This was the first night that all parameters to be checked by Tjasa during her watch stayed within their limits. A great sleeping period for me.

And we made good progress towards our final WPT to go around the Galapagos: 6 deg S and 90 deg W. Once we have reach this point, we can be sure that we are in the SE trade winds.

On board we had again board made yoghurt by Tjasa. Dennis and Tjasa enjoyed it in their muesli, I made myself a fruit yoghurt.

Dennis still goes for his big catch but was not successful so far. He caught today a king mackerel of about 40 cm but set it free again. He wants a 1m mahi-mahi or a tuna of the same size!

And today is bread baking day. Yesterday I made already a dough of 1600 gr flour. While forming the breads today I thought I could increase the amount of flour in 200 gr steps to 2 kg.

Theoretically this would increase the number of days be without baking by calculated 25 % and would reduce the consumption also by 25 %. A big chunk of gas saving.

Let’s see how all turns out with the next time making bread.

After dinner we discussed the strategy for the night. With a wind of 5 KN or more for 20 min and only short dashes into the 4 KN range, we set sails.

While talking about a few other things, we felt the wind is increasing. A quick check if this is caused by cloud or squall around us showed that this is wind, which escaped from the monkey with the tin tool, thus really good sailing wind!

With the good team we became in the meantime, we put MaRe her “night gown” on in only a few minutes. She enjoyed her “dress” and started immediately leaping forward. We trimmed her dress a bit and she ran even faster.

We finally got the SE wind we were waiting for!

With this wind we want to reach the northern edge of the trade winds to blow us to the Gambier Islands.

We not only sail smoothly through the night, the night as such is wonderful as well. It’s a 1/8 sky meaning that about 1/8 is covered with clouds. The moon, a bit more than half of a full moon illuminates the sky and the sea. In this moment the moon river is almost exactly abeam on MaRe’s PRT side. The air is pleasant. Not too warm not too cold. Just right.

Ahead of us we have a few strato cumulus hanging around. Are they waiting for us? Are they ready to give us a speed booster for a while? MaRe is ready for such a ride; she wears her “night gown”.

Let’s see what will happen!

I’m not yet decided about the verb I should to describe what we are doing.

Although we put her favorite dress, the colorful, light, a bit transparent, sexy, and showing female soft round curves on MaRe, she is not in the mood yet to sail.

She is not standing still but moving. Would “creeping” or “crawling” be the right term for her movement?

The problem is that ECMWF and SPIRE the best forecast models for wind at high seas, predict winds of 5 later even more knots from SE. But, and this is the culprit, the bl…. monkey with the tin tool does not release more wind. This holding back of wind is done on purpose in an attempt to destroy the mood on all sailboats within his range.

But on MaRe we have a good mood and know that always some wind sneaks out of control of the monkey with the tin tool and helps us reaching the edge of the SE trade winds.

These in turn will blow us to W and later SW to the Gambier Islands.

When do you guess is the day and time that we reach 06 deg 0.0 min south, the current northern edge of the trade winds?

Until today MaRe’s speed record was 11.4 KN between Fuerte Ventura and Grand Canaria in October 2021. The earlier readers of this blog know it.

Now the record is 17.3 KN!

An some people call this the windless doldrums. MaRe just sailed 17.3 KN. The proof picture of the speed meter follows when we have normal internet.

I would have liked to sail her even on one hull because she was so easy to be steered while she dream-like zipped through the flat sea. I would have like to have some of you on board for this event.

However when I shocked woke up from my doldrum nap, MaRe drifted at the same spot where she was when I felt a sleep.

This was a special class dream.

Who still remembers this wonderful song?

In the morning like today we sit in the cockpit and watch the sun going over the horizon, creating a warm and friendly atmosphere. The same time, the very, very, very weak breeze we have feels good, because it feels cool. It feels refreshing.

Peaceful!. That’s most likely the term to describe the atmosphere at and around MaRe. A freshly made mint tea tastes good.

The monkey with the tin tool stole again the wind. We are drifting since about 0530. First I hove to (“beidrehen”) to stop flapping of the sails. Still the weak wind was changing directions in an incredible speed letting the sails still flap. Thus, I took the sails down completely. Now we are again at drift waiting for the monkey with the tin tool to release some wind.

Still we made progress last night after sunset and MaRe wearing her “night gown”. Not bad, considering the weak winds and the main sail only at reef 2.

Today I opened, on request of our beloved female crew member the swimming pool again. Feel free to join.

With changing wind we gybed twice today. With the experience the Dennis an Tjasa gain it was not difficult.

Than we had to get the gennaker down because a “fat” squall came. We simply used only the genoa for a short time until the squall was gone and the sky cleared from these surprising things. Within minutes after we set the gennaker again, we got surprised by a squall. No idea where it suddenly came from. Thus, we had a fast ride with the gennaker in a squall. It wasn’t long until the rain hit us, what means the wind speed goes down.

The big question is now what will happen during the night and when does the wind turns SE this turn is indicated since days.

Now at 1812 we are finally 8 NM SW of the point we were 2 days ago. Just look at the loop we had to make.

All in all our was not a bad day for MaRe and her crew.

Tonight’s dinner will be spaghetti with tuna (unfortunately canned tuna), vegetables etc. I’m looking forward to it.

…we are sailing again. SOG is around 3.5 KN with the tide slowing us down by about 0.4 KN.

Yes, it could be faster, but we are happy that we could get some wind from the monkey with the tin tool. Due to the no wind in the last days, the wind waves are about 25 cm only and the swell is nicely long with a height of less then a meter.

The sky is typical one for areas around the equator. White clouds at the horizon appear as covering the sky to a larger extend but at the end of only looks like that out of the distance. The sky is carefully dotted with white clouds, cumulus type but also a few stratocumulus. In front of us is a squall but that should move much faster than we can sail. But we keep an eye on it.

Tjasa who hand steered MaRe this morning very good for about 2 1/2 h on a running course (difficult to steer) went after breakfast to bed. Her current watch started at 0300 and ended at 0700. We rotate every week the watches.

So let’s see what this day will bring us.

I’m on watch now. At the change of the watch, at 2300, we dressed MaRe in her night gown to see if we could reduce the negative drifting effect at least partially.

Unfortunately, the attempt failed and i had get all sails down. So we are drifting again.

Attempting to sail at 1 Bft wind is simply not feasible. Thus, I’ll wait until the wind had stable 2 Bft.

Thus – the second one – when will we get enough wind and from which direction?

MaRe’s own swimming pool opened today.

Special features of MaRe’s swimming pool.
– Only für crew members
– Depth – more than 3000 m
– Distance to the pool edges – tremendous but never had been measured.

The crew obviously enjoyed the swim.

As a crew member of MaRe you are entitled to use this pool. Thus, feel free to sign up.

Prize: 1 week free sailing on MaRe.

What happened to MaRe, who sailed yesterday very fast in 3 squalls to S and SW, and her log shows, she sailed 59 NM but the distance of the noon position is only 10 NM and the noon position yesterday is as much S as the current position?

Your answer may start with “The f………”! Answers must be sent to skipper-cat-mare@myiridium.net without an attachment.