April 11, 2006, 151 miles noon to noon, only 1319 miles to go!
Two memorable events took place today. Firstly, I made brownies to celebrate our halfway mark. Secondly, we showered. That's right, girlfriends, we hadn't washed our hair for 10 days; I bet most of you cannot say you've experienced that! Here's our normal 24 hour routine on Salacia: midnight-4am Dee's night watch. Dress in the dark, pop up on deck like a gopher every 15 minutes, keep the boat sailing and try to snooze in between. 4-8am Mark's watch. Mark eats poptarts, sails and snoozes. At 6am, he starts the motor to recharge our batteries. When the motor is running, he eats toast (a treat!). At 7am, he listens to the Amigo(Mexico)net on the sideband radio and connects with Sailmail which gives us our weather information. 8am-11 Dee wakes up and Mark is down for more sleep. Dee eats "pan tostada" (Mexican for big crouton), does chores or reads, and tries to keep the jib from ragging with 15 minute checks. 11-12 Mark gets on the radio again to check in with the Puddlejump net (for Pacific crossing). We listen to our friends' position reports, plot them on a map and gloat if we happen to be advancing at a greater speed! 12-1pm Lunch. We usually have leftovers, a sandwich or something grilled between two tortillas. 1-3:30pm We usually read in the cockpit. Dee might take a nap. Today, Mark trailed a fishing line and Dee baked. 3:30-4:30pm Mark may radio Don on Summer Passage, our weather guru, for information and his recommendation on our course. 4:30-6pm Dinner preparation and eating. Yes, this often takes well over an hour in rolly seas. Cutting up salad vegetables, and catching them as they roll off the table, may take 45 minutes. Several times, I have given up and opened a can of something. On good days, chili, quesadillas and mini-pizzas are our favorite dinners. 6-8pm Reading, talking and sunset watching on deck. Mark might snooze in prep for his night shift. 8pm-midnight Mark's night watch - Mark sails and checks for boats. We've only seen three boats in ten days, but we're keeping safe by scanning every 15 minutes. Then it's wake up time for Dee again! Of course, challenging weather and lack of sleep throw off the whole routine. Fortunately, we've had fair weather and adequate rest lately so the two of us, and the boat, are rolling along!
Mark: For the last 24hrs the wind has been pretty light in the 10-15 knot range. As well, it's cranked around to the E. I was heading up on a course of 290 but just decided to go wing on wing and head to a course of 270 so we don't get to far North. Just North of us the trade winds start to disappear.
April 10, 2006, 173nm noon to noon, 1445 nm miles to go
We're almost halfway there! We're counting 1420nm to go as half way so you can help us celebrate and raise a drink for us tonight! The wind is still good at NE 20-25 knots. Last night they were periodically even stronger as we negotiated some minor squalls. The seas are about 8' with wind waves on top hitting our stern quarter. It's a bit rolly with a large roll every once in a while. However, nothing that keeps Dee from cooking up great meals!
We're tracking our progress along with 3 other boats: "Our Tern" a Valiant 40, "Royal Treat" a Morgan 43, and "Western Grace" an unknown 55 boat from Nanaimo. We're kicking Valiant butt by about 60 miles per day, putting the Morgan back by about 50 miles a day, and getting closer to Western Grace in front of us by about 35 miles a day. Our average speed over the water is 7.4 knots. Our goal is to pass Western Grace before we get to Hawaii. She's 270 miles ahead right now so it's a definite possibility. This little game of chase the boat is a great game to play each day. Anders from Royal Treat and I were going to race to Hawaii for a buck a mile for the winning margin. I guess it's good for them that we didn't! To be fair, they don't have the great winds we have. We left when strong winds were forecast while others waited another few days for various reasons. We had more wind than we wanted for the first few days but it sure is paying off in progress.
The wind is supposed to back to N and increase to 25-30 ahead of us by Wednesday. Where we are today is supposed to go calm at at that time. So, we should keep closing on the boats ahead while the following yachts fall into light wind. No, of course, I'm not racing!
Dee says "hi" and is looking forward to arriving in Hawaii just a little bit more than I am :) She has promised each day to write an update but is just a little bit too tired (and busy cooking up some great meals!)
April 9, 2006, 156 miles noon to noon, 1634 miles until Hilo, Hawaii
Just another day blending into the next. But, today, we're both in great spirits after getting a good sleep last night. A nicer motion on the boat combined with extreme weariness means we both slept all the way through our sleep shifts. It sure feels good!
Salacia continues to perform well. We keep hearing other boats reporting into the net and comparing our position to theirs. I know it's not a race but we're still kicking some butt. I guess it's not really fair because most of them are big heavy boats that are (generally speaking) over provisioned. We're a fast and light Catalina 42 and just have crackers on board. Ok, a little more than crackers but we do travel light. Directly of our bow is a 55 footer that was originally about 400 miles ahead of us. As of this morning that gap is down to 240 miles. It would be pretty cool to catch them before Hawaii.
The only equipment hiccup so far is that two of our three water tanks had salty water in them. Not salt water, "salty" water. I have a salinity meter that tells me that we could drink the water but it does taste pretty bad. Our biggest water tank is fine so we're drinking from there. As well, we have a watermaker on board. The good news is that because the water was brackish I could pump it overboard, lighten the boat, and increase our speed! I can't find an obvious way that the salt got in there. We did fill those tanks (and not the main tank) in the marina in PV so maybe their water is bad. It wouldn't be beyond the realm of expectation in Mexico. Anyway, I've got the time to test things so I should have an answer by the time we reach Hawaii.
As you can see, our miles per day continues to be pretty good. We're actually sailing further but have an adverse current that's cutting us back a bit. The wind is still from the NE at about 10-20 knots, varying up and down. If all goes well we'll hit the halfway mark sometime tomorrow.!
April 8, 2006, Day eight,163nm noon-noon, 1856nm to go
Imagine that you have been waiting a very long time for the top thriller ride at a theme park like Disneyland. Let's say you've made it to the front of the line at Space Mountain. You step into the vehicle and you're reminded that you must hold on at all times. You won't be buckled or strapped in so failure to hold on could mean serious injury or death. You are reminded that this ride will last approximately twenty days, maybe more and maybe less. There will be no option to get off the ride once it has started. During the ride, you will need to drink, eat, sleep and attend to normal daily functions WHILE holding on. Oh, and you'll need to keep the ride running smoothly and safely as there won't be anyone doing this for you either. In fact, you and your partner will be the only ones on this twenty day roller coaster ride. Are you holding on? Are you ready? It's a wild ride. We are nearly halfway!
Mark: Dee makes it sound quite a bit of fun. What she's not saying is that sometimes it is, but sometimes it's not. We're both really tired from lack of sound sleep. Even during a sleep shift we may not sleep well depending on the sea state. We have our good days, and sometimes our bad days. But, we know that the adventure will be what we make of it. ------------------------------------------------- Do not push the "reply" button to respond to this message if that includes the text of this original message in your response. Messages are sent over a very low-speed radio link.
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April 7, 2006, 1013nm done, about 1900 to go, 166nm noon-noon
Since we're in middle of nowhere you would expect that we're pretty alone out here, right? Well, in a way we are. We haven't seen another ship, pleasure or commercial, for days. But our long range radio is alive with chatter. Each morning we check into a cruisers "net" where we report our position and weather conditions. Boats from Mexico and deep into the pacific report in. After our report the net controller asks if there is "traffic for Salacia." Many of the friends we met over the winter take the opportunity to call us and say "hi." Just yesterday we heard from Rocket, In the Mood, Petrel, Western Grace, Po ino Roa, Royal Treat, and Ohana Kai. It's a great feeling to talk to friends who are halfway across the ocean and sure makes it feel like a small world.
The weather the last 24 hours has gotten better for us. The wind continues to be about 20 knots from the NE. Since it's been blowing from this direction for quite a while now the seas have really settled down and that means that life on the boat is more comfortable. We've got our regular jib back up and a single reefed main. We're barreling along at 7-8 knots. The strange thing is that we seem to have .5knots of current against us. I would expect the current to be us by now.
