The wind has remained steady all day at 12-15 kts from 080 degrees. We have the same sailplan as yesterday (haven't touched a thing in 24 hours)... slightly reefed main, vanged to port, genoa poled to starboard, and the staysail down the middle. Sweet!
Another nice sunny day in the tradewinds.
The way we have our genoa poled, we can roll it in or out without touching the pole or going up on deck at all. This makes a really flexible downwind rig, and we can vary our heading about 45 degrees without changing the sailplan... from dead downwind (in calm seas) to about 45 degrees to starboard. If the wind were blowing harder, we'd have a second reef in the main, and the genoa rolled in about a third or more.
With the staysail sheeted tight down the middle, it minimizes side-to-side rolling, and tends to keep the boat steering downwind, by dumping extra air into the genoa as we yaw around. (Thanks to Tom Service from s/v Jean Marie (now Tiger Lilly), and my experience Rum Racing at Melbourne Yacht Club for this sail plan)
Tomorrow: French Polynesia at last!
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At 4/6/2010 2:53 AM (utc) our position was 23°41.33'S 133°48.37'W
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