Sail to the South Pacific--Day 1 Gingerale and Crackers

This sucks.
I wrote a lovely blog entry in my head yesterday--about our fabulous send off (complete with air horns and kids cheering on the pier). And how it brought to mind the glamour of old-time travel--when going someplace was an event.
But then we hit the miserable freaking weather system we need for our ride out to the trade winds (which better be wonderful after this...) and it's all I can do to write a few pathetic whining words about how much I hate beating into these northers.

See--I thought we'd turn south right away (I should pay attention to routes...) but it seems the strategy is to get away from the coast and follow our rhumb line--a fancy way of saying we're beam to in this crap. The good news is I'm not the only one who's currently disillusioned by our passage. We spoke with Zephyr (who seems more put out than us) and Whatcha Gonna Do by VHF a few times today and all boats report sea sickness and minor teething issues.

But we're averaging 6.5 knots and as of 2pm we've already churned away 130 miles in big swell and nasty wind waves. Conditions are gradually beginning to moderate as we move away from the coast and should improve at some point enough that I can actually venture into the galley and get hot food. Until then though blog posts will be short and irritable.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com