We slowed down a bit yesterday and finally had to turn the engine on at 10:00 last night. We're still motoring at almost 9 and a half degrees North, trying to reach 10 North where we hope to pick up some wind again. We're much farther east than the boats ahead of us. Maybe that will make our ITCZ experience different (i.e., shorter!). Motoring is the worst for Ziggy because the noise and vibration are terrible. It's bad enough for us but must be torture for his sensitive ears. We put his crate on the pullman berth where it's quieter and he has escaped there even though the motion is probably a bit rollier up there.
Chris and Louise of S/V Quest arrived in Kona yesterday. They left Bora Bora on 10/3 and are a fast looking, custom aluminum boat. They are the first of our batch of Equator Hoppers to arrive in Hawaii.
After crossing the equator on 10/15 our sea surface temperature gradually started rising to 79 degrees by the night of 10/16. It stayed there until the night of 10/18 (at about 3 degrees, 42 minutes North and 141 degrees, 45 minutes West) when it went up to 80 degrees and gradually climbed to a high of 82.9 degrees yesterday at 7 degrees, 57 minutes North, 141 degrees, 59 minutes West. It looks like it may have started to drop last night, but we'll see. This may all be related to the influence of the east bound current which has been affecting us a little.
With the warm waters the air temps have also been warm and humid. Our skies are mostly cloudy with some fat clouds dumping rain around us. We've had a few clouds catch up to us with light rain, but no downpours so far. We've seen some very pretty sunsets and sunrises with all the clouds in the sky. Yesterday afternoon we had a dolphin visit (our second of the trip) and there are always the occasional birds to see. We're heading mostly NNE to try to get to 10 North as quickly as possible where we hope to pick up some wind by this afternoon!
Linda