Day 23 (Chonny)
7:30pm 00:30 UTC
Pos 9deg59S, 138deg19W
Distance 43 miles to Atuona
The big boys steered the boat until midnight last night and then called it quits. Spinnaker down, engines off, lights out (navigation lights ON of course) and we heaved to until sunrise. At midnight we had 101 miles to go. In the morning, after drifting for 6 hours, we had 96 miles to go. Oh boy, we floated a whole 5 miles with the current TOWARDS our destination. We sailed all of today in a 10 knot wind.
Andy is our new auto pilot. He's a machine. It is extremely difficult to steer the boat in such light wind conditions under spinnaker. I, myself, am terrified of that sail. It's a monster and you screw up just a tiny bit and it bites you back so bad. Lose concentration for a second and your spinnaker will rip itself to death. When we took down the sail last night the snuffer got stuck and the spinnaker landed up in the water stuck under the boat. My nerves are shot shot shot. Yet each morning is a new day and with it comes a new serving of guts.
Andy said he would shave off his blonde locks and beard when he saw land. Well we saw land an hour ago! Just before sunset! I thought land no longer existed...Waterworld.
Food has been getting better as we run out of stuff. Weird, but you just get more creative. Andy just fried up the last plantains in butter + rum and served them with cinnamon + sugar, cream + chocolate sauce!
Also weird, kids were the best ever today. So cute.
Goodnight
Chonny
