Passage to Neah Bay: day 11

Date: July 23, 2012
41° 44' N 159° 45' W
Previous 24 hour run: 165
Water Temp: 68.0

Date: July 24, 2012, Time: noon PST
43° 31' N 157° 12' W
Wind speed: 13 / wind dir: 180 (S), Heading: 042, Speed: 4.6
Barometer: 1033, Water Temp: 64.4
Log: 6951.4
Previous 24 hour run: 154

Its starting to cool down. Last night was the first night since leaving Hawaii that I had to wear more than a t-shirt at night. I added a long sleave shirt and a windbreaker when outside. I expect that more layers will be added in the days to come. The water temperature is falling fast now. Since the last blog post, the water temp has fallen from 74.3 to 64.3.

Yesterday the wind had backed around to the east again and in order to hold the course to my way point I had to bash into the waves all day which lead to a wet and bumpy ride (apparent wind around 45deg.) During daylight this is no problem. I'm out in the cockpit with the wind in my face, watching the waves go by. Occasionally the timing of the waves and the boat are such that we hit a wave just as its cresting and an enormous wall of spray is launched up and then back toward the cockpit. Its all in a days fun. At night however, even though the conditions remain the same, the experience is much different. The boat interior is noisy. Crashing through waves at 7 knots and over creates a lot of noise in the cabin. There is also a lot of motion. I'll be in my lee berth trying to get to sleep as the water noise, spray noise and the occasional squeak or bang is happening around me. At the same time the motion is moving me up, down and side to side in a smooth way but through a lot of motion non the less. Its surprising what we can adapt to, and these conditions are quite benign compared to what I experienced earlier in this trip (off the coast of Oregon last year) or what others experience when conditions turn sour. The conditions I'm in are nowhere near sour - its beautiful sailing. I'm still on my 20min regime - the Watch Commander is still plugged in and sounding its alarm every 20 minutes. Again, its surprising what we can adapt to.

Last night the wind started veering around and is currently from the south. This makes for a much nicer boat motion as the apparent wind has moved back to 124deg, however the boat speed has also fallen. I may fly my spinnaker today, but 4.6 knots of boat speed is not that bad... If the wind falls further that will weigh in the spinnakers favor.

There is something like 1400nm to go which puts me just over the half way point of this passage.

I'll try to send along another update in a few days.

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