about 120 miles to go to Fanning Island
For a while there, it looked like we might make it to Fanning in 8 days (that was the date Tim chose in our bet - I stuck with the 10 day estimate). Now it looks like we'll arrive tomorrow, barring another night of no wind between crazy squalls. After 2-3 days of squall after squall, never knowing how windy they might be (translate: put the sails up, shorten sail/reef the sails, drop them altogether, then put them back up again), we finally have had enough wind to sail with the full main for the past several hours, and no imminent squalls. Tim has averaged about 2-3 hours of real sleep each night, with me just a few hours ahead of him. Luckily though, all our vigilance and preparations paid off, we didn't experience any really bad squalls, although some had gusts up to 30 knots. As Tim says, "no one gets a free ride through the ITCZ!" We're hoping we've paid the price and tonight will be our last night out and free from squalls!!! Those black clouds can look mighty ominous. Even with (or especially because of?) the light of the moon behind them. It was nice to have the full moon around, even if we didn't see it much the past two nights. I even got a glimpse of the meteor showers - at one point the clouds parted and I saw about 5 shooting stars in about as many minutes.
We've also reached the point in the trip where bananas are all ripe at once - so, despite the tiredness, I felt compelled to make banana bread yesterday. Yummy! It's almost all gone already. Sadly, the bagels I bought and didn't refrigerate got super moldy overnight… now what am I going to eat my lox on? We've mostly eaten really simple meals from cans or packages this trip - soup, annies mac n'cheese, curried lentils, and lots of cheese and crackers. It really takes an inordinate amount of energy just to make mac and cheese underway with the boat heeled over, and our muscles are often feeling like jelly…
We're getting excited for landfall - this morning Tim dreamt he was on Fanning already! Depending on how the wind holds up for the rest of the day and night , we could see land tomorrow am, or maybe not till later in the day. We'll want to enter the lagoon during the afternoon high tide, as the tide is coming in, since the entrance can have a lot of current.
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