Welcome to the NE Trades

We are happy to report that we are finally clear of the ITCZ. We ended up turning on the engine last night about midnight, after I spent a frustrating 4 hours trying to keep us going in the squally conditions and shifty wind and really confused seas. When Dave took over, he said "That's it, I'm turning on the engine.". It was a good decision--the GRIB files showed stuff brewing up in the ITCZ and we just wanted to get clear.

By 6am this morning, we were at 10-10N, with some sunshine and fluffy white clouds, instead of the low gray clouds we'd had for the past 2 days. The wind filled in nicely from the NE, and we turned off the engine, rolled out the genoa, and have been sailing all day.

We had a fabulous sunset this evening--complete with a green flash, and then some great after-effects with the clouds. And we were visited by porpoises today as well.

Unfortunately, the normally-strong tradewinds are forecast to get lighter and lighter, and then totally die in a couple of days. I'm not exactly sure what's causing it, but it looks like we'll have to motor in to Hilo the last 48 hours. I keep hoping the GRIB files will change, but so far that has been steadily predicted for the last few days.

778 Miles to Hilo. ETA probably sometime Saturday, Oct 2.

We understand the Florida Gators beat Kentucky today. Go Gators! We'll be rooting for them to knock off #1 Alabama next weekend--maye we'll get in soon enough to even watch the game on TV!
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At 9/26/2010 6:05 AM (utc) our position was 11°11.94'N 144°47.72'W