05 30.4N / 157 17.4W
Week 2 of our passage from Rangiroa, French Polynesia to Oahu, Hawaii has been much better than week 1. Conditions have been mostly benign, wind direction and resulting speed have been good. We ended up sailing 880 miles, vmg 855, maybe our best week ever? Due to the easy conditions, boat problems have been few and minor, let's hope that continues. We managed a few milestones as well, we crossed the equator, the 1/2 way mark on the passage and we've now just left the doldrums. The doldrums, or inter-tropical convergence zone, is an area approximately five degrees north and south of the equator. This was the area where we thought we'd have the most weather problems as usually it's plagued by calms interspersed with vicious squalls. We had those conditions in abundance during week 1, but, sailed right through the 600 mile doldrums area with constant wind of 15-25 knots from the east. South of the doldrums the winds are generally SE and north of the doldrums the wind is generally NE. We had the exact opposite of this, but, as long as there was east in it we didn't care. Next week isn't looking too great, lots of gales ahead. Right now it looks like we may just get lucky and miss them, but, at this point it could go either way, we'll see what we get. It would be nice, for once, to complete a passage without having to go to a third reef at some point!
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