Sunshiny day
What a difference a day makes! Yesterday we had rain, today we made up for lost sun hours and had a streaming blue day with some cumulus forming throughout the day, that emptied itself during the evening. Some slight drizzle and one big big shower. The day started off with a magical sunrize (as the winning picture of the day shows) and ended with a dramatic shower, which was a nice contrast.
The night is dry, the sky is littered with stars, that we can actually see now that the full moon has come and gone and the brightness is decreasing a little. We have no, or hardly any light pollution out here on the ocean, except for the compass light and the navigational lights.. and the moon!
Our progress has been good, we have left the reef in the mainsail and mizzen, as we were expecting the wind to increase to 20 knots from the South East. But so far, we have about 16 knots from the East North East. As the wind has just started to pick up, we are suffering the small steep wave that comes with it, stopping us dead in our track every now and then. We are trying to keep as much North with a little East in our course until we have crossed the equator, where the wind will turn to the North East and we can bear off a little towards the Hawaiian Islands.
We have stowed away the dinghy, leaving a lot of space on the middle deck, which is the ideal afternoon chill spot. In the shade of the mainsail, one can really get away from it all for a little bit. There is a nice breeze, shade and in the middle of the middle of the ship, movement is limited.
Today our Tec-Talk was done by Mark about Polynesian names of towns and how they often have the same sort of combinations around the whole Pacific ocean. Cities or islands with Nui or Iti, the big or the small island, like Rapa Nui and Tahiti Nui or Tahiti Iti. Then there are similarities in Roa, which means something like long, which is often used in harbors or bays of islands, to indicate it was a big or long harbor, Rangiroa, Hanga Roa and even the Polynesian name for New Zealand holds it.
Well any way, very interesting to see how the vastly spread Polynesian islands are connected through language and travel. After the Tec-Talk most people took a nap, which is now dubbed Napa Nui.
Photo of the day by Cecile H, all well on board Jet
