethered in with Doug holding on to him for dear life, he would have gone off the swim platform. (Next time, I'll try harder!)
We have not had to use engine power once for the whole crossing. We are using fuel to feed the generator which powers our washing machine, coffee machine and charges the batteries. We usually run the generator for about an hour in the morning and the same at night. The solar panels are a huge help during the day. The wind generator remains off as it is so incredibly noisy that you feel like you are beneath a jet taking off. It's the one thing I would gladly throw overboard.
Shelby and I made up our last batch of pancakes for the crossing...no more eggs. We are averaging over 8 knots during the day with the chute, so we may even need to slow down tomorrow as we don't want to arrive in the middle of the night. Peter was able to connect this morning with the informal net in the Marquessa's. We can almost smell land now!
Got an email from Kylie yesterday and she told me that Trisha and the gals at Ambassador Travel had a reunion on Friday night - needless to say they are all devastated that she died the very next day. We are all still in shock and can't believe we have lost such a wonderful and loving person. My heart also goes out to her daughter Becky who is getting married in about a month.
Let's live large, be wild and crazy and go for it - just the way Trisha would want us all to.
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