08/16/2009, 37 11'N:171 50'E, Pacific Ocean
We made the turn heading north at 9:45 local time and made a friend along the way. This guy rode our bow for a couple of hours.
Time has been the question, we have been trying to decipher what time do we go by out here? Zulu time, via Bob Cook our weather router, local time which we think is Zulu (Greenwich Mean time) + or - 11 hours depending which side of the date line you are following or then of course we are coming to the date line (@ 180 degrees) which will throw us into "Groundhog day" and we will live the same day twice.
The sky's are gloomy and gray, seas and wind have increased as we head toward the cold front that we hope to start to cross in the next few hours. Then it is reported the wind will clock around then lighten and hopefully the seas will follow suit and we may have to motor sail for some time to get us to the winds again.
We only have about 48 hours of cruising fuel left and then our reserve for the generator. Given we have over 1000 miles to our nearest fuel refill, (Adak Island) we are guarding our fuel consumption vigilantly.
Being Sunday we had blueberry pancakes and bacon (for the non-vegetarians) as our breakfast, corn beef hash for lunch, I had tofu hash of course and left over's for dinner. This quick dietary summery is to let you all know we are eating quite well. Now all we need is good southwest wind to keep us heading north.
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08/13/2009, 36 09'N:166 07'E, Pacific Ocean
Well the sleigh ride has begun however not as fast as we had anticipated. We are only sailing along doing 5.5 knots, downwind, heading north. We seemed to have settled into a routine of sorts, Steve is reading in the cockpit, Starr is studying in the v-berth; Joe is on the foredeck reading. We are hoping that the winds will stay fresh and push us toward our Aleutian Island destination with in the next 12 days. We have been following Bob's recommendations via best weather course to follow and hoping the winds stay in our favor. Necessity a boat that left a month before us made the trip in 13 days. That has been very discouraging to us all to say the least. However we are all keeping our spirits up and hope Bob will get us there soon. Kiska may be our first stop or if the winds allow we may head further east to Adak. Thanks again for your support and emails, Patricia, Steve Joe and Starr Our sea based email (text only) address is as follows (writing it out so as not to attract spam ... you get the idea); sail621 at ocens dot net. If you would like to check out Necessity's site log on to http://blog.mailasail.com/necessity/69
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08/11/2009, 32 56'N:161 20'E, Pacific Ocean
"prepare crew and boat for a good fast exhilarating sleighride" via Bob Cook our weather router. After a week + of riding the Japanese current, cold eddy's, motor sailing and being becalmed we think things are about to change. Although because we were becalmed Starr and I were able to take a nice warm dip (82 degrees) in the Pacific's clear blue waters yesterday as we ghosted along at 1.5 knots. We have been watching a couple of lows; one in particular heading our way Bob has recommended do some south-ing to avoid high waves and then goes on to say; "When wind resumes from south as low approaches, recommend trim for speed and resume sailing east. If you can reach east and south of34 00N, 162 30E believe you will have less than 25 kts from the south as the low approaches and passes, as it butts up against the Pacific High and finds it cannot get further east so itself turns NE.Consequently at about 34 00N, 162 30E or so you should be able to turn ENE maintaining a minimum baro of about 1009 min or 1015 max,to have SW winds of 15-25 kts." Yea Ha! Alaska here we come..
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