Friday5th October Strong winds of around 30-40 kt gusting to over 50kt at times and big, rough seas made moving about the boat very difficult all day long. Anything slightly loose jumped onto the cabin sole if it could and the best, safest place to be was in my warm bunk

It was difficult to read the wind display from a distance but I was amazed to see over 50kt at one point, with most readings being in 30s and 40s. Heeled well over and being bumped about regularly in the big seas that had built up makes for difficult movement down below - safer to stay well-cushioned in my bunk - moved over from the starboard side to be on the lee side.of the boat.

Being hove to with rather too much canvas meant that we made rather more speed than I expected - but our course was a safe one. We'd started off drifting E in the S wind that made me heave to in the first place and as the wind backed with the oncoming Low passing over, it went more into the E - driving us more N at greater speed in the stronger wind. I wasn't expecting to be caught by such strong E winds - with hindsight, it would have been better either to have deployed the JSD (series drogue) or to have tacked around (with deeper reefed mainsail) before heaving to - that would have made us drift S rather than N! (I'd learned that lesson in 2007 when I had ten days of hand-steering towards Trinidad from Fernando de Noronha and heaved to every seven hours for five hours of rest, food etc. Pity I didn't do it this time but I didn't expect to be hove to for so long....)

Job in daylight is to tidy up the mess of wet lines on the cockpit sole - hopefully the sky will stay clear and the sun will dry them all out. Good to have hot food ready-made - I'd added a handful of rice yesterday.

Sat 6th Oct

6:30am PDT - Pleiades are almost overhead, with Orion and Taurus on either side, of course, and the Great Bear is high up to the north. A lovely waning crescent moon is fairly high and lighting up the still-rough seas - they'll take a time to die down.

We're 90miles from Ocean City in Washington State, USA, slightly north of due west - nice to be making a good speed of 6kt in the 20kt wind.

1200 PDT - end of Day 3. We've made 78 nml. DMG over the 24 hr perod - not much but actual distance was well over 108 n.ml - we continued being taken north from midday yesterday, hove to in the storm, and then we headed south (from W of Cape Flattery!!), sailing to here.

Position & weather report just posted to Winlink:

TIME: 2018/10/06 19:00 LATITUDE: 47-17.00N LONGITUDE: 126-27.00W

COURSE: 191T SPEED: 6.2kt WIND_SPEED: 20kt WIND_DIR: NW

SWELL_HT: 3.0m CLOUDS: 40% BARO: 1021hPa TREND: 2

AIR_TEMP: 15.0C SEA_TEMP: 16.0C COMMENT: Fluffy white cumulus. Seas still rolly,100ml W Westhaven Cove, nr. Ocean City

Seas are still well up and throwing us around at times but the sun is shining. I just discarded my overtousers - it's slowly getting warmer but not fast enough - I can't wait to discard the several layers I'm still wearing to stay warm, although at least I don't have to wear a hat all the time now.

The genset might have to wait another day - it's just too rolly to do that job but cockpit lines will be dealt with after my lunch of avocado - I hope the cool conditions will stop them from over-ripening too quicky.

I'm still trying to figure out how to post photos - a 'technical glitch' means it's not as quick and easy as it should be - pity! "Work in progress"

Friday 5th Oct 7pm PDT

Suddenly the wind has eased from the high 30s - 40s, gusting 50 something of earlier today. Big, rough seas were the norm but less now, although still quite rough.

I'd been watching the pressure earlier this afternoon - down to 1005.9, but beginning to edge upward - but winds were still in high 30s.

Now, at sunset, I'm working out how to get going - will probably have to gybe around to get out of 'irons' - no use of engine allowed so it's always an interesting exercise.

We've been forced well north of our original position by the strong winds.

Must get going while I've still some light left in the sky.

See my tracker and Shiptrak reports for position info (on website Home page)

Presently at 48 21N, 125 48W - lost a day or two...!

More lovely sunshine over Thursday ... a glassy calm sea ... a generator problem. Then a Low passes over on Friday..

Thursday 10pm PDT Well, that 'last sight of land for several months' was visible faintly for most of today as we drifted SSW in bright sunshine, often just in a slight current. Running the autopilot because of all the frequent shipping passing by eventually meant the batteries needed charging so I finally ran the main engine for an hour while I got down to changing the genset impellor.

A clever design feature means that in order to do that the entire seawater pump needs to be removed - clearly some guy was chuckling as that was built in to the design.... I have a second pump so that the job should involve just a relatively quick exchange - but I store it without an impellor in place, hoping that way to extend the life of my spare impellors. So my first job was to insert a new impellor into the back up pump. It was quite a struggle to get it in place and I was convinced for some time that maybe it was not the right size... but I finally made it.

Soon after 8pm (0300GMT), I contacted the Pacific Seafarers Net as usual, on 14300 kHz, to give my position and weather (no wind, no swell) - being near the bottom end of the 11-year sunspot cycle just now makes for generally poor propagation and Randy on the 'big island' of Hawaii, KH6RC, had a hard time getting my report. Two others helped out - Jane in Kauai, NH7TZ, and Peter in New Zealand, ZL1PWM. I was in the middle of struggling with the impellor insertion at that time - but my ratatouille stew was warming up nicely so I was looking forward to that.

We're back saving battery power with Fred windsteering now - the wind is forecast to increase overnight with a Low passing over and is already showing signs of increasing, having veered to the East. I'm seeing our speed at ~4kt(SOG) and wind at ~8kt - a definite improvement! I adjusted Fred to put us on a close reach. I'll get some sleep soon - I might have to reef as the wind increases My headlamp lit up tiny sea-creatures while I was on deck - lovely bright orange-yellow specks of light floated past the boat.

The pump replacement will wait for completion tomorrow sometime - not an urgent job but needs to be done soon.

For now, I'm off to my bunk - while it's still fairly calm.

Friday 8:30am PDT Well, that was the intention but I later spent a long time on deck, watching the wind slowly increase. By 2:30am I was reefing down - one reef initially and then a precautionary second reef with the genoa (big headsail) also reduced - I wanted to get to my bunk but the wind was definitely on the increase and I'd seen 33kt forecast in one part of the Low, although I hoped to stay on its lesser-wind side.

The wind was then consistently almost from the S, which meant we were being forced west, so I decided to heave to, to avoid being set into the worst of the winds on the Low. I reduced the genoa more and tacked around, keeping the genoa sheets unchanged - I didn't feel the expected conditions warranted deploying the Jordan series drogue - I just wanted to get to my bunk for some sleep knowing we'd be safe when the wind increased as forecast. Conditions became a lot more calm and I got to sleep around 3:30am.

As expected, the small Low is now passing over us so we're being buffeted by strong wind and rough seas - very different from yesterday's conditions - the wind generator is putting in plenty of power to the batteries in wind of around 26kt and it's raining.

Now (9:30am), pressure is 1007.6 - 1009 was forecast at the Low's centre yesterday - so we're in the middle of things - and it's pretty rough!

When I woke earlier, we were heeling to port and my bunk was the starboard one - I've now moved over to the port bunk - impossible to stay on the 'uphill' bunk!

Difficult to decide what to do for the best, but for present we'll stay hove to, keeping an eye on our drift, until conditions improve later today. We've plenty of sea room so it's time to get some more sleep, if I can, in my nice warm sleeping bag....

There's a tracker in the Aurora terminal which is putting out hourly positions automatically - the link to that is on my website's 'Travels' page.

Thursday 4th Oct - Lovely sunshine, calm seas ... but what COLD air!

Just turned the eggs and I'm sipping a hot coffee after finishing a late breakfast of cereal with some fresh blueberries - I'll enjoy the fresh items on board for as long as they last - a real bonus.

My last sight of land for several months is the hazy outline of the Washington coast about 25 miles off to port.

What a delightful send-off I had yesterday - absolutely wonderful! For a start, the rain and W wind of Tuesday had cleared away to give occasional sun and there was a pleasant ENE wind to add to the ebb tide which helped me out through 60 miles of the Strait of Juan de Fuca into the open Pacific to the W.

Several friends and well-wishers came by to wish me good luck (as over the last few days, while I've been busy working on board at the Causeway Dock in Victoria Inner Harbour). The Prince of Whales whale-watching boat came to tie alongside for the tow I needed to my start line off Ogden Point breakwater (my engine had been sealed off last Friday so it could not be used to help me on my way through the Harbour - or at anytime until after my return next May/June).

Three of the tiny Victoria Hbr ferries (some of the famed 'ballet dancers'!) were to be part of my escort - they formed a 'V' ahead of us as we made our way to the fuel dock to top up the main tank (diesel needed for charging the batteries using either my small generator, or the main engine in neutral, when wind and solar power aren't enough) before continuing on to the Harbour entrance.

What a delight to see them ahead of me, with a Harbour Patrol boat ahead and astern of our convoy, blue lights flashing, and some friends in three saiboats who also kept me company - all the way to Race Rocks! Despite almost no sleep the night before, and not too much the prior two nights, I felt fine - there was so much friendship in the air - smiles and waves everywhere I looked! Absolutely wonderful! I can't thank the many Victorians (and several others elsewhere in B.C.) enough for all their help - a lot have offered and many have given me much-appreciated practical support over recent weeks and days of preparation.

I crossed my 'start line' off Ogden Pt at 11.42 a.m. PDT (local time) - under full sail in bright sunshine, with friends' boats close by. There had been big last hugs all round as the tow lines were released and I took off alone under sail.

So lovely to be underway at last, after several months of intensive work on board. Waves and 'thumbs-up' all around as my escort of tiny Victoria Harbour Ferry-boats and Hbr Patrol boats left and I continued on towards Race Rocks - the distinctive horizontal black-and-white stripes of the light-house beckoning.

The sail along the Strait was generally great. Although the wind was light at times, we made over 7 kt for quite a time and generally 5-6 kt otherwise. There was very little traffic and no fog.

Sunset was beautiful over Cape Flattery, with clearing skies which later gave a beautiful starry night sky. We cleared the Strait entrance around 1 a.m., in dying wind, and eventually turned to the south once the shipping lanes were cleared.

With lots of traffic around, I'm using the autopilot now, instead of 'Fred', the windsteering Hydrovane, to keep a constant course in the still-very-light winds (2-5kt) astern - too many ships are passing close by so I don't want to wander around and confuse them as to my intentions...! That uses battery power so I started up the little generator - the red temperature light came on after a few minutes and it stopped. Trying it again a short while later, the same result - has the seawater pump impellor gone already? It was changed very recently... I'll have to investigate and use the main engine for charging in the mean time. That's the beauty of wind-steering - no battery use!

I managed quite a few good naps overnight (and will take some more over the day also), so I'm feeling good - looking forward the the air getting warmer though, as we get further south - it's feeling very cold now.

Had hoped to post some photos from yesterday but I'm having a 'technology problem' which needs sorting out - I'll post them if and when I manage it.

Really enjoying this calm, sunny start and getting used to working the boat again - lovely to be back out at sea with the prospect of a long passage. Only slight fly in the ointment is the amount of shipping around - a problem I usually avoid by being a lot further offshore - TG for AIS - at least I 'see' them and they 'see' me and an alarm sounds if they look to be passing too close by.

My position report just before noon PDT (at the end of Day 1): TIME: 2018/10/04 17:41 LATITUDE: 48-07.51N LONGITUDE: 125-18.86W COURSE: 194T SPEED: 2.5 WIND_SPEED: 6 WIND_DIR: NNE SWELL_HT: 0.3M CLOUDS: 1% BARO: 1014 TREND: 1 AIR_TEMP: 12.0C SEA_TEMP: 13.0C COMMENT: Goose-winged almost dead downwind in light air - 25ml off WA coast.

Wind now is ~2 kt... We're going to be just a bit (!) slow until it picks up - seems I'll get a chance to fly the red-and-white spinnaker soon - but just went to look at the generator problem. The intake seacock was closed, for some unknown reason, and strainer was empty of water so no cooling water was getting to seawater pump. Have opened it and filled the strainer - but now need to work on getting the water into the genset... At least it's a minor problem, not an insoluble-at-sea major one - I hope! Might need to change the impellor anyway since it's been running dry a bit.

I'll have a small nap for now and then work on it again - must get that cooling water flowing. Angled the solar panels - makes a big difference - now getting power into system despite the AP power use - that's good.

As well as posting my own noon (GMT) position and weather reports daily, there's a tracker in the Aurora terminal which is putting out hourly positions automatically - the link to that will shortly be on my website 'Travels' page if it's not there already.

A beautiful sail just outside Victoria Harbour around sunset with friends Louise, Steve and Bob tonight - to test out light-wind sails in readiness for sailing around the globe.

.

Hadn’t ever used one of the sails so was a very useful exercise as well as being very enjoyable having crew on board!   All took more time than expected, especially since I wanted to calibrate my radar as well - so the Code Zero will be tested out tomorrow 

It’s been an intensive, busy few weeks of preparation recently, helped a lot by various friends who have offered their help, from meals to being driven to shops to very practical help on board Nereida.

All very much appreciated, of course.  Typical was Steve’s help tonight with making a waterproof gasket under the cockpit locker lid and the hatch over the forepeak before we went sailing.  Tricia came by earlier today with a lovely bottle of Saltspring dessert wine (putting it away for a celebration somewhere along the way!) and then found me a really useful hand pump for liquids transfer that I’d been wanting for some time.

Warren has taken all five 10lb propane tanks for filling or topping up - an essential job in view of my being at sea for so long.  Cold supper tonight!

Still fighting to get some items delivered by UPS in good time before Monday’s departure - one item has dodged between B.C. and Washington State several times and is

It’s very pleasant being on the Causeway Dock in the middle of Victoria  - weather has been very sunny and there’s quite a ‘buzz’ of activity, with the terminal for the little harbour taxi boats close by and Prince of Whales whale-watching boats in and out all day long.  A pity I have to keep so busy working!

q nereida

 

--

Had a good but brief visit to friends in Gibsons and sailed back over the Strait to Vancouver Island in a strong southeast wind - made making for Active Pass a non-viable option, especially against the flood tide. So made for Porlier Pass instead - just made the entrance perfectly at slack before the ebb and noticed that the rough water usually seen there was missing - perfect timing! Came past the two small lighthouses at the start of the ebb and carried the ebb nicely on all the way to Selby Cove - an excellent small anchorage, totally protected from SE winds.
As the sun was near to setting, there was yet another shower and an amazing, vivid rainbow appeared close by off to port - a beautiful sight that lasted for quite a time.

Up with the sun to make the last leg to Canoe Cove, passing Swartz Bay ferry terminal in the island ‘rush hour’ - three ferries came close by!
A busy couple of days at Canoe Cove in a Blackline slip - among other smaller jobs, Jeff checked the rig and winches, changed the wind transducer and its wire inside mast and helped get the finished winch backing plates into position. We had a useful discussion on adjustments needed to mainsail and reefing line leads with Brent before Steve took the sail Monday night to Paul at Leitch and MacBride for battens to be dealt with (need stiffer ones and to be fixed firmly in position at leech ends. (Thanks to Steve for coping with an awkward sail delivery after bringing the completed backing plates!)

Getting on with other jobs today, including connecting up the wind display to the mast wire from the transducer, before making for Saltspring tomorrow, to stay a few days, getting on with more work and giving a chat to friendly, hospitable Saltspring Island Sailing Club Saturday evening.
Nice to cross a few more jobs off my list.... but still plenty waiting to be done!

Moved on from friendly Maple Bay Y.C. on Wednesday...   Photos start with  lovely Samsun Narrows on the way there last Sunday - Regatta was underway when I arrived - had to avoid a start just ahead of me!

Leaving Maple Bay, the wind was up for a while and then totally gone...  A typical B.C. barge being towed by a small but sturdy little tug overtook us as we passed the N end of Saltspring Island in a glassy flat calm and headed on towards Trincomali Channel and rocky, rough, Porlier Pass.  Vital to get the timing right for transit with a flood tide of up to 6knots - definitely something to avoid!  We arrived perfectly on time as the flood was nearing slack water before the ebb - but, even so, the waters at the far end were very rough - a bumpy ride, for sure!  (You can see the whitecaps ahead in the photo.)

Had to organise a few things on deck before I could raise the main and start what was to be a lovely sail across the Georgia Strait in a good wind of 12-14kt off the port bow.  We were close-hauled to begin with but as the wind backed and eased a tad, it became a very pleasant beam reach.  We were well heeled by the wind ....a timely reminder to stow things securely!

A good landfall was made in Vancouver around six o’clock - perfect timing to meet up with some friends for a drink and a meal at the Royal Vancouver Y.C.  Tying up got ‘interesting ‘ with a very strong wind and current in the same direction, trying to sweep us sideways as we approached the dock - had to back away and come in a second time to allow for that strong current.  Many thanks to smiling, friendly Dockmaster Thomas who had come over to help with my lines.

A small group of OCC members sat on the RVanYC  upper balcony in Jericho Bay and watched a beautiful sunset over the entrance to English Harbour..

The next day was spent keeping very busy on board, clearing up in the main cabin - tidy, at last!  It was clear enough to open up the dining table and celebrate by entertaining Clive and Angela of ‘Cosmic Dancer’ on board that night - with a steak dinner.  Feeling good to be nearing the end of all my clearing/sorting efforts down below - just the forepeak to finish off.... and that’s almost done.  Still plenty of jobs still to do - some shown on my whiteboard above the chart table...

I got a message from Paul Bates this afternoon- he’s finished coating the aluminium winch backing plates - thanks for that, Pau!  They were finished very quickly, which is great since I’ll now be able to get on with the next step - to check the bolt lengths needed and buy some longer ones so the plates can be fitted in place - a job for early next week when we’re in Canoe Cove.

Tomorrow, I leave for a short visit to friends in Gibsons before returning to Vancouver Island across the Georgia Strait again on Sunday - it could rain this weekend, I hear... but, hopefully, I’ll have another good sail.

The last two weeks' work has included the routine changing of engine oil (along with the oil filter and sea-water pump impellor and then cleaning the seawater strainer, which was happily growing some marine life!). It was nice to have had an offer of help - last Saturday, Aubrey came by and helped with the oil filter change and several other jobs - thanks a lot for that, Aubrey! More cleaning out of several spares lockers was followed by reorganising and listing their contents and I've been working on backing plates for four winches, with help from John Booth (thanks for that kind offer, John) in the initial cutting out of the aluminium plates, ... The work continues - with a welcome break to visit Butchart gardens with a friend early one Wednesday, resplendant in its beds of summer flowers and roses (many thanks to Steve for the tickets!)

One photo shows another problem area - fitting a dive tank securely, in place of a slightly smaller one. All nicely fitting now, after quite a time spent cutting wood, but three long screws holding a block of wood in place had to be replaced - heads were too damaged to be reused, after a struggle to unscrew them. Now I need to figure out where to put a second tank - in forepeak, I’m thinking.

More jobs were stowing electric and data cables and adaptors etc in an organised way and beginning the sewing of some very over-long fleece-lined, warm trousers - it’s a problem being so short! The main cabin was actually beginning to look a bit tidier, at that point!!
(Later had a kind offer to shorten my trousers for me with a sewing machine - very many thanks for that, Lesley!)

Saturday 1st Sept
Back in Tsehum Hbr - should have been moving on today but delaying until tomorrow - just too usefully busy dealing with forepeak lockers and listing - continuing to find things I’d totally forgotten I had...!! Main cabin is back in partial chaos, along with the cockpit, due to the locker still emptied there to give access to under the winches.

Yesterday
, I had a shock as I was about to leave Cadboto Bay when all instrument displays went blank with a plotter problem - I decided to leave anyway and eventually the problem was sorted - suspect I now know how to avoid a repeat - fingers crossed...!
A good afternoon of work
was had on arrival here, grinding the sharp cut edges of the aluminium winch-base backing plates - all nicely rounded now, ready for the next stage - coating to prevent corrosion.

Thursday, I should have been on board
'Fiasco', dressed as a pirate, for the last fun session of Thursday night racing - but I was still busy at the drill press in the workshop, enlarging the bolt holes in the plates to make for a better fit. I’d been in & out of the locker many times earlier in the day, checking the fit. Several 'pirates' in the crew definitely looked the part!

The work continues ... I can now see the
all of the bunk top in the forepeak .... Definite progress !

The sun is shining, the sky is blue - time for a break and some food...

- and a walk to Canoe Cove through the trees for a relaxing birthday meal - calamari followed by Caesar salad with crab cake - Dungeness, of course.

Amusing to spot one of my type of fire extinguishers in my photo beside the doorway out to the garden...!

Busy, busy, busy ... So much to sort out on board on my return to Victoria after a trip with lots of visits involving driving around a very warm and sunny England. The imposing sculpture in Vancouver airport never fails to impress.

The sails are now back in place although there's still plenty more work needed on deck - hardware to be seen to, plenty of cleaning and polishing of surfaces, shackles and steelwork and all bungies need replacing.
 
The aft cabin sorting out is slowly nearing completion after having emptied all food lockers in the main cabin area to check on contents, list them all and then re-stow (or throw away!) Mexican long-life/UHT milk bought early last year all had to be disposed of - was well past its expiry date. Often that isn't important but, at this point in time (eight months on!), it clearly mattered. I finally retrieved the aft cabin cushions from AJ who has been storing them for me since last year - means I'm actually now able to sleep on the aft cabin bunk instead of on a small main cabin settee bunk...
 
Have been keeping the vacuum packer in action - both for dried food (beans, lentils, fruit etc) and also for spare clothing items, in case of water getting down below in rough seas (or tropical humidity or salty air affecting them). Will be nice to be able to rely on some dry clothing if everything else gets wet! All inside hull surfaces come across have needed thorough cleaning and I keep coming across items or jobs needing attention that I'd forgotten about - or which have only now reared their heads.
 
I fixed two Powerpulse battery maintenance items in place - one across two batteries and one across three batteries. Very simple to instal. The system has come well recommended and should help a lot in getting maximum use from the domestic battery bank. I also had to deal with re-positioning three hydraulic pipes from the autopilot which were in a bad place.

Picked up the repaired bike from Oak Bay Bicycles - it's nice to have the use of it again!
 
After checking over clothing, more vacuum-packing and stowing, i should be able to move very soon into tidying up in the main cabin and then in the forepeak where the main tools/spares locker has been emptied in readiness. It will take a time to go through all my spares and tools, cleaning as I go, and list them all, both there and elsewhere on board.
 
Once the boat has been tidied up down below, there'll be the question of dealing with ongoing maintenance and several small but important repairs. Those will probably be done in September when I'll need to haul out anyway to check that everything under the water-line is in good order.
 
It was great to get out sailing yesterday - Thursday night 'casual' racing at RVYC. Gusty (but sunny) conditions made the going exciting at times. I enjoyed playing the mainsheet but I found transferring quickly from one side to the other, on fast-tacking the speedy, lightweight, 'tippy' Olsen 30 'Fiasco', was quite testing to begin with. "Throw the mainsheet over first, then yourself!" was the excellent advice given by skipper Louise. That worked fine - two hands are always better than one for climbing up a steep incline - and, anyway, it's best to get over quickly, before it heels too much!
 
Back to work - I'm trying to sort out the boat well enough that I can get away from Victoria for a short time quite soon. The hope is to get in some gentle cruising and test myself sailing Nereida. I need to see I can handle the sails OK if I'm to sail south, as planned, around 1st October.

Tuesday 10th April 2018 - Sailing 'Epiphany' into Banderas Bay - landfall back in Mexico today.

11am Sky has cleared - blue everywhere! Having to motor NE with the wind just fine on the port bow - near enough on the nose. Genoa had to be furled in. Lovely sunny day with mountain range bordering the south side of Banderas Bay and ending in Cabo Corrientes just seen off to starboard in the low haze ahead.

If the usual afternoon onshore breeze kicks in, I'm hoping we'll end our passage sailing across the Bay to make landfall at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle - maybe into the marina there.

Yesterday and overnight until dawn today, we managed quite a bit of very pleasant sailing in the mainly NNW wind, although with occasional gusts. The wind slowly increased from a steady 6-7 kt all day yesterday to the present veered 12 kt - as forecast. If the wind hadn't veered quite so much, we could have kept sailing nicely this morning but we're trying to get in before dark.

Quite a few boobies kept coming by yesterday - a small group of all-brown ones (juveniles?) would often land as a group in the water well ahead, only to take off, circle around and then land again - all very sociable. They seem to have formed a club!

The batteries have been kept alive over the last week by dint of charging using the motor (mostly in neutral) overnight for 12 hours, with the bright tropical sunshine feeding the solar panels during the day. That has, in turn, kept all electronics, and items needing elecrical power, alive as well but radio use has been minimal - restricted mainly to brief evening Net reporting of position and "All's well on board" and some downloading of a few emails and weather info. Having to change my usual routine and learn to use new software, plus onboard connection problems, have kept me quite busy (and frustrated!) for several days this last week. The curse of tehnology!!

Sad not to have made it to the Marquesas - would have been nice to have got there again - but we've had some lovely relaxed sailing in bright sunshine and relatively calm

seas for the last several days of our return trip, so that has been a bonus and a small compensation - for me, at least, since the plan was to fly north from Tahiti quite soon after arriving in French Polynesia. George and Suzanne are thinking of heading south later in the year and maybe crossing over from Panama - it's all in the melting pot for them now. First the batteries have to be dealt with - and maybe instal a Hydrovane for reliable windsteering and/or a good wind generator...!!

We're now 10 miles NW of Cabo Corrientes and 27 miles SW of La Cruz - ETA there is around sunset.

Position now: 20 45'N, 105 22'W, COG: 065T, SOG: 4.2kt

Wind: N-NNE 13kt - pity we can't bear away - would be perfect for some good sailing

3pm Sunday 8th April

Lovely sunshine ...just found one wisp of cloud on the horizon astern. Seas are a lot calmer in the mostly light winds. Frequent red-footed boobies fly past - at midday, we were 100 miles due E of Isla Socorro and the other islands in its group which must be where they nest. An all-brown juvenile has kept us entertained a lot today - it hasn't yet changed its plumage to the handsome white with black wing tips of its elders.

Overnight motoring continues to be routine so as to keep the batteries charged when the sun has disappeared. They are fading fast, so need constant input to keep their voltage up . Most of last night, the wind angle was good enough to allow motor-sailiing with both main and headsail unfurled in the light winds from NNW.

Weather forecast is still looking very good - avoiding the need for thoughts of making landfall a lot further south than wished for. Winds are expected to continue to be consistently NNW-NW, possibly WNW, over the next few days, allowing an easy course to be laid towards Banderas Bay to the NE. Last night, and today, the wind allowed more northing to be made, to be sure of an easy passage on Monday and Tuesday - we hope to make landfall some time in the late afternoon.

Despite the rough conditions earlier this week and last week, as well as not getting enough sleep and often feeling less than 100%, Suzanne has produced great meals with far more variety than I'm used to on board 'Nereida'! We've also had a constant supply of fresh-baked corn-bread (a type of cake, to my mind!).

4pm position/conditions: 18 40'N, 109 13'W; COG:040T; SOG: 5.8kt;wind: NNW 6-7kt;cloud 1% !!

(See www.svnereida.com for link to website showing our track. P.S. Brief 'newsy' emails welcome using my Winlink address or my website 'Contact' page! No FB out here...)

4pm Thursday - passing well S of Isla Socorro

We've had several handsome black and white red-footed boobies flying close by, both juvenile and adult, over the last few days - presumably from the Islas Revillagegido to our north. Isla Socorro is the largest and presently lies 150 ml N of us.

Motoring worked well to give a good course in the usual very light overnight wind, with genoa furled in and main centred. The bright moon of Wed night was lost behind broken thick clouds so it was often very dark. It's so much nicer when stars and moon are out!

As the wind shifted, our course was adjusted to keep some wind in the sail - we were mostly on port tack but occasionally on starboard tack and so managed to keep heading NNE-NE - towards Banderas Bay - but not making a very good speed. That was a definite improvement over the daytime yesterday when we were mostly headed to Acapulco or points south in a wind too strong to do anything but sail as close-hauled as possible in quite rough seas..

After sunrise today, the wind increased and backed, so the motor was cut and we got sailng nicely on course - close-hauled, as usual. It's been a lovely sunny day with frequent bird visits and fairly calm seas, with the usual 1.5m/4-5ft swell from the north.

Looking at today's weather files, the outlook is good, with the wind increasingly favouring a course to Banderas Bay. We'll repeat the overnight motoring when the wind drops as expected, and make more northing again. With little wind, it's not possible to go any faster under sail and we can point higher under motor.

With bright sunlight, batteries are being kept charged during the day and motoring overnight keeps them charged then, also.

We've enough fuel to alternate motoring overnight with sailing during the day, so getting back to Banderas Bay is looking like an increasingly possible outcome. We had been looking at Manzanillo and Acapulco as options for landfall - which needs to be at an official Mexican Port of Entry since we cleared out of the country on leaving.

Position: 16 23'N, 111 38'W, COG: 086T, SOG: 6.1kt, wind: NNE 8kt (See my website, www.svnereida.com, for tracking/position links.)