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Saturday, August 4, 2012

Scenery Along the Blue Highway


Friday, 3 August 2012 Lat 38 25N 150 05W Course 040 Boatspeed 7.5-8.5kts
Reaching, Wind 120 15 kts, Showers

For 2 days, were either ghosting along at 2.5-3.5kts under sail or motoring,
It was quite pleasant, really, the way non-sailors imagine sailing to be:
quietly slipping through the water, gently rocking. (Ha!)  We don't carry
much fuel, so we have to be selective about motoring.  Bill found a good
window where we might be able get into some breeze 12 hours away.

During the calm, the long low slow swell from the west was replaced with a
faster and higher swell from the west, a sure sign of ... something.
Anyway, at 3am today, we found the wind. Fortunately, Bill was on watch when
the wind did arrive, so he could get everything set up and put a reef in before
it got up into the 20s.  Bill expects the wind to last a day or so.

Today's Scenery:  clouds, the usual litter, mostly styrofoam pieces, and
water (duh). However, yesterday we were visited a couple times by a pod of
pilot whales. They're small and black, with curved black dorsal fins.  They
don't cavort and frolic like dolphins, they just swim around.

That's today's big news.

Tomorrow's point of interest:  The Kermit Roosevelt Seamount at 39 30N 146
17W.  It rises from the seafloor at 4,500 fathoms (27,000ft) to 915 fathoms
(5,400ft). There's not much of a view from up here at sea level.  Nor
probably any view down there either, as it's probably pitch dark at that
depth..

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