THIS IS FROM NOAA WEATHER SITE SHOWING HOW HURRICANE OTTO IS SUPPOSED TO GO AFTER COMES ACROSS TO THE PACIFIC SIDE AND HOPEFULLY JEFF WILL BE ABOVE THE BAD WIND
Miles left to go= 609 nm as the “Booby flys”.
Top speed so far=11kts.
24hr.Run=59nm.
Day-11
24hr.Run=88nm.
Day-12
24hr.Run=133nm.
Day-10.
Dave moves closer sailing fast in fresher winds to the west now only 35 miles behind. David is experiencing some difficulties like 3 bolts fell out of his radar and it swung out on the one bolt leaving a sharp corner of the plate it sits on exposed, and that has put several slices in the genoa, that he believes to not be an issue.
I have to run the Honda 2000 generator about an hour a day to keep up with energy needs as with little wind the wind Generator is doing nothing.
It was during the night when I was outside with my head lamp on that I decided to take a piss off the back of the boat. I ducked down under the bimini and started doing what I came for, but was shocked when I looked up and had my face right in a Booby birds “butt”, and all I could see was that long hooked beak at eye level. I decided before the bird felt violated I best push it off its perch and some how it established flight before reaching the water.
Day-11
David has passed me and is now 20 miles in the lead, while all the time I struggle in nearly non existent winds. It is when I could take it no more that I fired up the engine to actually motor for an hour and charge batteries at the same time. It is normal for me to look in on the engine while it is running just to see that all looks right, well this time it looked “All Wrong” as the normally snow white drip cloth under the engine was floating in a dip pan full of water, and to make it worse my fuel tanks were nearly flooded over as was the rest of the bilge.
Soon the water level subsides and I must use a hand pump to get the water out from under the engine. Once all is dry I go searching for the source of the water, and my first hunch was the right one the packing gland on the shaft was dripping badly and a few turns on the bolts tightened that back up and the leak stopped. It’s amazing how fast drips of water add up and this no doubt had been going on for the past 10-days.
It was at about 5 am the winds started filling in for me again and Sailors Run is back in the race now doing 6+ knots. “Taste the Blood” look out David.
Day-12
Winds are fresher today and I have shortened David’s lead to just 15-miles. He also slipped in telling me he has a two bladed prop and a marked shaft so he can lock it for minimum drag a luxury I don’t have with the 3-bladed prop on Sailors Run. Oh well I still have 600 miles to catch him..
We are also going to have Hurricane “Otto” entering our ocean on Friday. It is a Caribbean late tropical storm that has decided to pump up to a category-1 hurricane.
Otto is slipping across central America at around 11* north by Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The water there is very warm about 90* and we can only hope it follows the ITCZ trough to the west. If it comes north Dave and I will be running for our lives with plenty of wind at our backs.
Meanwhile Debbie is home in Albuquerque getting her 23 lb. Turkey ready for Thanksgiving for family, a meal I truly hate to miss.
Heading north looking for more wind, but not way more ‘thank you”.
The Jefe’