0100 hrs- a wind shift and lightened to 10. Everyone up, Mike at helm and Jean and I tackle the sail change. It is our first at night. We took down the 160 and took the pole off the 130, but left her up. 30CC. The spreader lights did not work but had good reflection from the anchor and running light. We moved very slowly and carefully and were lashed in with safety lines.
0930 hrs, we took the 130 down, and put the full main and 160 up and ran that all day. The wind is doing some funny things: westerly, then SE and now Northerly.
2000 hrs- Spotted a ship off our stern, I had said to Jean earlier since we were approaching the 40th parallel that we should be spotting some ships bound from Japan to California. We established radio contact and he was coming from Japan to Los Angeles. He updated our position to be slightly east and north of our dead reckoning position. 37. 56 N and 155. 21 W. He was moving very slow and took over an hour to pass us off our stern about an ¼ of a mile.This is the upper range for our Loran which is nearing a 300 mile area in which the signals don’t overlap. We have been running on DR since yesterday and were able to take several sights today which also put our position more east than our DR. At any rate we are continuing to advance our DR with a speed of 5k. Tonight we ran the loran on TD’s and not Lat/long just to see what it would do. It put us N and E of our DR. In about 2-3 days we will pick up the Loran Alaska chain. We continue to us Mike’s HP to compute our DR and sights. Mike’s knee is still limiting his capabilities greatly.
2200hrs- 12 wind, 2-4 seas and cool. I put on my jogging outfit and wool watch cap. We have run the engine a total of 12 hrs.
Jean fixed a great dinner tonight. Aku with cold slaw/apple/peanut/carrot combo. Yummy.
Small birds have circled the boat each evening and stay all night with us. They play with the wind indicator which looks like a bird. They make lots of noise and are cute acting.
With the light winds the vane is doing a horrible job steering. I can’t get it right since the freighter passed. It steers us from 30-90cc so I switch to hand steering as it keeps me awake.Today was such a gorgeous day. Unable to reach KMI due to poor reception.
This adventure is all about gaining skills and confidence with ocean sailing, navigation and making minute to minute decisions. I only have 30 days of leave so it is imperative that we make the best time/speed/courses. I don’t want to be AWOL and thrown in the brig upon arriving. The commanding General of Madigan Army Medical Center is getting briefed on our positions. I am the first Physical Therapist in the Army to make this kind of duty change; sailing from port to port, many people are keeping track of us and time is critical.
I’m off watch 2400hr/0000hr and Mike is on. I’m tired.
14 July-Awoke in time for my 0800 hr. shift. Minimal wind, no steerage, ended up getting twisted around and heading south. Started engine at 0830 hrs. Jean started repairing gear mechanism for auto pilot. The brake switch doesn’t click in so the traveler runs off the track and got it fixed at 1140 hrs- a 3 hr job. Humpback is back on track and steering Sabra. We are under power but with 160 up. I was very cold from 0400- 1000 hrs this morning. 10 porpoise stayed with us for about 30 minutes. As much as I would have liked to hang out and play with them, we couldn’t. I was focused on steering while Jean was working on the auto pilot. Mike was sleeping.
Jean fixed French toast for lunch. It was the first thing to eat since yesterday at 1600 hrs. We were all starving and each of us 4 pieces.
We have recomputed our DR based on ships updated info. We have gone 1100 nm. We compute a new ETA for Cape Flattery: 1413nm away @ 5k= Which is about 11.5 days which will be the night of the 25 July. Will see how close we will come to that. Our original ETA from Hanalei Bay to Cape Flattery is 21days, 11 hours, 44 minutes and 31 seconds.
It has been overcast and cool all day.
The days pass so fast, that I have trouble remembering what day it is.
Still under power all day at 1700. Have used 14 liters if fuel in 20 hrs of engine time.
