UTC/Local: 1039 / 3:39 a.m. PDST
Latitude: 13 58.154 N
Longitude: 119 01.815 W
Conditions: Slow going.
The moon is beginning to wax and for a little bit last night, before it quickly set there was a Cheshire cat grin crescent in the sky with a reflective glow on the water extending right to the hull of our boat. We are looking forward to having a little more visibility at night with moon. It's been very dark.
At first the dark nights are unsettling, particularly for someone as visual as I am. Russ as a private pilot is more use to flying with instruments and feels comfortable just monitoring the wind gauge, compass, rudder angle indicator, radar, etc. I am getting more use to it, and frankly now that we are so far out there are no landmarks to see even during the day. It's just water and sky in every direction. The position of the sun during the day helps with my visual orientation and directionality of the boat, but of course at night we are totally dependent on the instruments, particularly when it is cloudy.
Every night so far in the early morning hours before the sun rises, the clouds form obscuring the stars. So far, we haven't gotten any rain out of these clouds as they are more like a high fog and tend to burn off by mid-morning. If they haven't burnt off by mid morning, we usually have them all day and that cuts down on how much electricity our solar panels produce. We like that sun!
Since the sun went down, the wind has been fairly light right around 10 knots. Our forward progress today has been excruciatingly slow, anywhere from 0 to 4 knots, and probably no more than 50 miles total. Heidi our wind steering system is trying to keep the little bit of wind that we have right on our back so that we can continue to sail wing on wing.
Our main is flying on a port tack and our jib is poled out and flying on a starboard tack. The swells go from mild to moderate coming from a confused sea. Confused means that the swells don't seem to be primarily coming from a single direction. All during the day on Saturday, the wind was coming from the north east. The swells were coming from the north, northeast, and northwest. Consequently, even though the wind is light, the boat is continuously rocking back and forth. With each rock, the sails either fill up or spill out their wind. We can constantly hear them inhaling and exhaling, fluttering and snapping. Although Russ and Garyn are "sleeping", I am sure it is not deep.
Earlier this evening, the rocking made it impossible for us to eat our spaghetti and salad on plates. We tried, but wound up eating out of deep plastic containers and still wound up with some spaghetti on the floor. Having separate spaghetti and salad "not touching each other" was a special challenge for Russ and Garyn who definitely prefer tidy little piles of of food. Our dinner was kind of a spaghetti/salad goulash. Not particularly visually appealing.
Nothing is still. I'm getting better at wedging and positioning things in the galley as I cook so that things don't slide around. Garyn and Russ did the dishes tonight after our 1,000 mile celebration dinner. I was very appreciative, but couldn't bear to look down and see what was going on in the galley as I could hear plates and pots sliding all over, landing on the floor and clanking against cabinets. Eventually, everything got cleaned up. Standing on a firm, non-moving surface seems like an odd concept. I wonder what it will feel like not having to brace every step after a month at sea.
10:00 a.m. Everyone is up and listening to the Fountain Head. The wind has filled in a bit to about 13 knots and feels more constant. We are moving about 4 knots. Slow but faster than last The sun is out, the water is clear and blue. It's 80 degrees. Russ is sitting half in and half out of the door. Garyn and I have been laying down in the lower saloon, drifting in and out of sleep as we listen. I think it will be that kind of day as we rock to and fro, crawling forward across the sea.
Thank you for your emails. We are enjoying them and appreciate your vicarious presence, helpful advice, and encouragement.
All is well on Worrall Wind
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