September 4, 2009, North Pacific Ocean
The war is being fought over our heads in the atmosphere. We're in the DMZ right now. In between a high that has its home to the southwest, but is trying to take territory to the west, and a low entrenched up in the north. This low sent a skirmishing party (a weak trough) across us last night, bringing periods of drizzle and shifting winds. The high seems to be on the warpath now, though. The sun is out, the barometer is rising, and the wind is starting to fill in from the northwest. But it's still fluky. For modest consolation, the models are having a tough time of it with this battle too - each day for the last 3 the forecast has changed pretty dramatically. The latest has the high dominating for the next couple of days, which isn't necessarily good news for a speedy passage. The better news is that we seem to have gotten enough north under our belts, so we won't have to bash upwind the last couple hundred miles. Or so it appears, but we will see what happens out here in the trenches.
We were zipping along on the westerly yesterday when the biggest mahi mahi of the trip struck. It was a 15-pounder, which will probably feed us 4 meals or so. It might be the last one. We love the pink feather lure, and so do the fish, apparently. Last night, David fixed it with a delicate coconut curry sauce. Delicious!
The trash is changing appearance as we head east too. We used to have more buoyant items, like net floats and chunks of styrofoam. Now we have heavier stuff with less windage, like bits of net, broken plastic boxes, and a tire. Anyone mising a spare tire? Sorry, we didn't pick it up for you.
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September 3, 2009, North Pacific Ocean
We got our westerly in the middle of the night, and it's a beaut. Like being in the trades again, only we're going the other way. The last time we had the jib out on the whisker pole was back in May, on the run in to Rarotonga. In honor of that experience, David is planning to do some hand-steering, to "see if I can beat Jake." No one has yet, but he might be the man. Jake sure could use a rest; he deserves it. The forecasts suggested a chance of rain, but so far it's been beautiful. Even the slow, light-air sailing we were doing yesterday was extremely pleasant, like a day on the Catalina Channel. Only with big swells running. But not enough to keep Sandra from baking a batch of oatmeal cookies. The cookie monster awakes!
There's a pleasing symmetry about this run on the westerlies, compared against the first leg out from Auckland. There, at about latitude 36 south, we were riding the effects of a low sweeping across to the south of us. Now we're doing the same thing in a different hemisphere, on the other end of the same leg. Using a low to the north this time, because of the Coriolis effects being opposite up here. I dunno, I find this sort of thing amusing anyway. Maybe I've been at sea too long.
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September 2, 2009, North Pacific Gyre
Well, it had to happen, according to the predictions, and it sure did. In the middle of the morning, the high swept in quietly and absorbed us. We're motoring again, this time headed a bit farther to the north. This is both strategically useful and tactically wise. The strategy has to do with getting a better run on the expected strong northerlies along the coast. The tactics are to do with the next system coming our way. There's another low coming across tonight or tomorrow, and the farther to the north we get, the better westerlies it will bring to us. This looks like a pretty fast-moving one, so we want to use the westerlies as well as we can in the time we are given. In practice, we have split the made-good exactly between getting north and getting to our destination, to pick the direction that our diesel breeze will carry us.
The fishing line is out again, after a bit of a break. We'd had a run of mahi mahi in 6 meals out of eight, so we fixed a big ol' corned beef for a couple of meals. That took care of it, and we're all ready for fish again.
The alert among you looking at the Google map would be able to work out a milestone we just crossed this morning: we lost a digit. No, no one got a finger caught. We're within a thousand miles of the Golden Gate! On the odds, this puts us about 8 days out, but as always, this number isn't to be taken to the bank. The odds, after all, come from other passages. Anyone want to start a betting pool? Jeff? We won't be able to moderate, though. That is probably good, since we then won't be tempted to swing the outcome. The obvious time-point to bet on would be the moment we pass under the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, the crafty bettor would want to note which direction we are coming in from. If we're coming in from the northwest, we plan, for sentimental and touristic reasons, to drop hook in Drake's Bay for one night, and then come down the next day. If we are coming in from the south or west, we will probably sail straight in. So, since the pool should close well before we get there, you are betting on whether we've gotten enough northing in yet or not. We don't know this either...
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September 1, 2009, North Pacific Gyre
Things have settled down a lot, with the wind staying steady, and indeed backing to the north quite a bit. Pretty good sailing, overall, though a little slow now. But the conditions mean we spend a lot of time in the cockpit. David and I were up there yesterday afternoon, chatting about something or other, and got to see a very impressive sight: a whale breaching twice. It was far enough away that we could only estimate how big it was from a sense of its hang-time in the air, but from that we guessed it to be a minke whale. Not a real big whale, 20-30 feet long. The book says they like to breach, and often "almost fully". This one must have been an athlete, since it cleared the surface by almost its body length. And landed with a mighty splash. It looks like fun. Just like the Polynesian boys - all mammals like to do the cannonball.
The other sighting was a couple of hours later, and less interesting. A big container ship came by a few miles away, probably bound for Honolulu from Seattle or Vancouver. It's the 4th boat we have seen since we cleared Hawaii - two fishing boats and two freighters. A pretty busy piece of ocean, it would seem. We keep a good watch, so it's not a safety concern. Just another sign we're getting back to civilization. Kind of sad, really, we like our oceans to ourselves. But that ain't happening here.
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August 31, 2009, North Pacific Gyre
I was accused of sounding grumpy yesterday... sorry! There, does the exclamation point help bring back my usual tone? What can I say, I had had a hard watch. Last night's wasn't much better, but I am feeling more philosophical about it all today. More squalls, wind shifts, and some rain mixed in. But things have settled down a bit. The wind steadied down in the northeast, so we're heading a bit south of east now. Making better progress against our destination than we have for a while. It's beating to weather (again), but I guess that was the passage to expect. The wind is forecast to back well north later today and tomorrow, so we should do even better, and maybe even get back some northing. I am still a bit worried about coming in too far to the south, but if that happens, it will happen. The passagemaker's bible is a book by Jimmy Cornell, 'World Cruising Routes'. He suggests not turning east until about latitude 40, but finishes it by saying it all depends on the big high. Which has been hard to predict lately, so we're going to have to play it by ear. As we have been doing.
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cec
regards,
Harvey
You have our deepest sympathy. You will be so much more relaxed and happier once you are back in Davis writing grants, reading ridiculous comments from Study Section members who have no idea what it is like to watch an albatross bring joy to your soul. OK, so changing sails in the middle of the night, steering in pitch black, or maybe trying to maintain a course when you are blinded by a nearly full moon makes you feel in need of sympathy. SORRRY! I can more readily remember how I hated the last part of a sail or a hike, with the prospect of having to go back to all the wearisome crap. Remember Moitessier!
August 30, 2009, North Pacific Gyre
Not that kind of high. The one in the atmosphere, that has been coming, going, and bobbling about for the last few days. Its return over us is why we motored so much the last couple of days. Now it has retracted the arm that wrapped around to the east, leaving us with an easterly wind. So, we're sailing again and making good time to the north. We still need that, so even if we're not making that much progress right now toward the Bay, we are still content. Once we cross the 38th parallel, though, we might start to grumble. But our life is as much controlled by local weather patterns. We ran into squalls last night, and all through the night and morning it's been pretty unsettled. From a deck-level perspective, this just means work. The motor has been turned off and back on about a half dozen times since last sunset, and we've been down to double-reefed main, up to full canvas (now), and pretty much everything in between. I'd better wrap this up - there's another line of squalls in view up ahead, and the work will begin again soon.
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