Position: 07 degrees, 32 minutes north; 146 degrees, 16 minutes west 118 nm day

THIS (the ITCZ) is why we carry fuel. Normally we prefer not to use the engine. It becomes a challenge to see if we do make a passage without using it – just sailing. In fact just yesterday afternoon Ann and I were remarking over lunch how lucky we’ve been on the passage so far. Eight days or so of stunning sailing and then from the equator to almost five degrees north (300 miles) we’re had a SW wind pushing us north instead of the more usual no wind and even catching a tuna in the process!

Well, during last night all that changed. First, a squall kicked up the wind and we went down to just a double reefed main. Then, when we were expecting to really get hammered…nothing. The wind quit completely. The wind indicator on the top of the mast was spinning around in circles. “Swirling wind” would be the more exact description. Charisma rolled in the four foot waves and with no wind to counter, she rolled 20 degrees to one side, then in less than two seconds, snapped back 20 degrees to the other side. As the mast and sail arced through the air a sort of whiplash would occur. KerrrrrAPP! A wave of Dacron sail would start at the top of the mast and come whipping down as Charisma rolled to the 90-some pound boom, that makes a sound like a boom, or rifle shot. Back and forth, forward and back. Blam, blam, slap, slap. It not only makes you want to scream, it’s very hard on the rigging and sails.

So, we motor. Probably for the next two days straight. The grib reports are showing zero wind at this point, but there are squalls and thunderstorms just waiting to pounce. Our strategy? Forget about sailing, just get the hell through here. As straight north as we can manage and as fast as possible. We started last night around midnight and we’ll likely continue through tomorrow night. We’ll see. According to the forecasts we have about 120 miles to go before we leave the ITCZ and enter the northern trade winds. Cross fingers and knock on wood we get there soon.

On a different note: It’s been a bit perplexing – at a glance – to watch the compass and GPS. They are in significant disagreement by as much as 30 degrees! I think we’ve discovered the west to east equatorial current. Today as we turned due west to motor around a huge thunderstorm, our boat speed and GPS speed were different by one knot! That’s a pretty big current.

On a last note, I was surprised today when I looked at the GPS/chart plotter and found – out here in the middle of nowhere – an AIS signal. Yipes! I jumped up and looked around and lo and behold, the other boat we’ve been talking with on the radio was just three miles away. It’s a J-120. They left Bora Bora at the same time we left Papeete. We’ve had a radio call each day at 1700 local so we knew they were in the area, but it’s pretty surprising that after two weeks of sailing we crossed within ¼ mile on the way to Hawaii. Another definition of a small world.

"Felicita" suddenly showed up on the AIS...

...I looked around and there they were!