Day 9 – Dolphins and the search for the ITCZ – 10-29-24
The last 24 hours we have had some amazing sailing. First, the seas have been calm, which is awesome; the boat is barely rocking. Second, we had ideal and consistent winds, 10 to 12 knots, right on our beam (90 degrees to the boat). Patricia Ann loves this, and just cruises at 8+ knots. And last, we had 1 to 1.5 knots of current with us, pushing towards home! This combination of conditions enabled us to sail 210 miles in 24 hours, the most we have done on this entire voyage. The current was definitely cheating, but I will take it!
We all had our best nights sleep as well last night with little boat movement and minimal heeling. It was better than many nights I have had at anchor, and much needed!
As an added bonus, Luke spotted dolphins AGAIN! For the second time this crossing. This is amazing to because on the sail down from Newport, once we left the coastline of California, we saw no dolphins or whales. So to have dolphins swimming around our bow, 1,500 miles from land, was magical, and the highlight of our day.
The next big step for us is crossing the Intertropical Convergence Zone. This is an area, normally closer to the equator, where the Southeast Tradewinds in the Southern Hemisphere collide with the Northeast Tradewinds of the Northern Hemisphere, resulting in no wind. It is better known as the doldrums. For some reason the ITCZ is quite a bit north of the equator right now (it does more around based on time of year, temperatures, etc.), so we have yet to cross it. Here is a screen shot of what it looks like on our wind map.
The boat is located where the green pin drop is at the center bottom. The areas in blue are little to no wind. This is the ITCZ. Fortunately, the ITCZ is not wide right now and we should cross it quickly, and maybe even able to sail right across it. On the way down here, the ITCZ was right on the equator, and quite wide, and we had to motor for 2 days straight to make it across!
Luke made another awesome dinner creation for us, Spam with egg and rice. Maybe its because I am in the middle of the ocean, but it really tasted good!
