Two for One

Author: Mark
Date: June 16, 2pm NZT
Location: 22 44 S - 170 50 E
Conditions: 18-21kts @ 165 TWA, 340T COG, 7.5 kts AVG SOG, 3-4 m swell

We've had a great two days. Sailing has been excellent. The seas while still large have settled in their direction, making the ride MUCH more comfortable. Today has been the best day yet, with nice following seas, running at 165TWA, with genoa only. Once the wind drops a little more, I'll pop up the spinnaker or full code zero and let her rip. I just want to let the squally patches clear as I don't want to be snuffing the spinnaker in 30 knot gusts. If that were to happen it may be more like putting the pieces of the spinnaker back in the bag vs. snuffing...:-)

Everyone onboard is doing great. Sarah has been a little more tired than usual. She has had a harder time getting sleep with the strong roll we had during the trip. She is asleep now, so all is good with the commodore and crew. :) We plan on arriving to Vanuatu tomorrow. We are 160NM from Aneityum, and will make this our first port of call. We have more friends sailing up behind us to Aneityym, and plan on being at anchor giving them a warm welcome after a boisterous sail north.

We can't wait to get to warmer water, and the tropical weather. New Zealand in the Fall and Winter can be chilly and wet. Not something we have grown to like very much aboard Field Trip. When you live on a boat, you prefer warm to hot weather with daily dips in the water. We'll of course need to be more careful as we head farther north into crocodile country...as we don't want ourselves or our kids to be a snack to a croc. Heck, I'm actually far more fearful of crocs than I am on sharks. We swim with sharks almost daily out here...crocs on the other hand are much more predictable - they like to eat humans. Sharks not so much unless you are in Great White or maybe Bull territory. We hear of villagers getting grabbed by crocs far more than being bitten by sharks...so needless to say we are going to be very very careful.

On a final note, we are also looking forward to hooking up with our sister boat s/v Two Fish in Vanuatu. They are currently crossing the South Pacific with two other Antares 44i's, and we hope to spend time comparing notes and socializing in Vanuatu. We haven't seen Jason or Gail since New York City, so it has been a long time.

Well, that's it for now. No pics today as our KVH internet connection is out of range up here, so we are sending this via the Iridium Go sat connection which is much slower than the high speed KVH.

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