avionbianca   Blog for s/v Avion

Thursday July 10 2014 12:16
Day 3 of racing to Hawaii but it feels like we are just starting. We had good wind to get under the gate and past mile rock, but beyond that winds got REALLY light. We made an average of 2 knots for most of Tuesday and all of Wednesday. A pod of humpback wales escorted us to the Farallon Islands and a pod of Dolphins joined them briefly to wave us off. Last night however the wind finally started up starting at around 8 knots and building to 25. We have changed headsail 5 times now starting with the, smaller, #3 jib out the gate then shifting to the, biggest, #1 jib once we were out. Fairly quickly, we shifted to the Jib Topper, a large reaching jib. Yesterday evening we put our first spinnaker up ,.75oz asymmetric, but it only lasted a few hours as the wind was building and the boat was getting a bit over powered. We now have the Jib topper back up and are making 7-8.5 knots of boat speed in 9 – 12 knots of wind and heading south west hoping to get below a small section of light wind that seems to be charging at us. That’s all for now I now have 3 hours to get some sleep before my next watch.

Jeudi 10 Juillet 2014 12:16
Notre troisem jour de course vers Hawaii mais on a impression d’avoir juste commencer. On a eu du bon vent pour passer le Golden Gate et sortir de la bai, mais apr ca le vent et tomber et on a fait en moyenne 2 knoeud pour la plus part de mardi et mercredi. On a eu des ballennes qui nous a suivi jusque aux isles des Farallones avec quelque dauphins pour nous dire au revoir. Heir soir le vent et finalment monter a 8 knoeuds et a continuer a monter jusque as 25 knoeuds. On changer de voile 5 fois jusque a present. On a commencer avec le #3 (pettit) foc pour sortir de la bai, etay puis on a monter le #1 (plus grand) foc. Assez rapidment on a changer pour le “Jib Topper” un genre de grand foc pour vent de travers. Heir soir on a mis notre premier spi, aasymetric leger, maais can a que durer quelques heurs comme le vent et monter et on commencer a avoir trop de toile. A ce moment la on a le “Jib Topper” et on avance a 7-8 knoeuds avec 9 – 12 knoeuds de vent. On se derige vers le sud west et on espere se placer aux sud de une section de peut de vent qui viennes sur nous. C’est tout pour l’instant je vais me couches pendent quelques heurs avant mon porchine quart. Pardonnne les fautes d’autrograph c’ette ordinature ne comprrend pas le francais et ca bouge.

Untill next time
A la prochanine
Nico