Day 3 It's All About Power
31 March 2013 | Off the Mexican Coast
Kim and Tom
We've have just hit the 4 day mark of our crossing. So far all is good (or even excellent)! We've had a steady wind out of the North to Northwest between 10 and 20 knots the entire time. It seems to be clocking around behind us somewhat, just as the weather reports predicted. For now we'll continue on our present course (about 10 degrees above our direct route) until the wind is too far behind us to carry both our sails on the same side. Then we'll sail wing on wing (one sail out on each side) with the wind almost directly on our stern, taking us further south to the trade winds. We are making good time and hit the 150 mile mark in the last 24 hours.
Life on the boat is starting to become a bit more routine as both of us are getting used to the constant and often unpredictable motion. The 6 hour night watches seem to be working well so far and we will continue them. Nightly we check into a radio net at 8pm (0200 GMT) as do about 20 other boats. It is interesting to see how others are doing, where they are, and wind conditions at their location.
Our major issue now seems to be power consumption. It is hard to live in a deluxe condo and power it with a few batteries!! We have 3 solar panels and a wind generator but they're not keeping up with the fridge, freezer and autopilot. We therefore have to run our Honda generator a couple of hours each day. Not a big issue but hauling it out of the locker on a lurching boat can be challenging!