Day 3., Pos 34 – 52N, 140 – 51E. Daily Run 163NM. Weather, dreary.

Day 3., Pos 34 – 52N, 140 – 51E. Daily Run 163NM. Weather, dreary.
I’m pretty sure we found the Kuroshio current last night, our speed shot up by 3 knots for a long time. Sadly I drifted too far north last night but we are back in it again getting a 2 knot lift, making our speed 6 knot+ most of the time. The wind has gone again, but we had some fine sailing yesterday and into the evening/early morning. We made a daily run of 163NM which is great, but we had the engine helping for 15 hours, we will have to stop using that in a few days with just enough left for our arrival and the odd emergency.
Japan is behind us now, although not far enough as far as the weather goes. Out of nowhere a low has developed behind us and is deepening and heading our way. We can expect a gale with winds in the 30-35 knot range and waves up to 4 metres. My watch started at 4AM today, sunrise was just after that, and I started preparing the boat. I went around the deck making sure everything was tied down well and couldn’t chafe, chafe being the number one problem on a passage like this. I also rigged up a rope / stay leading forward from the spinnaker pole, and one leading aft so I can keep it in position. I will be leaving the pole out all the time on this passage as it’s too much of a flap to hoist it up the mast and get it down. I also gybed the pole in anticipation of the expected blow.
I transferred 60 litres of fuel from cans on the deck to the tank, this being how much we have used in the last few days leaving Kushimoto. It’s better to have the 60kg (approx) deep in the tanks below rather than on deck, from a stability point of view. Earlier a huge downpour passed over us and brought a little headwind, but not enough to do much with. I am keeping north of the path of the depression and hoping to pick up a bit of wind from it, but it will either miss me or run me down, we shall see. Everything else is going well, the boat is working 100% as planned, all systems seem good, and we won’t see land again now until we get across the pond. We might not even see anymore ships. There is one crossing our bow now, but at 4 miles away he is hidden in the mist/fog. Kathy had fun on the midnight watch as many ships where just drifting around, making 2 knots in the current while waiting to enter the Tokyo bay area I suspect. The AIS shows them pointing one way but heading another, which is confusing.
I haven’t quite got used to the fact that the passage has started, but now Japan has disappeared out of site, and won’t return, I think it’s very much a wysiwyg situation now, just sea and sky for many weeks. I think there should have been a big sign in the ocean somewhere that said
Welcome to the North Pacific Services available in 4300 miles Conditions “OK to Rubbish” Have a nice trip
Kathy thinks she will do a weekly blog. We will move the clocks forward tomorrow, so that the sun rises and sets at a more reasonable time. Now we have the power to set whatever time we like on board. I’m not sure how this works with the international dateline, some strange logic in my head says things will only be ok if we cross it at midnight! Normally we would change the clock by an hour for every 15 degrees of longitude we travel, but Japan is on such an odd timezone, that won’t work.
Paul Collister.