We’ve not had a day like this in a long time. Lots of intense squalls last night and today. Huge areas of heavy rain. As we’re almost at 12 degrees North latitude, without a steady barometer and good weather data, this could be cause for worry. However, there is no circulation to this stuff, so things should be cool.

The view from the flying bridge remains spectacular, between periods of heavy rain, with some nice rainbows on the horizon.

During the squalls the wind increases from 12 knots to 30, and the sea goes almost white. Visibility is still excellent through the forward windows.

And of course we have our radar to help keep watch. If we were sailing, we would be using the radar to estimate how much wind the squall contained. And if we deemed the risks too high with the sail we were carrying, we sometimes used the radar to look for a way through or between squalls.

Last night we downloaded the satellite image above. Hawaii is in the upper left (northwest) corner. Notice the cloud mass, circular in shape, at 10 North and 150 West? When we first looked at this it made us a little nervous. So we asked Bob McDavitt to check it out. There is no circulation, so we’ve continued. Given its proximity to our position, had there been any risk factors we’d have waited to cross into this area, or made tracks back towards the equator.

Above is the Pacific surface analysis for this morning with tropical depression Kenneth left off. The breeze looks light, from the east. Ideal for us. The GFS model grib file that we’ve downloaded shows the same for today, with the breeze increasing a bit tomorrow and then going northeast on the final day as we close with Hawaii. So, we’re still sailing high of the mark, with a 15-degree easterly bias in our course. By the end of this day we’ll be due south of Hawaii and will then alter course to head almost direct for the lee side of the Big Island. We need to save a bit of easting as the currents run strongly east to west as we get closer.

Speed has been averaging just under 11 knots, and we’ve still got an ETA for midday at Honokahau, with just 420 miles to go after two days at sea.