20 May - Moseying

0600 position 14-29S 169-04W. Day's run 119 miles.

"Hey Rocky, what's happening?" I asked as I came on deck for my afternoon
watch.

"Just moseying", he replied. And that's pretty much how today went, just
moseying along. Wind from almost directly behind us all day, never more
than ten knots, sometimes down to about three knots. We spent most of the
day wing and wing and did some reaching later in the afternoon when I
thought the wind was coming forward as forecast. But the wind came aft
again and died. At least the swell has died down too, so there is no
violent slatting, just mild slatting.

We passed by Rose Island, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife National Wildlife
Refuge, about fifteen miles off at sunset. Why does the U.S. have a
wildlife refuge out here more than 4000 miles from the continental U.S?

Our wind generator is useless in these conditions and the solar panels
can't keep up with the load, so we powered for an hour this morning and
again this evening to charge batteries and get us down the road faster
than we can sail. However, we need wind. We don't have enough fuel to
power all the way to Tonga.

The refer started working again when I turned on the engine this morning
and it worked all day until the voltage got low again overnight. More
voltage seems to hide whatever problems it has, but I still don't think
low voltage was the problem since I measured it at the unit and voltage
was within spec there. This afternoon I rigged a jumper that runs
directly from the negative house battery terminal to the negative bus
behind the control panel bypassing a main disconnect switch and perhaps
other connections that are hidden away. It might have helped, but nothing
obvious and the voltage still surges as the autopilot engages. I'm going
to leave it on for a few days to see if things improve. If not, I'll
switch it over to the positive side of the panel feed circuit and see what
happens.

Something hit one of Randy Reed's lures this morning just after I put it
out. I was below at the time and didn't see the fish, but the skirts got
trashed and the lure has been relegated to "injured reserve" status. The
leader got all nicked up as far as two feet away from the hook. Billfish
perhaps?

On hot, calm days like today a cold beer sure would be nice, but no booze
is being consumed while at sea during the trip to Tonga. There's plenty
aboard, but Rocky and I are taking this opportunity to dry out a bit.
We've discussed it, and both agree that we probably consume more than we
should during our daily lives ashore. It's just so easy, and fun, to stop
by the yacht club bar on the way up from working on the boat to have a
beer with the boys… and then another… We've also both lost friends and
family to the bottle. It won't hurt us to take a break. And another
plus; after a few days without beer I don't smell as bad.