Pacific Crossing Day 25

Oh so close, and ....the decisions we have to make. On Monday morning I came up to the cockpit, and Tod said "you will be happy to see our progress". Yes, I was, it looked like we could make landfall in 30 hours, somewhere on Tuesday afternoon. At that point, our boat speed was over 6 knots, and the estimated arrival time was based on that high speed. Fast forward 10 hours later, the wind had died down, our boat speed was reduced to half, and an afternoon or early evening landfall was no longer in the cards, unless we would start motoring for the rest of the trip.
Our motor is loud down below, none of us like it, and it makes the inside of our boat even more hot. So the decision has been made to not motor, go at a slow speed, and shoot for an arrival at sunrise (545 AM local time) on Wednesday morning. We actually might need to slow down, maybe heave to, to not make landfall during the night. But the end of this endurance marathon is in sight, and we hope to be rewarded to make landfall in, what our guide books describe, as one of the most beautiful bays in the world, Fatu Hiva. There will be no resources or stores whatsoever, that ice cream or baguette has to wait, but it will provide us with an unrolling anchorage to fix our starter motor issue, a sticky solenoid.

Thanks everyone for following along, and for all the messages you sent to us!

Post script: we just spotted land,what an exciting feeling! Still 30 miles away, another 6 hrs, and I had to double check that it wasn't just clouds. "Land at last", Tessa screams when I get the whole family to come up. If we feel comfortable and we have enough moon light, we might anchor tonight. Next post will be from land!

Jolanda signing off for the Bliss crew

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At 2019-Apr-16 18:00 UTC the position of Bliss was 09°36.34'S 137°50.92'W, with course of 229T (*T) and speed 3.9 knots. Wind speed 11.6 knots from 081T (*T)