Day: 17 July 2018

Day 28, Tue 17th July. 50-16N, 153-38W. Daily Run: 33 NM. Weather: 0-3 Knots N, becalmed, grey skies. 1188 NM to go
The Pacific high has moved a little north and split into two separate highs, and although we are near the top of the eastern high, a ridge has formed right where we are and has caused the winds to drop to next to nothing. Once we get past the ridge which will take a day or two, we have decent winds for another couple of days, but by then the high will have moved further north and we will be faced with crossing through the centre of it, which again means no wind. Once past the high, we can expect strong winds from the North/Northwest, maybe 25 knots and big waves, which will send us tearing on down to Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Sound. I have attached a picture with the cross showing our location at the time.
As a result of the above, we spent most of last night drifting around with no specific direction. Fortunately the current is east going so for many hours we drifted towards California. Around 5 AM the wind picked up to 5 knots and we were able to get back on our NE course for a few hours, but it has since dropped back to zilch, hence our dismal daily run of 33 miles.
The sea is very calm, so at least the sails aren’t flogging themselves to death. We can’t motor out of this situation as we don’t have the fuel. We may have 24-48 hours of fuel left, but that won’t get us through all the expected calms so there isn’t much point. Also it’s no big deal just drifting around. I deliberately used most of the fuel in the calms we experienced off Japan, as I wanted to get us away from the typhoon area just as quickly as possible. Here we have little to worry about in the way of storms at this time of year. Also the fuel is better used for heating, it’s quite cold out here.
Kathy is keen to get to our destination now, but I’m thinking I probably won’t sail the N Pacific again, so what’s the rush. She did take advantage of the calm to bake another couple of wonderful loaves, and after a bit of drama over whether or not the proving was working, it’s not like Malaysia where you can just leave the bread out to prove, they turned out to be the best yet. Each morning we have fresh coffee made in our cafetiere and toast using the freshly baked bread, quite civilised really.
Paul Collister