Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 21 - Tuesday, April 27, 2010

UTC/Local: 20:06/13:07
Latitude: 02 26 401 N
Longitude: 128 26. 613 W

Conditions:

0300 Calm seas, 3-6 feet swells, bright moon, cloudy, wind speed about 10, boat speed about 3-4 knots. We are less than 200 miles from the equator, and under 1,000 miles to Hiva Oa. Whoo Hoo! We are 2/3's of the way there.

I'm on late-dawn watch. I got up at 2:00 a.m. Russ had early watch. He was so tired, he could hardly wait for me to get out of bed. He crashed and within seconds was snoring. We thought we would be motoring tonight, but we are enjoying a beautiful sail instead. It is a welcome respite from the frenetic motoring in high seas and pouring rain with little to no winds.

We kept the motor off while we ate dinner and participated in the evening nets. By the time the nets were over around 9:00 p.m., the seas had begun to flatten out a little and the wind pickup a little, so we are sailing....not very fast....not on the exact course we wanted, but everyone needed a good night's rest after the last couple of days. It's very tiring and wearing on the body bracing,bumping,flying through the air while motoring. It is such a different motion than when under sail. Sailboats are engineered to cut through the water and find the rhythm of the wind and sea state. Our bodies have become used to that kind of motion. You can almost anticipate when to step and when to wait. When motoring and powering into the waves, the boat begins to lurch and leap in unexpected ways. Even laying down is an odd sensation. Sometimes the boat drops down so fast that our bodies are airborne and we levitate off the bed. So while we may be in bed "sleeping" we really are not getting much rest in those conditions, and it is catching up with us.

0630 The moon has just set and my view forward is pitch black. There is however a faint light from the eastern sky. I think the sun is thinking about rising this morning.

By 0730, everyone was up. We turned off all the potential noise makers for the radio. Russ served as net control this morning for the Pacific Puddle Jump Net. He did a fine job! Sea Flyer continues to limp along with his motor and delivered fuel for which he is thankful. Thankful too that he ran the fuel through his Baja filter as it wasn't real clean. Russ asked if anyone had made contact with Aquila. No response. We tried several times ourselves with no response. Garyn even asked for a radio check from any vessel who could hear us on VHF 16. Silence. No one is anywhere around us. With the exception of the tanker that delivered fuel to Sea Flyer several days ago, which we think was the same one we saw later in the day, we have had no AIS traffic or seen anything other squalls on our radar. We haven't even seen a sea bird or dolphin that last couple of days....just flying fish. Can't find our pet gecko either.

Speaking of squalls, we got through the entire night with nary a one! Russ turned on Lehman and Ray around 10:00 A.M. and pointed the nose of the boat directly into the wind. Even with full power we are drifting a little west because of a strong equatorial current, but much better than we were doing under sail and winds under 10 knots. We had blueberry pancakes and bacon this morning. Actually, I started it this morning and we wound up eating it just before lunch. Having turned off the refrigerator for a couple of hours each day for the nets, both had started to defrost which was serendipitous because they needed a defrosting. I just hadn't planned on doing that at the same time I was cooking breakfast.

After breakfast, we took showers and did some laundry. The laundry is blowing in the wind off the fan tail. Garyn and Russ are napping. That will be my plan as soon as one of them wakes up and stands watch. We think we will be crossing the equator sometime tomorrow morning. Garyn has been talking about giving Russ a buzz cut on the equator and throwing his hair in the water for Neptune. I'm going to put the champaign on ice tonight. We might be having Mimosas tomorrow at 0 degrees. If the conditions are right, Garyn would like to take a swim. We'll see how that works out. I think I'll just dip my toes in.

This afternoon we are enjoying blue sky with about 50 % cloud cover, blue, blue water cruising and are traveling 5 knots with the wind and swell right on our nose. Russ will serve as Net controller this evening as well. Tuesday will be Worrall Wind's day on the radio until we reach waters too far south to hear or transmit to most of the fleet.

Hope all is going well with all of you. All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 21 - Tuesday, April 27, 2010

UTC/Local: 20:06/13:07
Latitude: 02 26 401 N
Longitude: 128 26. 613 W

Conditions:

0300 Calm seas, 3-6 feet swells, bright moon, cloudy, wind speed about 10, boat speed about 3-4 knots. We are less than 200 miles from the equator, and under 1,000 miles to Hiva Oa. Whoo Hoo! We are 2/3's of the way there.

I'm on late-dawn watch. I got up at 2:00 a.m. Russ had early watch. He was so tired, he could hardly wait for me to get out of bed. He crashed and within seconds was snoring. We thought we would be motoring tonight, but we are enjoying a beautiful sail instead. It is a welcome respite from the frenetic motoring in high seas and pouring rain with little to no winds.

We kept the motor off while we ate dinner and participated in the evening nets. By the time the nets were over around 9:00 p.m., the seas had begun to flatten out a little and the wind pickup a little, so we are sailing....not very fast....not on the exact course we wanted, but everyone needed a good night's rest after the last couple of days. It's very tiring and wearing on the body bracing,bumping,flying through the air while motoring. It is such a different motion than when under sail. Sailboats are engineered to cut through the water and find the rhythm of the wind and sea state. Our bodies have become used to that kind of motion. You can almost anticipate when to step and when to wait. When motoring and powering into the waves, the boat begins to lurch and leap in unexpected ways. Even laying down is an odd sensation. Sometimes the boat drops down so fast that our bodies are airborne and we levitate off the bed. So while we may be in bed "sleeping" we really are not getting much rest in those conditions, and it is catching up with us.

0630 The moon has just set and my view forward is pitch black. There is however a faint light from the eastern sky. I think the sun is thinking about rising this morning.

By 0730, everyone was up. We turned off all the potential noise makers for the radio. Russ served as net control this morning for the Pacific Puddle Jump Net. He did a fine job! Sea Flyer continues to limp along with his motor and delivered fuel for which he is thankful. Thankful too that he ran the fuel through his Baja filter as it wasn't real clean. Russ asked if anyone had made contact with Aquila. No response. We tried several times ourselves with no response. Garyn even asked for a radio check from any vessel who could hear us on VHF 16. Silence. No one is anywhere around us. With the exception of the tanker that delivered fuel to Sea Flyer several days ago, which we think was the same one we saw later in the day, we have had no AIS traffic or seen anything other squalls on our radar. We haven't even seen a sea bird or dolphin that last couple of days....just flying fish. Can't find our pet gecko either.

Speaking of squalls, we got through the entire night with nary a one! Russ turned on Lehman and Ray around 10:00 A.M. and pointed the nose of the boat directly into the wind. Even with full power we are drifting a little west because of a strong equatorial current, but much better than we were doing under sail and winds under 10 knots. We had blueberry pancakes and bacon this morning. Actually, I started it this morning and we wound up eating it just before lunch. Having turned off the refrigerator for a couple of hours each day for the nets, both had started to defrost which was serendipitous because they needed a defrosting. I just hadn't planned on doing that at the same time I was cooking breakfast.

After breakfast, we took showers and did some laundry. The laundry is blowing in the wind off the fan tail. Garyn and Russ are napping. That will be my plan as soon as one of them wakes up and stands watch. We think we will be crossing the equator sometime tomorrow morning. Garyn has been talking about giving Russ a buzz cut on the equator and throwing his hair in the water for Neptune. I'm going to put the champaign on ice tonight. We might be having Mimosas tomorrow at 0 degrees. If the conditions are right, Garyn would like to take a swim. We'll see how that works out. I think I'll just dip my toes in.

This afternoon we are enjoying blue sky with about 50 % cloud cover, blue, blue water cruising and are traveling 5 knots with the wind and swell right on our nose. Russ will serve as Net controller this evening as well. Tuesday will be Worrall Wind's day on the radio until we reach waters too far south to hear or transmit to most of the fleet.

Hope all is going well with all of you. All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 20 - Monday, April 26, 2010

UTC/Local 1800/1100 PSDT

Latitude: 03 24.115 N
Longitude: 127 05.689 @

Conditions: Big seas, mild winds, and lots of rain, Two hundred miles from equator, 1036 miles from Hiva Oa....Just around the corner :)

Our position today 4/26 at 1800 Z is 03 24.115 N; 127 05.689 W. It has been raining almost constantly since 3:00 a.m. this morning. It's 78 degrees and 98% humidity. The seas are 12 feet and are no longer following, but coming from the southeast, right on our bow. Fortunately they are not breaking. Rivers of water occasionally run down the deck as we plow headlong into a large swell, and our ship's bell rings itself when we slam down off a wave. We are motor sailing at present due to the lack of a consistent wind coming from the east. It's been an adventure. The Gribs look more promising later today. We might be breaking out of the rain. It looks lighter ahead and we might be able to start picking up the southeast winds.

Lehman (our engine) and Ray (our auto pilot) have been working hard for the last 24 hours. Occasionally, we rest Ray and hand steer particularly during the net as the auto pilot does interfere with our radio reception.

You may recall that on Thursday, April 8, our first full day at sea, we mentioned our friend Mike Rafferty, single handing, his boat Aquila, a 1978 Freeport 38B, out of San Diego. We left La Cruz on the same day, he earlier in the morning than us. We passed each other at 19 degrees 55 minutes N and 106 degrees 53 minues W, and took photos of each other's boats and talked on the VHF radio. We motor sailed for awhile and pulled a head, sure that he would eventually catch and pass us as his boat is lighter and swifter. Later that night we saw a mast light in the distance, but cannot be sure it was Mike's or one of the other Puddle Jump boats. We tried calling him on the VHF and got no response. Because he was single handing and we knew he would have to sleep sometime, we didn't want to be too close to his position during his sleep time. We had hoped to have some buddy boats close by and were sorry to lose contact with him. We hoped to hear him on the Puddle Jump Net or Sea Farer's Net, but haven't.

This morning on the net a welfare call came over the radio,onshore coast guard inquiry looking for Aquila. Either folks at home have not heard from him or he has not arrived at destination. He apparently does not have a single side band radio. Everyone was asked to try and call using their VHF radios today. We have done so, but are not getting any response. VHF is line of sight and this is one BIG ocean. He may have had a SPOT as one of the folks on the net thought his boat's name was Aquila Spot which may be the name he gave to a SPOT tracker. We hope he's having a good time and just not able to check in. None of the other alternatives are good ones.

Is our SPOT tracker still working? From our vantage point it looks like SPOT is sending and reporting, but we really have no way of knowing unless you tell us so. Maybe Mike thinks he is reporting but isn't reporting because of the lack of satellites in this area of the ocean. Since he does not have a single side band radio, he probably has no email contact either.

Our other Puddle Jump fleet boatd in distress, Sea Flyer continues to motor. On last night's net, he was at longitude 3 N and latitude 130 W. He had had some engine overheating problems during the day, but once he cleaned barnacles out of engine water intake, the engine cooled down. He had yet to start using the fuel from the Cuban tanker. Friends on Sailing Vessels Sula and Freezing Rain left Puerto Vallarta yesterday after a couple of false starts due to equipment problems. Had they not had to turn around and returned, they would probably be right behind us.

1412 - The sky is still grey, but we are beginning to see some patches of blue and some definition to some clouds. It's warm and muggy. Because of the rain and splashing seas, we've kept the boat on lock down and it's like a sauna on the inside. We've cracked the doors open a bit and are getting a nice breeze through the pilot house.

Russ has volunteered to serve as net control for the PPJ tomorrow. I hope we will be in a position to shut down the motor and all the other gadgets so he gets a clear copy for check ins. Well, it's nap time, game time, dinner time, then bed time on Worrall Wind. Our knees are doing fine. Russ has early watch. I have late watch. Garyn has night off.

0200 Zulu - We turned off the motor and are under sail, 10 knots of SE wind, but we have a strong equatorial counter current pushing us west faster than we are sailing forward, so we are turning the motor back on. It sure feels good to sail though. The boat is so much more gentle to the body under sail. Under motor we lurch and bash, but at least we will be moving forward in the right direction.

All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 19, Sunday, April 25, 2010

UTC/Local 0000 Monday, April 26/ 1700, Sunday, April 25
Latitude: 04 49.647 N
Longitude: 126 43.803 W

Conditions:

After a long, slow night, Worrall Wind is motor-sailing. I guess you can call it that even though we are doing far more motoring than sailing. There is less than 5 knots of wind. As the sun was setting last night, the wind died. We were making some forward progress of less than 1 knot. We had previously agreed that if the boat speed dropped below 4 knots we start up the engine. However, Russ wanted to monitor engine given our earlier problems and needed some rest before his late watch shift. So we postponed firing up Lehman "the engine", until dawn, when everyone would be up to hold watch and he could spend whatever time would be necessary to monitor engine.

In the meantime, we bobbed like a little cork in the ocean all night except for dodging a squall at 1:00 a.m.. Around 6:00 a.m. a wind sprang up from due southwest the direction we wanted to travel. We had a choice of tacking close either toward the northwest or the southeast. We chose the northwest and did that until the sun came up for about an hour (we still haven't turned the clock back yet). Just thought I would mention this strange tactic since it sure to show up on Spot as some weird track.

Russ went into the engine room to open the thru hulls for the exhaust and engine just before 7:00 a.m. As he slid across the top of the engine box to throw the levers (always in the most inconvenient locations) a huge 2 inch wooden sliver embedded itself in Russ's left knee. He came out of the engine room and quickly fired up Lehman so that no water would come in the exhaust pipe. We held our breath!

The Lehman turned over and started to hum. We exhaled with relief. Then it was time to remove the splinter. Russ used a pair of pliers to grip the sucker. The first pull didn't work. The second pull worked and this two inch, 1/8 of inch monster came out. I nearly fainted. Russ said the splinter was horizontal not perpendicular which means it wasn't deep. We bathed the puncture wound in hydrogen peroxide and tried to squeeze out the nearly bloodless wound as much as possible. Then we put on antibiotic ointment, and he took a Cipro to prevent any infection. He'll stay on a course of that for a couple of days. He is trying to keep his leg elevated and stay out of the sun (Cipro reaction). Dr. Abby?....any further advice?

My right knee started to swell up the first week out. There is no pain associated with the swelling, but it became twice the size of my other knee and started to drain into the lower part of my leg making the entire leg, ankle, and foot swollen. The tightness has made it difficult to kneel down and get on my knees. I've been taking some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and have been trying to keep my leg elevated as well. I am happy to report that it is "looking" much better today. Russ and I are quite a pair with our legs elevated.

The seas are now coming from two predominant directions in the this latitude, southwest and northeast, making for large rollers under the boat which we either dive into or surf down. Garyn and Russ negotiated a fairly large squall last night around 1:00 a.m. which gave us the best 15-20 knot winds all day. Apparently we rode the outside edge for nearly an hour. I was sleeping and awoke briefly as Garyn came into the back stateroom with his head lamp and shut the portholes.

Thank you Marcia and Dave, and radio guru Mike for your advice regarding radio reception. We turned off everything before the net last night. The reception was sooooo much better. Our laptop computer seems to be the worst offender. We were able to connect with Puddle Jump net and for the first time the Sea Farer's Net. We were particularly interested in getting an update from one of our Puddle Jump Fleet, Sea Flyer, a Choy Lee offshore 38. They had rigging failure a couple of days ago. Their chain plate broke and shrouds came loose. They could actually see their mast lifting off the deck. SCAREY! We are within 200 miles of them and wanted to offer some assistance. We had heard that they were motoring and would need more fuel to get to the Marquesas. We also have some rigging supplies. However, we weren't sure exactly what we could offer without putting both of our boats in jeopardy given the large swells. We hadn't been able to hear them very well. Last night we had a clear copy on them.

Turns out that Sea Flyer hailed the Coast Guard, who arranged for a passing tanker to drop some fuel for them. About midnight on April 23, this large tanker stopped near them. They had to motor up to the tanker. The large swells kept bumping them against the hull of the tanker (either bound for Cuba or Cuban registered), doing some minor damage to their solar panels. Since this became too dangerous, Sea Flyer backed away from the tanker. The vessel's captain, then lashed 10 gerry cans of diesel to a line and dropped them into the water. Sea Flyer recovered the floating line and jugs with their boat hook, and now have some additional fuel to help them on their passage. They are not sure if it will be enough, but there are a couple of boats close by in the event they need some additional assistance. We are 200 miles away on latitude 126 and Windryder is about 25 miles from Sea Flyer on latitude 129.

One of our vicarious sailors asked for a recap of some of the terms we are using. Genny is our gennaker (an asymmetrical spinnaker that flys like a kite off our bow). Genny works best between a beam and a broad reach. A beam reach is when the wind is coming 90 degrees (right angle perpendicular to the side of the boat). A broad reach is when the wind is coming 91 -120 degrees off the side of the boat, slightly behind the beam on the stern quarter. Genny got a wrap when a wave dipped us down and turned the boat in such a way that the wind was coming well beyond 120 degrees right over the stern quarter.

Hydie is our Hydrovane, wind steering system that keeps our boat on a particular course or reach based on the angle of the wind. Hydie is basically a wind driven auto pilot, but she takes no electrical energy. Today, we are relying on Ray, our borrowed Raymarine auto pilot from Freezing Rain, that works with our motor to steer our course. Ray and Lehman are a dynamic duo. Just as Hydie and Genny are.

It's time for lunch. I sat on the bow earlier this morning and have so much salt on my skin from sea spray, that a margarita would taste mighty fine. I'm just wishing.

5:00 p.m. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing dominoes. Garyn who drew five hands without a start piece turned out to be the winner. He just washed his sheets and they are hanging on the jib lines. They are clamped on but he is still holding one edge so it doesn't flap off. The boat under power is making its own wind on the foredeck. I don't know how dry they are going to get. Russ has had a shirt hung up for two days and it's still damp. The humidity is about 80%. There are no white caps or wind ripples on the undulating sea which means we will continue to motor probably throughout the night until we get some wind. It could be a couple of days. With the engine running, we've just about filled up the water tank with our water maker and are generating enough power to watch a movie this evening. Yeah! Popcorn and cola coming up. I'm on early watch, Garyn's on late watch, and Russ has the night off. He's even thinking of having a beer!

Just a gentle reminder, if you must forward us information or want to reply to an update, please remember to delete all unimportant information and delete our update so that it doesn't come back to us and eat up our sailmail time. Thank you for understanding and helping us out.

All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 18 - Saturday, April 24, 2010

UTC/Local: 2200/1500

Latitude: 05 55.605 N
Longitude: 126 06.586 W

Conditions:

0000 We ended Day 17 and began Day 18 at 07 00.9 N and 125 54.0 W, having traveled 141 nautical miles, the exact distance as the day before. The moon is up but starting to descend. The temperature is about 80 degrees and we have an apparent 12 knot wind blowing from the east. As the wind has decreased so has our boat speed. We are no longer flying at 7.5 knots. We are probably averaging less than 5 knots right now, and are on a beam reach heading 188 degrees south. The sea swells are broad and undulating. Since it's dark, I can really see the swell direction, but expect it is similar to yesterday. We have our jib, main, and mizzen at full sail.

0100 - 0200 It never seems to fail, that when I transition into the late-dawn shift, the calm conditions that had previously prevailed begin to deteriorate. This morning, we had a run with two little squalls. Both of them passed just behind us going from east to west and we were on the southern edge, benefiting from the increased winds and the cooling rain without too much havoc. The seas whip up a bit and it gets bouncy for a few minutes. Hydie senses the increased wind and temporarily rounds up. This is when we need to step in and give her some help. Garyn's hatch is open and he wakes up with some rain drops.

0300 It's been quiet now for about an hour. Everyone has gone back to bed except for me. I really enjoy being up at this time. It's magical to be sailing along with full sail, a nice breeze, and the moon shimmering a pathway from the horizon to our beam.

0700 The sun is just coming up. It's been getting light since 6:30, but at 6:00 PSDT it was still starry out. I think it's time to fall back another hour. We are now at longitude 126. I successfully dodged a honking squall coming right across the bow this morning at 5:00 a.m. Russ and Garyn slept right through it. They are still sleeping. It's good for them to catch up.

1030 We've had our breakfast, dodged through a few more squalls, put up the windshield sun screens, and are listening to Treasure Island. The sea swells are 9-12 feet, but not steep nor swift, the predominant swells coming from the east and north east. Still it is disconcerting to see these undulating seas. The wind is still coming from the east at about 12 knots, and there are few wind waves and white caps. We are traveling around 5 knots over ground rhythmically lifting, falling and heeling to starboard.

1400 The wind has dropped to a pitiful 5-7 knots and we are lopping at 2.5 knots. We got out Genny. This is the first time we have had her up since she wrapped on us the other day. It took a little coaxing, but Russ and Garyn finally got her up and completely unwrapped. Now instead of 2 knots we are up to 4 knots. Not terrific but better. If we drop consistently below 4 knots with the Genny (meaning the wind is dying completely), we will start to motor. We are now 5 degrees, less than 300 miles from the equator.

Tonight is my night off. So we will get this update sent off and probably won't get another one off until late tomorrow. Hello to everyone. Please check the Worrall Wind Blogspot when you get a chance to see if everything looks like it is posting ok. Is SPOT still sending tracking reports? How is the Pangolin Tracker reports working? If you Goggle Worrall Wind, you can probably see us on Shiptrak as well. Looking forward to hearing from you.

All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 17, Friday, April 23, 2010 - Continued, The completed entry

UTC/Local: 2324/1624

Latitude: 07 39.076 N
Longitude: 125 49,337 W

Conditions:

11:00 a.m. Garyn just used the sat phone to request some grib files and it sent everything that was in the inbox, including the incomplete draft of Day 17 . What takes us 20 or more minutes to download through sailmail took 2 minutes on the SAT phone. We've been getting warnings from sailmail that we have been using too many of our 90 minute a week allocation. We can send our stuff out fast enough, but it takes forever to receive. I think we will shift to the SAT phone for some of the downloads.

I spent the morning in the galley, taking advantage of a nice following sea to do some cleanup work. My coffee fiasco yesterday morning left wet coffee grounds seeping into the port refrigerator. I cleaned both refrigerators and gave a burial at sea of some of the produce. Then I made a bunch of pasta salad to last for a couple of days. Garyn and Russ are outside right now tweaking the sails and enhancing our speed, direction, and dodging squalls. They are doing a good job. The clouds and rain of yesterday have blown over. Garyn, using the gribs, has plotted us a course due south which we hope will skirt by some of the percipitation and keep us a beam reach.

4:00 p.m. The wind has continued to blow nicely between 15 - 18 knots. No sign of it dying yet. We are 1 mile ahead of ourselves this time yesterday, so we continue to make good progress. We have all had our afternoon naps and it's time at least for me to take a shower. It's amazing how much better we feel after this simple little indulgence. We've been running the Honda since 9:00 a.m. this morning, charging the batteries and making water. The water won't be hot, but it should be refreshing. It is still humid and sticky.

The seas while big are gentle and undulating. The primary swell direction seems to be coming from our port beam and stern quarter. As we are traveling due south, the wind and the swell are from the east, north east. We also seem to be getting swell from the southeast as well. When the waves collide they do so magically by just welling up and lifting the boat, and water rolls out one way and away to our west, and others roll out in front and to the south. I wonder about the little molecules. I can kind of see what is happening, but wonder if I were a molecule traveling in one direction, would I continue in that direction or is there some transfer of energy when the molecules converge bouncing them back in a different direction? So much untapped energy in the sea.

It's been a beautiful day.

All is well on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 17, Friday, April 23, 2010

Latitude:
Longitude:

Conditions:
As I begin this update, it is 11:00 p.m. on April 22. The rain has let up. We've been thinking of Russ's Mom Lorraine this evening. She would have been 100 years old today. She knew we were planning this cruise and know she would have loved getting daily updates about our progress.

We have had a record breaking day regarding our distance traveled. In the last 24 hours, we have traveled 141 nautical miles. That's our best day so far. It looks like we are going to start the new day out quickly as well. We have changed tack a few times this evening, once before sunset, and again at 10:00 as the wind has been shifting around a bit, but it is now blowing once again from the northeast at about 25 knots and we sailing consistently between 7.5-8.5 knots. The swells are on our starboard stern quarter and giving us some good push I can hardly believe it. I don't know that we have ever sailed consistently over 7 knots in Worrall Wind. If the wind picks up anymore though, we will need to reduce sail.

When we change tack, our routine is that Garyn goes forward to release the preventer and clear lines. Russ and I go aft. I take the helm and hold the boat on course either coming about or gybing as necessary, and Russ works the sheets and the wind vane. That seems to work out well. My watch is almost over and we are flying through the night. It has been cloudy and rainy all day, but this evening the moon has been shining through the clouds to illuminate the horizon. The swells have lessened a bit, but not by much.

2:00 a.m.
When Garyn awoke for his watch, we went out again to adjust the sails. We pulled in a little jib, let her fly with less tension, lowered the traveler on the main, and fell off a little more. During the course of the night the wind had shifted and we were no longer on a broad but a beam reach. I had been correcting, but with the sails tight, Worrall Wind kept rounding. Once we made the adjustments, she continued on her way. Russ and I went to bed in the lower saloon area.

6:00 We have reached our half-way mark. We are equi-distance from Mexico and the Marquesas. Yippee!While we slept, Garyn kept the boat moving along and tracked a squall on our starboard side from 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. It was parallelling our course but moving faster so eventually passed us by. We had already broken yesterday's distance for the first 6 hours by 7 nautical miles. We have tacked once again and are heading southwest. The seas have calmed down to about 8 feet, but are expected from the gribs to pipe up to 10 feet and the wind to die down. So far the wind seems to be pretty close to grib modeling, but the waves have been greater, so not looking forward to slow movement and large rollers. We'll see.

The sun is out this morning and we have some air moving through the boat. Hopefully, we will get dried out a little bit and solar panels will charge us up. Last night, we were squeegying down our windows on the inside it was so humid. It's beginning to smell like a locker room.

We check into the Pacific Puddle Jump Net once and sometimes twice a day to give our coordinates. I don't know if it is our location or if we have something going on with our radio. We seem to be able to transmit well (others can hear us and our email goes out quickly), but our reception is really slow for both voice and data, even when tuned and in high power. Perhaps some of our sailing buddies can give us some advice. Usually it's the transmission that is poor.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 16, Thursday, April 22, 2010

UTC/Local: 2009/1309
Latitude: 09 05.466 N
Longitude: 123 45.318 W

Conditions: (We traveled 110 miles from 2400 4-21 to 0000 on 4-22.)

The cloud cover this morning is 100%. With dawn came some rain. I felt is sprinkling down on me through the back hatch on the fan tail. We have our bimini over this hatch and it is pretty protected. The rain was so misty and not coming straight down but from just the right angle to give me a cool wake up call. I found myself completely sideways in the bed bracing my head and feet between pillows and cabinets, so that the rocking I experienced while sleeping was from head to toe, instead of roll from side to side.

Garyn and Russ managed through a minor squall last night. The sea and sky are grey. It looks like it should be cold, but it's 81 degrees and 86 percent humidity. The wind is consistently 20-25 knots this morning. We are on a beam reach with no mizzen, full main and a reefed jib, with a heading of 250, and are smoking along from 6.5 to 7.5 knots. The only thing that would keep this from being perfect are the 9 foot swells coming every 6-8 seconds from our starboard beam and stern quarter. The boat is rocking back and forth and when a swell runs under the boat and we glide down, a swoosh of white water rushes by and our speed over ground accelerates to 8 knots.

Yesterday evening, between the sunset and dark, we noticed fins in the water. Dolphins, little ones, were all around us. We could see them coming from our northeast. At any given time there were 30 or more in the water around us, leaping, jumping, surfing off the waves. Too bad it was too dark to take good photos. We understand from our whale and dolphin resource book, that often these Pacific dolphins (porpoises)will swim in pods of 100-500. We have also noted another little sea bird, other than the Booby. It maneuvers and skims over the waves, up - over - down, sideways. As the wave rolls up to 6 feet or troughs, the little bird is less than an inch from the water, occasionally dipping in its beak, perhaps getting a drink or picking fry, brine shrimp, or other miniscule goodie from the water.

This was a three - try morning. It took me three times to make coffee. The first two trys ended with wet coffee grounds spilling everywhere and Russ's hot chocolate dumping in the sink. Even pouring water in a thermos is a challenge with the waves so close together.

1:00 p.m. We have had an exciting morning. The grib (weather) files, indicated that our wind would begin to die around 11:00 a.m. this morning. Well it hasn't. The wind has continued to be between 20-25 knots, perfect for Worrall Wind. So we have made excellent time. Worrall Wind has been traveling this morning 7-8 knots, surfing up to 9.5. The boat is handling itself well. We are so glad we have Hydie our wind steering system.

Unfortunately, the swells are pretty awesome and have not settled down, so while the ride has been swift, it has been quite bouncy and rolly. Sometimes Hydie becomes overwhelmed with the waves and we need to help her out. I'm sure we have had a couple of small mountains pass under the boat or slap us on the side, sending rivers of water down our deck. All the ports and hatches are closed down tight. The rain has kept us in the pilot house all morning. The boat interior is warm 81 degrees (stuffy)and recording 96% humidity. We have our little fans blowing the air around and in between showers we open the skylight in the pilot house to let in some fresh air. Since 12:00 a.m. this morning, we have traveled 76 miles in 13 hours. Our little water turbine has been producing 6 amps per hour. Our solar panels are sleeping under the cloud cover. At some point today, we are going to need to run the engine or the generator to make up for the two days of cloudiness.

We are listening to audio books. We were getting tired of Fountain Head by Ayn Rand, so we decided to give it a hiatus and listen to In Sun Burned Country, by Bill Bryson. This one too is a bit long and rambly although the author has a great sense of humor and it lightens up the mood.

We are making good progress, everyone feels good, and the bilge is dry.

All is Well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 15, Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Latitude: 09 54.583 N
Longitude: 122 01.316 W

Conditions: Warm (80 degrees at midnight), humid (60%), a breeze of 15 knots, sea swells 8-9 feet

At midnight, last night we marked 2 weeks at sea. As we begin our third week this morning, are odometer indicates that we have traveled 1,386 miles. We are 1112 miles from Puerto Vallarta. As you can see, our distance traveled is greater than the rumb line to our current postion. If we followed a rumb line (direct angle from our current postion to Hiva Oa), we are 1580 miles away from the Marquesas. We wish it were that direct, but the wind direction, speed, and wave/swell intensity and direction from moment to moment determines our course. We are a little disappointed that we haven't covered more ground, but hope once we have passed through the ITCZ, we can pickup some south east trades. We are within 5 degrees now of being in the "doldrums". The forecast actually looks like we might have some winds, and the squalls do not look as intense as they have been. We hope this pattern continues. We've been saving our fuel for powering us through this area if we get stuck. When we were planning to leave on March 31, we estimated that we would arrive in Hiva Oa around April 28 (29 days). Seems like this was pretty realistic. Since we left a week later, we will probably arrive in Hiva Oa late in the first week of May.

Our first week was marked by very little wind and of course very little progress. Our second weeks has been better in terms of speed and direction, but the following seas when we are running downwind, wing on wing have not been consistent. Sometimes they follow from directly behind us which is nice ride when they aren't too big, but they also are coming from our port stern quarter and our starboard stern quarter. This direction and sail configuration, rocks the boat continuously 30 degrees starboard to upright to 30 degrees port. The rocking continuously fills one sail and spills the other. This motion makes every activity on the boat a challenge. Garyn fixed lunch yesterday and before he could get it up to the saloon it all landed on the floor. Food preparation has led to a lot of stuff sliding across the counter and diving through the gap area of our gimbaled stove. There's probably a couple of meals sliding around underneath.

Our fresh fruits and vegetables are being consumed and will probably be depleted by the end of the third week. Then we will move to the canned fruits and veggies. The refrigerated lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and celery have held up well. The slightly green tomatoes, potatoes, and jicama have done well in the hold so far. The peppers,lemons, carrots and cabbage have not fared well without refrigeration, but the mandarins, grapefruits, apples, and limes have. As the frig has been freed up, I have been transferring some of the wilting stuff in.

I had the dawn watch today. The sky started to lighten about 5:30. By 6:00 it was apparent that we were going to be introduced to our first squall. A very dark black cloud was on our port quarter dipping its many tentacles into the sea obscuring the sunrise. I flipped on the radar and sure enough, we had an image of the squall sneaking up on us. I woke up the guys and we got into our harnesses, went out side, took down the wing on wing configuration, turned into the wind and ran on a beam reach with just the main, and closed all of the hatches. Fortunately, this little squall was a good drill for us. Retrospectively, when we turned upwind, it took us off course and slowed us way down. We should have done a controlled gybe and will give that a try next time if presented with a similar situation.

The squall ran past, spitting water from its clouds, just enough to cool us off and wash down the boat a bit. With the black cloud now in front of us and to the starboard side, our wind direction had shifted making it possible for us to run with gennaker on a broad reach if we gybed. So we did. As I write this paragraph we are flying between 6 and 7 knots about 230 (southwest) towards our next mark. Our plan was to do a left turn dog leg at 125, but we are cutting the corner a bit.

Time for a nap. Garyn and Russ are watching Genny and Hydie for awhile.

We have now dropped below latitude 10. We had a little excitement this afternoon as we came off a wave and rocked too far to starboard and back throwing the bow of the about just enough to go down wind long enough for the gennaker to wrap on itself. We knew what to do. I took the helm and purposely put the gennaker in the wind shadow behind the main. Russ released the line and Garyn pulled down the sock to extinguish the twisting sail. After Genny was down, they worked on taking out the twist and bagging her for the time being. We are now sailing wtih main and jib on a beam reach, heading a little more west than south, but the boat is much more comfortable for all of us on this tack and as evening approaches we have more manueverablity with this sail combination of a squall comes up. According to our grib charts, the wind is supposed to practically die tonight. We'll see. Garyn is napping as he has first watch tonight. There are a lot of clouds so I doubt whether we will see much of the moon. Russ has KP in the galley and dawn watch. Moi....to bed to bed for the whole night.

All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 14, Tuesday, April 20, 2010

UTC 1500 Local 0800

Latitude: 11 34.562 N
Longitude: 120 10.633 W

Conditions:

The further we travel south the warmer the days have been getting. Yesterday, we were in the low 80's all day, dropping a few degrees into the high 70's at night. We traveled 24 hours with our genny up until 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon. The wind had been very light and we only had gone about 50 miles in 24 hours. Not good,, but the best we could do given the wind direction and light wind. Had we not had the genny, we would have been sitting and not moving at all.

Late yesterday afternoon, we took down the gennaker and ran the engine for about 3 hours to move us ahead a little bit southwest to see if we couldn't catch a stronger wind and to add some amps to our battery. When the motor work was done, we decided we could get more mileage out of the wind if we ran wing on wing again. We go faster, but the boat rocks from rail to rail almost constantly making it difficult for those not on watch to sleep.

The constant rocking, rubbing and pressure required a few maintenance checks and work today. Our gennaker line was rubbing against an open stateroom window, nearly pulling the window out of its slider and fraying the gennaker sheet. Duct tape came in handy here. Hydie's (Hydrovane) nylon covered wind wing was wearing in some places. After giving her a little water and white vinegar wash down, Russ put sail tape on areas where she had been starting to wear and rub.

In the last few days, we haven't seen much wildlife, except for the suicidal flying fish that we find crispy in various locations on the deck and a few boobies. Russ spotted a sea turtle, and I thought I saw a single dorsal fin go by. Could have been a dolphin or a shark. So far we haven't done any fishing.

The moon is starting to fill in and light up the night sky for a couple of hours before setting. Our days are filled with reading, listening to music and audio books, doing little repairs, cooking, and cleaning. It's never quiet out here. The sound of water washing past or slapping against the hull, the wind in and out of sails, the rhythmic creaking and clanking of doors and other objects in the boat, and occasional boobie squables provide us with a symphony of ocean sounds. Sometimes, it's nice to put those I-Pod earbuds in and change the music.

Russ has another little project going this morning. One of the screws he put back in when he was re-installing one of the fuel injectors seemed to have lost its threads. He tried to fix it. He did a check last night after we ran the motor to see if the fix held. It did not and now there is some diesel leak into the oil. Russ is removing that entire fuel injector and replacing it with a new one. He is kicking himself for not doing that in the first place. WW will now require, yet another oil change. We had what we thought was a lot of oil, but this next change is going to nearly deplete the store. Glad we had it. Wish we had more.

All is well on Worrall Wind.