VIVACE HAWAII - SITREP 2024-07-09 - EVENING WATCH REPORTING
CONDITIONS: After the past couple days of beating hard up an unfavourable southerly wind, weathering 30 knot+ wind squalls, and eventually being left with empty, slatting sails as the wind died off, we've been motoring at our best endurance speed towards the high pressure easterly "trade winds" that will carry us the rest of the way to Hawaii. Hot and sunny weather with occasional rain squalls that bring a touch of wind and some temperature relief. Even the most stalwart pant-wearers are now in shorts 24/7.
CREW HIGHLIGHTS: Kirill started us off today with a delicious breakfast of syrniki pancakes while Iain baked off some bread. With the engine running 24/7 and the mercury rising, it's warm below decks. The wind was almost completely still after our delicious panini lunch so we decided to stop for a well-deserved recreation break. All hands (but not all at once) enjoyed a second swim in the 82F, 17000+ ft deep Pacific Ocean. Iain had a close encounter with an Albatross that landed to investigate the swimming "safety" bouy behind the boat. It looked like it meant business so we gave it a wide berth. Craig broke out his inflatable foiling wake board and fashioned a tow line and handle bar. Unfortunately either the small stature of the inflatable board, or more likely Iain's driving of the 55' sailboat-turned-ski-boat made it challenging to fully achieve lift-off. Kirill did his best to troll for fish but has disappointedly declared there must be none left in the Pacific, at least that won't bite at our home-made lures.
Fizzy mocktails! One of Craig's many galley improvements is a water fizzing station (CO2 injection) and a wide selection of concentrated artisanal flavour syrups. These powers combined with a little ice transform the ship's quite palatable plain tank water into delicious beverages that can be enjoyed at any hour. While hot tea or coffee was a popular kick-off for the bleary-eyed night watch, now it's all about the delicious iced drinks in the rapidly increasing temperatures.
HOPES AND DREAMS: The morning watch is excited that the wind should pick up by dawn and build throughout the day as we continue to make our way south, with forecasted ideal 15 knot conditions and a downhill sail for the rest of the voyage.
GOINGS ON: The recreation break afforded an excellent platform for celestial navigation practice in using the sextants to measure accurately the "solar noon", which allows us to (insert MATHS HERE) to calculate our position on the face of the earth. Practice makes progress, and combined with finally being able to measure some stars at dusk/dawn we're increasingly confident and noting an improvement in consistency. Backup navigation could probably be achieved. If it wasn't cloudy all the time. And if we had the precious worksheets and sight reduction tables.
The recreation break also afforded a test flight of a camera drone, finally resulting in a SpaceX-inspired capture-landing after the drone gained the self-awareness level and attitude of a toddler refusing to go to bed. Hovering 10 feet off the water but refusing to move as the boat drifted slowly away, we quickly pulled in the tow line, fired up the engine, and maneuvered underneath for a hand-capture off the starboard bow. Success with only minor injury.