Day 2 Update for Hiva Oa Passage

Summary: We’re finally sailing after a little bit of everything.
Position: 04 46.26 S 092 53.73 W
COG: 202 degrees m
24 hour distance: 155 nm
Average speed 6.45 kts
Distance to go to Hiva Oa: 2,762 nm
Day 2 Summary: Our winds died down yesterday afternoon as we were back to motoring with flappy sails and no more favorable current (as far as we could tell). Fortunately the multi-directional waves subsided and the seas evened out making for a comfortable, if not slow, afternoon. This allowed the girls to make progress on some schoolwork and for us to catch some good afternoon naps. The sky cleared giving us a beautiful blue afternoon, but clouds were looming on the horizon.
Later into the evening we were able to deploy more sails to try to take advantage of wind with a real direction. After midnight we put out the spinnaker again and were able to get back over 7 kts of speed, whereas we had been in the low 6s most of the day. Just after 3 am, Satin alerted Dave and Camille to increasing wind speeds and an approaching squall. We leapt into action and got the spinnaker down (not without some difficultly and some rope burn) before we were hit with even strong wind and rain. You can see the sharp course correction on our tracking map while we managed the sails.
For the rest of the evening into early morning we motored again through constant rain and variable winds. Finally around 9 am the winds picked up from a steady N direction around the small low pressure bubble we’ve been skirting. Now we are sailing at 8 kts, close-hauled in 18-22 kts of wind with the engine finally shut down. We’re not sure how long this will keep up, but it looks like we’ll be moving SW/W with this current system and expect cloudy weather and rains until at least Saturday. It’s stuffy down below with the windows closed, but at least we’ve finally found some wind.
Wildlife Sightings: Tuesday afternoon we caught a nice 3.5 foot Wahoo but turned him loose because our refrigerator and freezer are packed full and we didn’t think we could eat it all for dinner. Playful dolphins 1/2 mile off the bow breaching and leaping about. Many seabirds keeping us company in the rain. A small flying fish in the cockpit this morning.