Miles sailed last 3-days=325nm.
Total miles sailed so far=4,826 nm.
Miles left to go HA HA=140 nm.
Top Speed so far = 12.2 kts.
Day-34.
Pos. Lat.10* 03′ N.Long. 171*56′ W.
24hr.Run=79nm.
Weather: Wind 5-8kts. E. Seas 2ft.E Bar.=1002mb. Cabin Temp. 85*-89*
The Rest of the Story:
The last 48 hrs. have been under spinnaker in very light winds.
Still no fish. I did have a ship come across my bow about 10 miles distant.
There is a low in my area and squalls were forming all night long, fortunately I avoided them until 6:30 am when I scanned the radar and seen a large one bearing down on me about 6-miles long and only three miles away. Not wanting to take any risks I doused the spinnaker and put it away in the bag on deck then rolled out the genoa and sailed on. This squall was fragmented and contained little wind about 15 kts was all that came out of it and some refreshing rain. The batteries were getting down as there has not been enough wind to turn the wind generator for the past two days, so splashed up the diesel and powered for several hours taking on a charge. Once the batteries were looking good the winds had also started to improve so hoisted the main and soon we were exceeding 5 kts under working sails once again.
Just one of those crazy thoughts from the Pacific, do you think that one day soon these sanctuary City’s will build houses and stick them around the neighborhoods and fill them with stuff to steal so that all those criminals they are giving the revolving door to can just go steel from them and not the hard working people that work for what little they have.
Just trying to be innovating, as I learn of more neighbors being robbed in my neighborhood.
The Jefe’
Day-35.
Pos, Lat.09* 36′ N Long. 173*43′ W.
24hr.Run= 111 nm.
Weather: Wind: 6-12kts. ESE. Seas: 2-3 ft. ESE.
The Rest of the Story:
Today I complete week-5 and I actually thought by now I would have arrived, but there was one thing that I had overlooked in planning this voyage and that is the trade winds move more to the North and out of this area in April and who knows possibly this year they are even a little ahead of normal. This all makes for slower going. My next guess was arrive by the 9th of April that also could be a couple of days too optimistic. So, I will go with sometime soon to arrive in the Marshall Islands.
Still “fishing” and can really see the bottom of the freezer now. Debbie is telling me to put the pole out and try different lures. I’m thinking about it but still have three more freezer meals. Maybe i could drag a bottle of rum and see if that helps.
I don’t know if you can even begin to grasp the difference between this voyage and the trip around the world solo. I can tell you it is like night and day for me as one was super challenging and this one is just somehow to easy. I guess it is hard to come down from something where you are on the edge day after day to a realm of such predictability. Maybe, like going from the black Diamond ski run, then getting back on the rope tow.
The distance and duration of course loom large in a voyage such as this, and planning and preparation is in many ways very much the same. I guess I’m just missing the “Adrenalin Rush” of the other, as probably you are to.
I also realize that I must not become complacent as “shit” can still happen.
On Patrol nearing the “date” line. Is this where you “hook up”?
Just trying to find that excitement somewhere.
The Jefe’
Day-36.
Pos.10*19′ N. Long. 175*56′ W.
24hr.Run=135nm.
Weather: Wind=8-14kts. Seas= 3-5ft. Bar.=1005mb. Cabin Temp.=83*-89*
The Rest of the Story.
The winds are filling back in and the barometer is rising a sign that the trade winds are coming down from the north once again, Yea!! Still no more fish.
Ok, so you would think by the miles left to go I would arrive tomorrow as the miles if I had sailed the course would be down to zero by tomorrow. I did this purposely to show you something that it took me years to figure out.
I have learned that by sailing my boat on a broad reach I can go 20% faster,then I can sail going dead down wind, and that is what I would have had to do to stay on the course line most of the time.
By tomorrow morning when my miles to go should be zero I will still have 620 nm. to go, but when you figure in that by then we will have sailed 4,966nm and that I have sailed 20% faster all those miles that equates to 993 of those total had I have stayed on course and went slower I would now still have 993 nm. to go instead of 460 nm. meaning I’m 373 miles ahead of the staying on course strategy, and normally I was off course by a good 30*
To really see this you have to lay this all out on graph paper, so then you get it straight in your mind, and you will do a lot better in your ocean racing over long distances.
“Mystery Aboard Sailors Run”, went like this. I had decided to cook a piece of smoked ham for dinner. I pulled two pieces frozen together in a bag out of the freezer placing them on the counter to in a bowl to thaw for a few minutes. After about 30-minutes I separated the two ham slices and laid the one to cook in the bowl to finish thawing and placed the other now back in the bag into the freezer once again.
I sat on the seating around the table and read for about 30-minutes before starting dinner. I go to cook the ham and it is gone-gone. Now, this is where you look at the bowl and then all over the counters and around the stove,under the stove, in the garbage and suddenly come to the conclusion it is gone-gone. I open the fridge and pull the bag out of the freezer and there is but only one piece in that there little bag.
The mystery still remains unsolved any ideas?
I had a few:
a. A bird circling the boat decided it was sick of fish and flew in grabbed it and was gone.
B. I have a rat on the boat and it snatched it up, and made off with it.
C. I cooked the ham and ate it fell asleep woke up and decided it was dinner time and was shocked to find it gone so cooked a second ham. Problem with this idea is there is only one ham bone in the garbage and there would have been two and the pan that I cooked in was clean and I had to add oil to it before cooking the second piece.
D. This my final and the most likely answer is we live in a parallel universe and a warp of that other universe wrapped over the aft portion of the boat while I was reading, and something that lives in that other universe ate the ham, then the warp receded and “bingo” no ham for the Jefe’ to cook.
You got any other ideas cause I’m truly missing that piece of ham.
Somehow suddenly not feeling so all alone out here.
The Jefe’