Seasoned South Pacific sailors sometimes call this stretch of the central Pacific “The Dangerous Middle”. The weather in this part of the ocean is notoriously fickle – the squally South Pacific Convergence Zone just to the north, winter storms in the Southern Ocean to the south, and cold fronts migrating northeastwards from the tip of New Zealand all meet here -conditions can change quickly and are difficult to forecast on the western edge of the region.
So when a weather forecast with 5+ days of settled wind from a decent direction materialized, we hopped on it. The southerly to southeast wind has been a mostly steady 15-20kts, and it’s been more or less on the beam, or blowing perpendicular to the boat.
Nearly all sailboats will perform well in those conditions, and Oso is no exception. Even though we’ve set up the boat conservatively, usually with two reefs in the main and one in the genoa, we’ve still covered almost 800nm in the first four days – that’s not fast by most modes of travel but is exceptional by the standards of a heavy cruising sailboat.
The downside is the sea state. A 10’/3m swell from the southwest combines with the 6’/2m wind waves from the southeast to make a washy cauldron of an ocean. But the speed seems like a good trade off to us.
All’s well aboard.
Day Four
18 02.2S 165 21.3W
199nm
