2017-03-22 20:34:54 UTC: 885 miles to Rapa Nui
222 COG
7.5 SOG
Waves 6 feet disorganized
Wind 20kts at 100*
We have had a pretty nice run today. The waves came down in size some by mid day and we were feeling comfortable to open up our speed a bit which felt good. A few wraps came off the furler and the Genoa opened up a bit more and Coco took off. In the afternoon we had some of the biggest waves we have seen at around 12 feet (Yahav called them 3 meter whatever that means), a few wraps back on the furler to be safe. It's always interesting (a nice word for scary) to look off the side of the boat and see a big wall of water next to you. Ted remarked, "wow this boat really rides the waves well" as we easily climbed the crest and coasted back down the other side. Don later mentioned that it is cool how our autopilot knows how to surf waves (which it does not know). The big ones are not the ones that really cause us the trouble because they are typically organized and we ride right up em. It's the smaller sporadic ones that make the boat ride jerky and unpleasant. Hold on while I wipe the salt water off my phone here. When these little trouble makers are arranged in just the wrong way they throw spray on us sitting at the helm. We have all figured out that one seat outside by the table is the safe spot where the occasional sprays don't attack. However when Ted was chopping veggies for his pasta in that sacred spot, a small splash just the size of his body snuck up from behind the boat and soaked him down perfectly, everyone else was spared. Overall the crew is feeling confident in our vessel which is good for morale.

What we find most interesting is the change in air temperature. We are now all in pants and jackets during night watch as the air is remarkably cool. It's a nice break from the Heat of Galapagos and I'm even considering putting a sweatshirt on shortly! Rapa Nui is supposed to be in the high 80's so not sure why we have the chill that we do. Even during the day we are in light jackets outside and that means the inside is getting used more as it's not so hot.

Anyhow, we are guessing we have about 5 days to go. Depends a lot on the wave state, smaller waves and we can go faster, bigger and we need to be more cautious. All the moms out there can rest easy though because we are choosing being cautious rather than speed!

We had a bite on a lure today and he took a ton of line but then he was gone, didn't lose the lure and no sign of him... no boats seen. Few small squalls, mostly had 22kts of wind average (18-25 variable all day), highest we saw was 30kts for about 2 min.