Half way
02 June 2020
By distance, I am past 1066 miles from Cape Flaherty, which puts me ½ way home. I think I am a bit ahead of that in time, as I am no longer forced north by the winds so every mile is a mile closer. I am quite happy to cruise
along slowly towards home. Not raining is nice, and having enough wind that the sails don't flog is an added bonus.
As previously mentioned, my furler came apart and I have been waiting for lighter winds to affect repairs. The winds have been 10 knots and were expected to drop to 5. I got tired of waiting for light winds
and fixed the furler yesterday. AS is often the case for me, the thinking, planning, preparing and anxiety were much worse than the actual fix. I removed the links and
bent them back straight. I swapped the links port and starboard thinking that if they had twisted one way, that was a bit weaker, so now the torque is the other way. So
far so good, but they haven't been tested too much. 12 hours after the fix, the winds have dropped (as previously expected) and I am motoring a bit. I am sure a test
will come, and I will treat the furler with kid gloves.
I talk with a couple of cruisers once a day on the ham radio but it is more about weather than anything. One guy, Richard, has made the crossing 29 times. He turns 78
today so we will be his birthday on the radio. He is on his own as well, as his wife, passed away 6 years ago. He seems kind of lost on what he is going to do. As he
says, he is going to Ketchikan to pick up his mail, then down to Washington state to get some boat repairs, then maybe down to Mexico again. Weird life, but he has been
living aboard and sailing the seas since 1981. Quite a character. He left Hilo 40 days ago and still has quite a way to go. He had one major storm (the one that is
hitting the coast now) roll over him with 40 kn winds. I would like to avoid such things! He has no email and a limited high freq radio, so only talks with us once a
day for about 5 minutes.
The fish I caught are fabulous and I am mostly just grilling them with a boiled veg for dinner. Any sort of stew or soup just wouldn't use up enough of it and i don't
want it wasted. I am now at day 7 of fish for lunch and dinner. Variety it ain't.
Today I passed by the same latitude as Reno; so big shout out to Delaney and family.
The weather patterns are very complex right now (11 lows and 5 highs in the north pacific appeared on one surface analysis chart) but it looks like i can get straight to
Victoria and hope to stay in the inner harbour to recoup. I had to motor today for 6 hours with no wind in sight. I took the opportunity to go for a swim. With the
water temperature at 17 instead of the 28 of have been used to, I donned my wetsuit and hat and managed to survive. Very refreshing, and the hull looks clean.
Sailin' on.
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