Sunset, after the spinnaker is down and
before we set the jib for the night.
24 July 06
250 Miles to Kupang at noon
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Sunset, after the spinnaker is down and before we set the jib for the night. |
Dear Friends and Family,
Passages don't get much better than this: flat seas, a soft gentle breeze from dead astern, blue skies, a few puffy clouds, deep blue water, Ocelot drifting along happily, Santana and Jimmy Buffet on the stereo, ...
The sunset last night was a joy to behold, with lots of pastel colors painting the whole sky from intense orange-red in front of us to a deep indigo blue behind with pastel shades washing the sky in between and changing subtly as night fell. We're in the dark of the moon now so the stars blazed forth with the Milky Way overhead, the Southern Cross on our left and the Big Dipper (we can't quite see the North Star) on our right.
 Amanda usually raises the sock to set the spinnaker. |
Sunrise was much the same, with the colors reversed. The fishing lines went out and the spinnaker went up shortly after 6 this morning, followed by an excellent breakfast of Sue's superb home-made granola with some canned peaches and fresh orange juice. Last night Sue cooked up our last HUGE lobster tail (from Margaret Bay) and served 1/3 of it with a creamy garlic sauce over noodles. At lunch today she turned some more of it into a lobster salad for sandwiches, and there's still more of it to have for dinner tonight.
About the only thing we could use out here is a bit more wind. We usually have 10-12 knots during the day but it's directly behind us, which is a comfortable (and colorful, with the spinnaker) but slow point of sail. At night the breeze typically dies away so we've left port engine ticking over at idle to push us up to 4 knots with minimal fuel consumption.
Some pleasant differences from previous passages are all the other yachts around us. We got to know many of the 100 yachts in the Rally as we sailed up the Queensland coast and at parties during our week in Darwin, so we feel we're surrounded by friends. At night their red, green and white running lights sparkle on the horizon all around us. Since much of the fleet is within range of our VHF radio we can call them up and talk whenever we want to - very unusual for an ocean passage.
Fair winds and calm seas -- Jon, Sue and Amanda Hacking
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