Day: 16 July 2018

Day 27, Mon 16th July. 49-46N, 155-12W. Daily Run: 110 NM. Weather: 0-6 Knots N, Calm and dry. 1252 NM to go
We are not becalmed, but if the wind drops anymore we will be, right now the wind has dropped to about 3-6 knots, and we are drifting along making about 4-5 knots, which is not bad considering how still it feels. Right now the sea is very calm, and predicted to get calmer. A calm sea helps a lot as the sails stay filled and power us along nicely. I have taken the reef out of the mainsail, so for the first time on this passage we have the whole sail out. Normally at this point I would fire up the engine to push us along a little, but fuel supplies mean that’s not an option. Later on today I will put 20 litres of my reserve 40 Litres into the main tank, mostly to use as heating fuel.
My idea to fix the wind vane chain with fishing line was modified when I realised that monel wire would do a better job, and I have plenty of that. Monel is a metal, I’m not sure which one, or what compound, but it doesn’t corrode or react with other metals much. I mostly use it for tying off shackle pins so they won’t vibrate loose, particularly on the anchor chain attachments. The repair worked a treat and we have been back on the wind vane for 24 hours and it’s coping very well, despite the lack of wind.
The iPad is acting like it’s possessed now, using it is a race against the invisible finger that keeps pressing buttons before you. Receiving an email requires me to do a screen capture of it immediately, before the phantom finger sends it off somewhere like the deleted folder. We have a backup system for emails, but that is on the android phone that caught fire. A third backup on the old iPad is an option, but that has about 1/3rd of the screen not accepting input, so you have to constantly keep rotating it to get the letters you need to work on the keyboard displayed on the working segment of the screen. It’s too old to have airdrop, so we can’t compose them on the mac and send them over as we did before. For some reason I didn’t put the iridium software on my iPhone, which is a shame. Kathy isn’t very impressed with the rate of failure on the handheld devices. I tried to explain it’s a harsh environment out here, but that didn’t wash.
I had another chat on the Ham Radio last night to Albert, a VE7 guy in Vancouver, he seemed to be copying our signal without problem, I told him we were sailing to Canada, close to Vancouver from Japan. He said “Wow, thats a long way, that must be taking a week to do” If only! The nice thing was he told us it’s really hot 30 deg C in Vancouver. He then tried to tell me about dealing with such heat, and the problems, I didn’t mention I have just had a couple of years in Malaysia, and 30 deg is no big deal.
The block on the Dutchman I use to tension it broke, or at least the clam cleats that are part of it. I have affected a repair that works, but I don’t have spare clam cleats of the right size. Nothing else is broken so all in all the boats in great shape. A few ships passed us by, all cargo ships plying there way between USA/Mexico and China/Hong Kong.
We are now about 3/4 of the way to our destination, we were getting estimates of 7-9 days before the wind dropped, more like 12 days now, but I’m hoping the wind will pick up a little as we head north of the high, and as the high moves south. We might even get some sunshine in a day or two. I have predicted that next weekend will be our last at sea for a while.
Paul Collister