Friday, July 27th, Lat 27deg 02N Long 159deg 00W, Course 350, starboard tack, Boatspeed 7-8kts, Wind 16-26kts 86deg, Sunny
Bill, Kathi and Seth en route to Vancouver Island, British Columbia
On Wednesday at 1600, we left Hanalei Bay. We hoisted sail inside the bay and set northward straight out to sea. It was really breezy and we felt like we were shot out of a gun, starting out fast right on our course. The plan is to sail 1200 miles north to 42 deg N 155 deg W and turn right. Our heading is 360 deg, but due to a strong west-setting current, we're making more like 350 close reaching. Since we're on the wind, it's been a bumpy and wet ride. Bill finally managed to close up all the leaks but one, the leak around the mast. It only affects the forward head and everything in there is plastic covered, so it's just a minor nuisance on this tack. But the cabin is nice and dry. Yay!
The wind has been pretty consistent with only minor windy rainy cells. The sea state varies though, so sometimes the boat just keeps falling off waves with a bang making it hard to sleep, despite partially furling the jib to slow down. The temperature has been the most comfortable of any passage so far, probably 75-80 deg, (dunno for sure, the thermometer's kaput). We haven't seen much wildlife. Some of the returning Single-handed Transpac racers are 100+ miles ahead of us sailing back to the mainland too. So we've eavesdropped on their radio net a little. One racer crossed paths with a fishing boat one night and had to hail him on the radio presumably to avoid running into the gear towed behind.
The north pacific high pressure zone has stretched out east to west and is predicted to move north. This is not good - the wind may die over a large swath of ocean. We would prefer that a low slip down from the Alaska to create a trough down the middle....
I forgot to mention in my last post that we caught a 4ft wahoo at the entrance to Hanalei Bay as we arrived. I managed to freeze some of the fish and we gave away the rest to randomly selected boats in the anchorage. There's still some mostly frozen fish in the refer, so we haven't put out a line yet. Going forward, in an effort to catch smaller fish, we're going to try smaller tackle. The big ones are just too hard to handle and we can't store or eat very much of them anyway.
We have plenty of books and magazines. We bought Nook eReaders in Honolulu, and have lots of books on them, and also have the usual complement of audiobooks. So we have plenty to keep us entertained, when we're not eavesdropping on the "neighbors" but it's still boring.
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