{"id":1787,"date":"2024-05-05T23:16:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T13:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2025-06-28T16:26:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T06:26:32","slug":"back-in-the-groove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/?p=1787","title":{"rendered":"Back in the Groove"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019re finally sailing again \u2014 properly sailing \u2014 and what a relief. After the chaotic stillness and squall-dodging of the past week, Sunny Spells<\/em> is back in her element, humming along with 10 to 14 knots over the beam and a big blue swell behind us. The trades have returned. The days from 28 April to now have been, in a word, restorative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that glorious stretch of ocean where the wind is just enough \u2014 not too much, not too little \u2014 and the boat settles into its stride. We’ve been mostly on a beam reach or broad reach, full main and big genoa, averaging 6.5 to 7 knots with barely a hand laid on a winch. The autopilot is content, the sails are happy, and so are we.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We\u2019ve passed a few waypoints that felt more symbolic than geographic \u2014 halfway from Gal\u00e1pagos to the Marquesas, 1,000 miles to go, 750… They\u2019re just numbers, but they change the mood. The South Pacific feels real now, not just an idea on a chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With good sailing comes better living. We\u2019ve been sleeping deeper, eating better, and catching up on all the small tasks that pile up when you\u2019re too exhausted to care. A few more firmware tweaks to the displays, some overdue cleaning. Amazing what you feel like doing when you\u2019re not battling squalls or running on 3 hours of sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sea is calmer now too \u2014 long, slow swells and the occasional splat from a flying fish. We\u2019ve had a few bird visitors again, though not as bold as the Gal\u00e1pagos gang. Just a noddy or two doing fly-bys at dusk, silhouetted against soft pink skies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The miles are slipping by now. Most days we\u2019re making between 155 and 165 miles, helped along by the South Equatorial Current which has been kind and steady. We haven\u2019t seen another boat in days, but AIS has picked up a freighter or two far off on the horizon. Mostly, though, it\u2019s just us and the endless roll of the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve both commented that this is the kind of sailing we dreamt about \u2014 peaceful, purposeful, and quietly exhilarating. It won\u2019t last forever, of course, but for now Sunny Spells<\/em> is doing what she does best, and we\u2019re just hanging on for the ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re finally sailing again \u2014 properly sailing \u2014 and what a relief. After the chaotic stillness and squall-dodging of the past week, Sunny Spells is back in her element, humming along with 10 to 14 knots over the beam and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[128,6],"tags":[216,215,118],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures","category-ocean-sailing-passages","tag-coconut-milk-run","tag-pacific-crossing","tag-south-pacific"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/svsunnyspells.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/84a4cd528ecc47d4d6e6cfea57ac5ce384855544-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgewA-sP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1819,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/1819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svsunnyspells.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}