We had an exceptional day of sailing today. Last night, after crossing the equator, we took down the jib and ran under only double-reefed main and stays'l. Our speed dropped to 3.5-4 kts, but it was more comfortable and we needed the rest. We kept it slow for almost twelve hours, but this morning the jib went back up, and we also steered off the wind a bit. Our speed shot up to 7-8 kts, where it stayed all day. Then we got our update from Rick, the WeatherGuy, who still wants us to go more east. He also is predicting the wind to top 25 kts tonight. So we took down the stays'l this time, and are steering more east, and our speed is back down to around 5 kts.
It looks like from Rick's data that we will enter the ITCZ (doldrums) in about a day, and will be in them for about 1.5 days. Rick says that there is very little activity there right now, way less than usual for this time of year. That's good. Activity means squalls, and we aren't fond of them.
Our current position, as of 6 pm tonight, was 01 deg 35.9N, 147 deg 04.4W. Speed was 5.0 kts, course was 000T (due north). We will try to steer a bit more east as soon as the wind lets us.
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