Have had a super fishing day- unreal- have hooked up with 14-15 Albacore tuna ranging in 10-40 lb. size. We are catching and throwing back. We stop fishing for the day at 1600 hrs and bring in the hand line for the night. Most were caught on the hand line including the big one, which Jean had to gaff to get on board. We kept one large fillet for tonight and threw all the rest back. They are beautiful fish but very bloody. Sabra will never be the same after all that bloodshed on the lazerette.
Tried 3 hours on the SSB last night and 1 hour this morning.
Fixed the salt water pump, so it is now working. For some unknown reason the water won’t drain out the galley sink, so we continue to use the bucket and throw it over.
We are having trouble holding a northerly course, which we need, but are being pushed east, but it is more important to gain northing first. Hopefully, the westerlies will restart, otherwise we are going to be in a bind. I sure don’t want to have to tack up the west coast.!
2000 hrs- NE trades force us to tack which puts us on 0 degrees heading with 15 wind. We run into a fishing fleet of 5 boats which put us all on watch for 3 hours as we carry parallel courses.
16 July- After a busy day, I was already tired when I went on watch at midnight. After 2 hours I became very weary and started dozing off. The winds wer light and I kept finding my way off course and getting stalled. Finally at 0230 hrs I turned on the engine, stood at the gallows to stay awake, but kept falling off to sleep. Finally at 0300 hrs. I woke Mike up and asked him if he could relieve me early. He is so sweet and replies, “certainly, darling, I‘d be happy to”. He is the sweetheart and both Jean and I adore him. What a great man and he has such a good heart. We all get along so well on the boat and have sailed many miles in Hawaii together. I went below and fell fast asleep with my boots, survival suit and safety harness on. I awoke for my noon watch.
Jean took several sights including a noon sight which put us 2 miles north of our DR. We are really doing well with our DR. The HP is easy to use so we get an instantaneous readout every hour. These are being kept in the log book, however we are aonly plotting noon positions on the master chart.
NE trades continue all day and was beautiful until about 1500 hrs. when it clouded over. I retightened the starter generator belts which only took 30 minutes, but it took almost an hour to takedown and put back all the parts that get in your way, Mike’s bunk, cushions, boards, framework to engine compartment, tools, etc.
Cooking is terrible on this starboard tack. The drawers/doors want to slide open and things fall out. The galley is long and the sling is good for the stove and oven, but not the sink, ice box. You end up holding yourself with one hand, but you need 2 and 2 to reach for things. The port tack is so easy to cook on, as you can lean into the galley. I prefer a small, one butt galley aft. Speaking of cooking we ate the albacore tuna for dinner.. ONO. Which means delicious in Hawaiian.
Position at 1500 hrs: 41N and 150W
Out of water in rubber tanks.
Winds 15-20 mph, moving along very nicely with 160=main.
Jean got strike on the big green lure.
The day has passed so quickly, it seems like I am just now waking up and it is 1700 hrs-ready for the long cold night again. I’m going to put on long johns, change my socks and put on my jogging suit. I’ll take off my new shorts and top that I have now worn for a week.
As of 0800 this morning we are 1208nm from Honolulu and 1211 nm to Cape Flattery. It is so nice when we are moving. It has been fatiguing to hand steer and keep the boat sailing and motoring.
I am now one hour into my 2000-2400 hr watch. My warm things are nice.
The seas are 2 ft and the NE trades are 13. Sabra is slicing though them easily. The ride is like velvet-what a beautiful ride. The skies are overcast and it is drizzling. We have seen very few stars or it could be the dodger extension is up all the time!
Sat listening to SSB for 2.5 hrs- I can hear them clear as a bell-wait for a break thru to speak- it is hard to make contact. Some of the phone calls on KMI are funny. There is lots of drama between the families at home and the fishermen at sea. Have listened to some of the Victoria -Maui racers and a conversation on the Royal Viking Sea tonight. The SSB channel was sending out morse code on channel 8 which is KMI. I’ll have to tell Mike about that in the morning. Compass light out, strobe light out last night.
When I get off watch I will look at switch panel near Mikes bunk. All those items have worked faithfully.
I feel so much better after that long sleep last night.
We all have had very strange dreams. It will be good to sleep like a real person again. Last night watch almost did me in. It was painful to stay awake. I’m doing good tonight- only 2hrs and 45 min to go. I think about my new little lake front house. It will be good to get settled, however I will miss living on Sabra.
There is a second high which is preventing the westerly’s from taking place. We are pushing thru a ridge. It will be nice to get those westerly’s and sail with the 160 and 130 poled out. I really liked that. (In hindsight I want to add a comment at this point: 1982 was the first big announcement of El Nino. The pacific high split into two. This had a big effect on our course. When we first got those early westerly’s we cranked off riding them right into a hole and then had to tack back out to gain northing. Now this upper high is north of us with 3 big ridges of storms and calms. We are having to deal with all that. So much for that easy course of sailing a 1000nm North on a starboard tack and turning right when the westerlies show up.).
