A Beautiful Last Day, Number 23

Flying our Parasailor spinnaker

Another beautiful sunrise on the Pacific

This has been the nicest sailing day of the whole trip. The winds are between 10 and 15 knots from the back quarter, the sun is shining, the waves are at a good angle, and we can sail right on the rhumb line to Hiva Oa. Right now at 4:30 we have 86nm to go. When we take down the spinnaker at sunset we will have to reef to slow down. We don't want to arrive before light.

Rob checked our starting battery yesterday and found it low and not keeping any charge given. We ran the generator today to make sure the house batteries will be charged enough to start the engine. We'll have to be careful as we probably can't buy a new one until Papeete, Tahiti.

There has been a challenge out to write a song about the trip. The last few days we have been working together on one, although Rob got us going with a tune on his guitar. It has been fun to practise this afternoon. After years on the boat the guitar was still tuneable and playable.