Pleasant Sailing

0800 Position 26-45N 121-52W. Days run 165 miles

The wind was a little bit lighter but otherwise conditions remained the same all day yesterday. Beam reaching on starboard tack in flat seas with less than ten knots of breeze. The wind speed varied all day allowing us to sail at up to nine knots in the puffs, and down to four knots in the lulls. With the apparent wind forward of the beam we could just keep moving at a reasonable average speed. At 530AM this morning, while Longy and I were trading sea stories, the wind died off completely and we turned the engine on. The gribs show light conditions for the next few days. We don't like to power, but we left the dock with almost 700 gallons of fuel so there is no limitation on powering.

We've had a couple of chafe issues with lashings, and the spectra lashing I did on the outhaul came undone. I'm not familiar with this newfangled high tech line and how to tie it, but I am learning. It is very strong but slippery stuff and many conventional knots won't hold when tying it. These minor chafe issues are just items in the to-do list which keep us busy during the day. Other than the nuisance of leaking fuel, which seems to have gone away, we haven't had any significant problems.

While still under power on our first night at sea we came within about six miles of San Clemente Island, which is owned by the Navy and used for target practice. As we passed we could see a brush fire burning on the west side of the island. It looked much like the forest fires we saw burning on the pali as we approached Kilauea from the south aboard Moku pe'a in 2011. I suspect the fire on San Clemente was caused by Navy live firing because last night I heard a warning on the VHF for vessels to stay well clear of San Clemente. They announced that a Navy aircraft carrier was conducting live firing exercises there.

The 807 foot cargo vessel ANL Bindaree passed by just after dark last night 2.7 miles astern of us. We could see her lights as she passed. She was doing eighteen knots and is headed for Auckland, New Zealand. She has a beam of 105 feet and draws 33 feet. How do I know all this? She has an AIS transponder, as we do. It transmits the vessel's position, speed, and critical information over the VHF radio. We have an AIS receiver as well which allows us to see all transmitting vessels and their information on our chart plotter when they are within fifty miles or so of our position. A computer in the system determines a transmitting vessel's closest point of approach to us. All commercial vessels are required to have AIS transponders. The AIS system makes it much easier to avoid collisions in high traffic areas. It is also fun to get information on the other vessels that are out here in the open ocean with us.

The AIS showed a line of about six vessels as we crossed the 100 mile mark off of the California coast. The boys aboard who know such things said that they were ships that bunker fuel there constantly. Nobody is sure if this is done for environmental or economic reasons. We passed within sight of a couple of the ships that just seemed to be sitting there. Weird.

I cooked dinner again last night, spaghetti with meat sauce and a goat cheese and beet salad. I proposed to Rob that the guy who is on standby from 4 to 6 PM be responsible for cooking that night's meal. He thought that made sense so the policy was announced at dinner.

It is pretty cold at night out here. The night before last I had on long underware and jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, fleece jacket, and gloves on watch. Last night was a bit warmer so I skipped the gloves. It should get warmer as we move 150 miles south every day. The sun warms things up enough during the day so just a sweatshirt is necessary to stay warm.

In this cold climate the sleeping is great though and we are all well rested now. Last night after dinner I showed the boys my Dad's hour long narrated color movie of his trip around the world as the first mate on the schooner Yankee in 1939. It was fun to see some of the places we will be visiting as they looked eighty years ago.