Day 13, 3rd July. 39-20N, 168-57E. Daily Run: 85 NM. Weather: 10-15 Knots Northerly, 2935 NM to go
Things are improving here, we had another rough night, big waves and a lot of rolling. I wanted to get the main up, but worried that going up on deck in the night with such big waves tossing the boat around wasn’t worth it, and also that the waves would cause the main to slam around too much. The forecasts all seemed to point to a lessening of the wind and waves over the next 48 hours as the Low moves away from us and weakens. By morning the wind was down to 10-15 knots, not much at all, but the waves were still a few metres high and the boat was rolling badly, I decided to get the main up, with one reef in it, this turned out to be a simple enough job in the end. First I have to get the boat pointing into the wind and waves, this needs the engine on, but the headsail has to be put away first, which can be a pain in bigger winds, but as I only had a partial staysail out, this went in easy. On the coachroof, it was quite rolly, but I have a guard rail around the bottom of the mast, which makes it very secure there. Up went the main with a single reef, back to the cockpit, engine off, main out, and genoa unfurled to about 50% and we were off again. This time on a faster reach with a nice heel to starboard. Back in the cabin you could feel how much better the motion was, we went from 3 knots speed to around 5-6, and the rolling was much reduced. Looking at the weather forecast, the great circle route takes up back into the low we are trying to get away from. So I’m going to keep going east for a day or two until the High pressure system ahead of us kicks in, I think this is the pacific high, and we will turn north when we reach that and follow it around until we are north of Seattle then probably make a direct course for Juan de Fuca straits. There are more lows heading across, and I expect the typhoon about to hit Korea will head our way at some point as a much weakened depression, but all in all, I’m hoping for a calmer ride for a while.
Casualties/Damage A few bruises from being thrown around the cabin, a few coffee stained items of clothing/fabrics. The batteries are only just providing enough power to run the auto helm and the heating system. The eberspacher draws quite a lot of 12v power, despite being a diesel heater! The solar power is reduced a lot under these very grey skies. Still we haven’t had to run the engine for a charge since the panels were installed earlier this year. We are discharging the batteries by about 50-55% overnight right now, which is more than I like, but still fairly acceptable under the circumstances given that they do generally get a full recharge each day.
I have replaced the missing bolts on the solar panels and they are back in place and I have realised that the problem with the bow thruster will most likely be at the control unit in the cockpit. When the wooden box/tray fell off, it exposed the wiring behind the binacle/pedastel to the spray, the Garmin navigator is playing up now as one of the sockets, in the same area was exposed on its back. Both of these are not an issue, we don’t use them on passage and as I say to Kathy, once we get becalmed, I will do all the delicate jobs while she gets on with cooking the soufflé and baking my multi tiered birthday cake, with intricate England footballers holding a small iced world cup aloft! Kathy cooked up two wonderful pot noodles yesterday, and as an experiment, she used one of them as floor polish, I think that’s why she was spreading it around the galley floor, then wiping it up again 😉 I have attached a picture of Kathy in our sea berth seeming to be coping quite well
Yesterdays daily run was a miserable 85 miles, but hopefully we can start improving on that now.
Paul Collister
