The Pacific High.
15 July 2011 | 31 56'N:159 31'W,
We are on a line running northeast from Hilo Hawaii, now approximately 850 miles offshore.
It is somewhat disconcerting when plotting your position on the chart each day to realize that you're actually moving away from your destination. Jokes abound in the crew with quips about requiring the need to brush up on our Japanese or Aleutian to ensure that landfall can be prepared for.
There are three boats ahead of us on this route and every night on the pacific seafarers maritime net we pay careful attention to their latitude and longitude, wind conditions and what course that they are steering to confirm our interpretation of the weather synoptic charts that we download each day to track the position of the Pacific High.
On one occasion a couple of nights ago, one of the boats ahead of us tried to cut the corner east to Juan de Fuca Strait a little too quickly and found themselves trapped in the center of the high and had to sheepishly report to the moderator that they were steaming further North East to find the wind and continue on their voyage home.
The moderator quipped, "it looks like you got the prize!". All in all, a mistake that presents significant risk for fuel is needed each day to recharge the battery bank and having to waste a day of fuel is a significant energy cost realizing that you only have one tank of gas to get home!
Our present Meridian position is approaching 159°W and some of the boats have had to go as far west as 164°W to ensure that they are not caught in the center of the high.
Thanks to the technology of Single Side Band and satellite phone, it is much easier than it must've been for the older seafarers who may have found themselves becalmed for days if not weeks until the center had repositioned itself and the boats found themselves with water and wind in combination. Sitting under bare poles and wallowing in the Pacific swells cannot be a good thing.
All in all, it makes for tense moments and each day when the synoptic weather charts are downloaded and we carefully plot our position and course to see if nature has awarded us for our best efforts by mercifully moving the isobars to our advantage and fair sailing!
So far so good!