We bumped into another yacht out here today, thankfully not literally. Around lunchtime we get a call on the normally silent VHF ‘Itchy Foot, Itchy Foot this is Miki, Miki, Miki’. Replying to their hail we discover it is a Norwegian yacht that left Panama a few weeks ago and are also on their way to the Marquesas. They are a little shorter and a little slower than us, plus they got unlucky with the wind so we managed to catch them up and pass them throughout the day.
After a quick glance through the binoculars and a zoomed into photo Jon figured out they are an older Hallberg Rassy, which he was sure we’d seen somewhere before. We called them again and exchanged some more detailed. Sure enough, and by chance, we’d seen them transiting the
Panama canal the day we visited the museum at the Gutan Locks, we even have a few photos of them figuring that there was a chance we’d see them down the line.
We talked a little more, exchanged contact details and satellite phone numbers incase we needed to contact someone nearby. And finally talked about our plans for the 17th of May – which is Norway’s birthday and national day – a huge celebration back home. Our preparation started today with Mia, Tina and Teo all sitting down to make Norwegian flags to decorate Itchy Foot. We sent off a few emails to get recipes for different traditional cakes which Jon will try to put together in the morning – assuming we have the necessary ingredients onboard. And maybe in the afternoon we’ll grill some hotdogs, which again is a very common thing for the kids to eat on the 17th.
Another fast day sailing today, we spent most the day zooming along at 7.5knots. The seas are starting to build and get higher which isn’t helping the comfort onboard and they are forecast to get larger still. This makes simple jobs like brushing teeth, eating, preparing food, even going to sleep, much harder than normal and leads to frustration.
The good news is that we’ll be celebrating the half way mark tomorrow, so double celebration! It’s not a precise half-way and the total time left maybe less or more than what we’ve done so far. We don’t sail in the straight lines as the wind, waves and currents don’t always permit or encourage straight lines, so we’ve been working on the idea that the crossing is about 4000 miles. Tomorrow we should have 2000 left on the rhumb line to our destination. Hopefully we’ll be able to sail the rhumb (direct) line for most of the remaining trip.
From noon till noon on day 13/14 we sailed about 165 miles (straight line between the two points). So divide 2000 miles by 165 and you get a little over 12 days. But that is optimistic and 140 miles a day is a little more our normal pace which gives closer to 14 days. Again, assuming a straight line and no shortage of wind, neither of which is a given.
On we go.
