day 12's run - 150 nm
average speed - 6.25 kn
dist to go - 184 nm
wx - a bit more settled weather, with winds averaging 18-20 knots; swells are now coming from the NE at 8-10'
sails - 2 reefs in main; staysail; partially furled yankee jib; we're broad reaching to running as we try to get a bit closer to our rhumb line
r/r (repair/replace) - electric fresh water galley pump quit; it's getting 12v to the pump, so maybe the high pressure switch failed; I have a replacement pump, and will r/r this one at anchor; meanwhile we'll use the manual pump, which is what we usually do anyway. the electric fresh water pump is typically used to fill our drinking water bottles as it has two filters in line that our manual pump doesn't have.
comments - Our dear friends Susan & Tom of the beautiful Nordhavn 40 Limerick suggested we add a bit more explanation of the Pacific Seafarers Net, so here goes....this Net is run by Ham radio operators for Ham operators aboard vessels voyaging thruout the Pacific region. I counted 12 Ham relay station operators from Hawaii, Tonga, Alabama, New Zealand, California and a few other places I didn't get, and one main controller who runs things in a structured fashion. Vessels voluntarily participate in a "roll call" and opt in or out depending whether they are underway or in port, so the number of vessels participating daily fluctuates. There were 8 vessels checking in our first night of participation, and they were voyaging to the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia, Kirabati of the Line Islands, Easter Island (4 boats), and one boat each to Kwajalein Atoll and Yap Lagoon. So, you can see that boats underway thruout the Pacific are voyaging far and wide. Each vessel provides the following information: time of report in UTC, boat latitude and longitude, boat course and speed, wind direction and speed, sea direction and height, % of cloud cover, and barometer reading and changes of same. This is the data entered into the computer to effect search and rescue efforts should the need arise. A boat can "call traffic" with another vessel or land based station, and phone patches can be arranged if necessary. The Net operates at 0300 UTC, and is on for about one hour....I think that covers most of the pertinent details. Meanwhile, team Infini continues her steady progress and we expect to drop anchor sometime Sunday evening at Hanga Roa. Winds are supposed to lighten up as we get closer to Easter Island, so that will affect our speed and time of arrival. Btw, the 240 meter long cruise ship "Oceanic" (or was it "Oceanus"??) is scheduled to stop at Easter Island on March 15, discharging, if I recall correctly, 650 passengers onto this speck of island! LOL! We don't know how long they're scheduled to stay at Easter, but one can only hope they'll be on their merry way before too long.....Of further interest is that we haven't seen a single other vessel since departing the Galapagos. It's a big ocean out here! We've been on a port tack the entire passage so far, and the Sailomat self steering vane has steered over 95% of the time, with jury rigged repairs (totaling approximately 6 hours or so) being the only time it's been down. We stand watches 24/7, which means that one of us is on deck and "on watch" thruout the night. Fortunately, we really enjoy night sailing, so it's not so much of a burden as one might think, although catching up on our sleep can be difficult with the boat pitching and rolling.
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