Day 3 - New Caledonia to Australia
Today has been epic. If any non sailor was onboard they would fall in love completely. This is not your typical day on the ocean.
The crew have now all settled into the routine of passage. Last night was smooth and a little slow but nice easy night on a broad reach 100 degrees apparent. Pretty stable conditions through the evening. In the morning the wind shifted further east and finally gave us the chance to drop the Main sail and launch Maui which is our Parasailor which is a special name for a type of symmetrical spinnaker. We like to fly her all alone with no mainsail.
So after a little preparation and getting the team awake we launched her without a glitch. Over the course of the next 12 hours she has been flying in winds ranging from 10knots to 22knots. And it always feels the same. Just beautiful stable and relaxing. Even when we are sailing her on a reach or dead downwind it is just wonderful. There is truly nothing nicer then sailing a parasailor with your family onboard. Everyone just relaxes and starts to enjoy themselves. And that’s what today felt like.
Some chess and backgammon were played, books were read, Alex and Azania did a number of artworks (I will be posting these separately after the passage), Arabella listened to music on her headphones and Delphine got some well earned rest. Life was and still is bubbly.
At sunset I decided to launch the drone to capture the moment. Always a little scary but managed to take off and land without a swim. Hope you like the pics.
For lunch with the batteries getting full sun and 100% the kitchen decided to bake pizza. So we got amazing Italian style, thin crusted pizzas with olives and palma ham, Are you kidding? No check the pics. And then there was another amazing dinner including some leftover ribs and freshly batter fried fish. I kid you not I am certain Delphine is trying to make me old and fat fast.
No fish were caught, no comment. No dolphins today but we didn’t need them.
Parasail
Moon - waxing crescent moon and setting at around 11pm
Partly Cloudy
No chance of rain
Position 25.36S 160.46E
DTD - 410nm about halfway
DMG - 390nm
AWA 175P °
AWS 8-10 knots
COG 236°
GPS Speed 7-9knots
See you all tomorrow.