1 Week Down
17 July 2016
Wendy
This morning marked 7 days since we left Hawaii. We hoped to put 1000 miles between ourselves and Hurricane Celia but we didn't expect to be at latitude 39 and another full day further than we hoped. We continue to have nice fast days and pretty reasonable seas, although today they are up closer to 2 meters. Its also cloudier today. Not sure if that is an indication of approaching the North Pacific High or just a passing occurrence. We'll know more tomorrow as we expect to get to the bottom of the high sometime later in the day. We will continue heading due north until the winds get enough of a westerly component that it makes sense to start turning towards Seattle. That will most likely be sometime on Tuesday, but the high moves around a bit and we need to make sure we are located correctly just in case it moves back a bit more to the east while we are in its vicinity. Therefore it may be Wednesday or even Thursday before we head for the barn door.
We will be having the last of our So Pacific caught fish tonight. (Sadness). I hope I can help it go out with a bang! (pun intended). Even though we have been in Tuna country for awhile the guys haven't felt like fishing. The rest of the meals planned for the remainder of the deep water passage are of the fall/winter variety as we will be heading into cold weather (for us). Last night we broke though the 70 degree mark and saw a chilly 67 degrees (shocking!) That is the first time we have seen the 60s since late April, and frankly, our bodies have become accustomed to the warm weather and 67 feels cold!
So one week down and less than 2 to go if things continue to move along. Its still possible the crew can meet my stretch goal for a 17 day passage, but its still quite a stretch at this point. We will have to keep up an average of 6.6 knots for the entire trip to make it in on the 17th day. Not likely, but still in the realm of possibility.