08/16/2012, 475 nm to SF
Did you get the Zoolander reference?
Well, we're happy to have rid ourselves of some moisture (and beauty?!) today, as the humidity seems to be lower, the sun's presence was at least discernible for a while through the overcast, and we took advantage of both to hang out foulies and take feet out of boots. The leather on the outside of my Durbarry boots is not dry (is it ever?), but the woven tops and insides are. The dorade scoops are back on for a while, but the interior still hasn't quite recovered yet. The wind is getting variable as predicted, though I'm surprised that it's still registering 9ish knots as it looks to be swinging over our left shoulders on its way to SW. Impatience has us motorsailing, with Ray (Ray Marine) doing the driving now. Can you believe that we've barely touched the helm in over a week? Even through the worst of the wind and swells, Otto (Otto Helm) hung in like a trooper and kept us pointing in the right direction. Vince talked me off the ledge as I threatened to hand steer through the gusts over 25 knots, and it turned out not to be necessary.
We've crossed both the 3/4 way point and the 500 mile post today, and I'm starting to feel like a horse to a barn. Kim can attest to the fact that I got the same way toward the end of the PacCup. Never say never, but I feel like we're over the major humps, so now it's a matter of clocking the miles and punching the clock. We still have at least one sporting leg left, but I don't see that damping our spirits as we'll be on the home stretch. Current predictions are pointing to a Monday morning arrival, but we have a lot of dead air to traverse too.
We had oatmeal for breakfast as the receding swell made everyone more adventurous, and topped that off with fish tacos for lunch. Now it's time to clean up for another two-day stretch....
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08/16/2012, 508 nm to SF
Winds have dropped to about 10 knots from just east of North as predicted. They should continue to drop further and clock around to the SW over the next half a day. Normally that would be like pulling teeth for us sailors, but we can use a little break to catch up on some things like sleep and solid meals (especially for Vince). So it'll be motorsailing for a while as this wind dies, some sort of stbd tack reaching for a while, then more motorsailing between systems before the NWesterlies kick in again for the sprint to the finish. If you look at a current weather map of the eastern Pacific and see a big "L", that's where we are right now. The big difference between now and our earlier motorsailing spells is that it's now damp, dreary and chilly. But that's ok, we knew it was coming....and thank goodness for good foulies!
Maybe we'll finally have that ahi sushi this evening...
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08/15/2012, 630 nm to SF
We're hopefully within 12 hours of getting this gorilla off our back, namely the 20+ knots of breeze and narly swell. Not much inside or out of the boat is dry at this point, so we're rearranging furniture to have everyone sleep aft where it is the most dry. Vince is swapping the dorades scoop for blank covers now, which in hindsight we should have done sooner.
Current predictions still call for a reduction in winds, but I'm thinking it'll be dawn before we're out of the woods. The upside is we've averaged over 7 knots under the #3 and double-reefed main (put that in this morning). We look forward to shaking those out tomorrow.
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08/15/2012, 630 nm to SF
There once was a man with a bucket, That could do way more than clean, From the bow to the stern, He does more than his turn, D'spite his face like his ball being green.
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08/14/2012, 785 nm to SF
To elaborate on my comment about jogging right, we had already reefed after we were first seeing some gusts of 17-18, so we turned downwind to douse the #2 and hoist the #3. I saw a puff a while ago that was 21 or so, and it's a steady 18-19 right now. This wind seems a little early, but the timing of our sail changes were planned early anyway. Good news is we've averaged over 7 knots, our course is straight down the rhumb line, and there is a light at the end of this tunnel that's only 24-36 hours away. Otto (Otto Helm) is doing a fine job keeping us headed in the right direction. Lots of swells and wind waves now, so don't expect much in the way of communications until we reach the other side - we have our hands full. Speaking of full hands, Vince's green ball is now matched by his green disposition. Dad and I had the last of the refried beans in tacos, if that sounds familiar from our first three days out of HI.
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08/14/2012, 790 nm to SF
To those following YellowBrick, do not be alarmed by the jog to the right - we reefed the main and are now under No.3 and main.
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