Moonshadow’s Day 8 Passage Report

1900 zulu, April 7, 2016
07 deg. 05.1 min. North
123 degrees 04.5 min. West
Wind ENE at 15 knots
Sea conditions NNE swells 8' long interval
Sky condition 90% clear

1900 zulu 24 hour distance covered: 161.3 nautical miles
Total distance from La Cruz: 1309 nautical miles*
Total distance remaining: 1382 nautical miles*

* these numbers don't exactly add up to the 2688 miles along our planned route because we've deviated dozens of miles west of that line.

Last night we had a legit squall with 35 knots of wind and rain. The wind subsided to mid twenties, but the cell, visible on our Radar was 20 miles in diameter and decided to follow our track as we attempted to escape our position in the dead center, first by heading west then south. It lasted about 2.5 hours. Actually all to be expected in the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone).

Now we are sailing with the wind at our backs and a little to the side! Hooray!!! We are back to sailing with a full main and full jib on a broad reach which means…NO MORE ROLLING! This is the kind of sailing everyone dreams of doing some day. Right here, right now.

The bigger news was that also last night, we crossed the half way point in our journey to the Marquesas Islands. We may only move along as fast as a guy drinking beer on a lazy beach cruiser peddling down the boardwalk at Mission Beach, but we never stop and look where it's gotten us! Well, there's half way in distance and half way in time. We don't know if we'll maintain our current speed, but there's now only half the distance remaining to cover.

Speaking of distance to cover, we came up with a fun contest for you followers of our passage:

Guess when we will cross the equator!

You have our exact position as of 1300 zulu today (above).
To help with your calculations, here's some other info for you:
Present course is ###
Present speed is ###
There may be some motoring involved if we get becalmed in the doldrums
We motor at 8 knots sometimes, sometimes not.
Zulu is some guy in England they named their time after
We are having chicken for dinner

If you have our passage email, send us your best guess.
Give us the Date and time (zulu - Google it).
Deadline is sometime before we cross the equator.
The winner gets the following prize package:
Satisfaction of knowing he/she won, and
A Hinano Beer with the Moo Crew in Nuku Hiva (transportation not provided), and
A Dominos Pizza in Cabo San Lucas, complements of Richard Spindler, Latitude 38 publisher.

If you are not into navigation, here's another challenge for you: John has crossed the equator before but Deb has not. As Captain, John gets to preside over some kind of ritual upon crossing the equator, so Deb can transform from a "Polliwog" (those who've never crossed the equator) to a "Shellback" (an ancient seafaring type who really knows their shit). Trouble is, John did not do his homework to learn just what type of ritual is appropriate. We know there's this guy named Neptune that figures into all this, and we brought along some champagne for the occasion, but that's about it. Does anybody know this stuff or want to research for us? Or just have some fun ideas?

That's all from out here.

Cheers from John and Deb Rogers
SV Moonshadow

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