As expected, yesterday's run was 173 nautical miles, which is really good but not quite the 200 nautical mile target I had set. Part of the reason for this is a couple of hiccups yesterday that cost us some miles while we figured out solutions. Unfortunately, the water maker doesn't produce water when sailing with the wind on this side (port). Unsure if that was the culprit, we had to bleed both sides of the system (fresh and salt) and keep trying it to see what happened. I then motored directly downwind and also sailed with the wind on the other side to see if that changed anything, and it seemed to work.
Then, around midnight, the reefing line chafed through, keeping me up for a while to deal with that. The wind died off around 3 am, so we've been motoring further downwind while we make some water. Luckily, we have plenty of diesel! Even though yesterday turned into a bit of a palaver, morale remains high and we keep making steady progress. I try not to look at the miles to go more than once a week as it's a bit demoralizing, but we are 745nm from the Galapagos and have sailed 7900nm since we picked up Namarie in La Rochelle.
The boat seems to be a flying fish magnet. There are 12 on the forward deck, three around the back deck, plus three others I pushed overboard. This doesn't include the ones that have ricocheted past my ear or hit the deck and bounced off.
I was texting a friend yesterday and said, "We're nearly there, only 3000nm to go," and he replied, "3000nm for a normal delivery would be a huge one, not usually nearly the end."
