Passage to Hawaii: day 9

Date: Mar 20, 2012
Distance remaining: 1611 Previous 24 hour run: by GPS: 140

Date: Mar 21, 2012, Time: 10am Hawaii time
21° 42' N 128° 57' W
Wind speed: 15 / wind dir: 045 (NE), Heading: 250, Speed: 5.7
Barometer: 1018, Water Temp: 67
Log: 3999.8
Distance remaining: 1471 Previous 24 hour run: by GPS: 139

I should add a note on the distances. The distance remaining is in a straight line from where I am right now to Hilo. The GPS distance run over 24 hours is between two waypoints. I create a waypoint each day at 10am and then measure a straight line distance between them.

Also a note on the wind etc information. That information is accurate as of 10am on the day I recorded it. Its not an average for the whole day. So for example, yesterday was a pretty slow day even though the wind I recorded at the end of the 24 hour period was pretty decent. It wasn't that strong all day.
So, with that out of the way...

I've entered a cloudy region and have been experiencing light rain from time to time. This is almost the first rain I've had since leaving the Pacific Northwest. Its nice! The boat is slowly being cleaned up as it picked up a lot of salt during all the upwind sailing I was doing at the start. The rain isn't dense enough to wash the boat very well yet, I'm hoping that will come later on...and then stop. I'm not prepared for steady rain until I get back to Seattle.

Two days ago I was thinking about this and that, and then it hit me that I had been sailing west for 7 days! "I must be sooo far offshore!" I thought to myself. Then I wondered what would be north of me, thinking it would be Alaska wilderness. So I looked it up and discovered that I was still east of where I had left from in Neah Bay. Coming down the coast from Seattle to Mexico you actually head quite far east. Neah Bay is at longitude 124deg 37'. On the 19th at around 6pm I crossed that longitude. Today I am further west than I ever have been in a sailboat! (I won't keep repeating this every time I blog, its implied from now on.)

Luckness caught two flying fish and a squid overnight. I threw them all overboard when I did a walk around this morning. Having seen a flying fish up close now, I realize that they actually do have wings. (Phone the discovery channel!) This makes sense out of something I saw a few days ago - it looked like a bird had come up out of the water, started flapping is wings and took off away from me, skimming a few wave tops before it got going. I thought it was a bird, fishing. But I realize now that it was a flying fish. I always thought that they glide rather than actually flap. That's kinda cool.

As I'm in a region which appears like its going to have steady NE/ENE winds for a while, I've poled out my genoa and am now sailing wing-on-wing pretty much toward Hilo. Its nice to get the wind behind me and do a little downwind sailing for a while. I turned on my computer and SSB radio to receive some weather faxes a few hours ago and received the 24/48 and 72 hour surface forecasts. It looks like the high which is providing the winds I'm currently in is changing shape again and I may go back to north winds in 72 hours. This trip is certainly giving me a lot of variety.

Things are going well here. I'm a little behind on sleep as the last two nights have been bumpy and noisy. Now that wind from a better direction has arrived the boat is quieter and is moving more gently than she was. I should get back the sleep I'm missing by this time tomorrow. I have heard from some other singlehanders that once they get far enough offshore they just sleep for a steady 8 hours at night (there are lots of different patterns, some do what I'm doing.) I'm still doing my 20min timer routine and will keep it up. It would be nice if I saw something from time to time after having dragged myself out of bed every 20min to scan the horizon for hazards. There is just nothing out here! A few days out of Cabo I was having amazing VHF reception, hearing the coastguard in LA and San Diego from time to time (which was _way_ beyond where I should have been able to hear them.) I was seeing AIS targets a few hundred miles away. Now whatever condition caused that has gone away and I'm back to more normal VHF/AIS reception. I saw a target on my AIS 3 days ago. Our closest point of approach was 16nm, so I never saw it. There has been nothing on AIS(*) since then.

That's all for today. I'll try to blog again in a few days. So far I am reporting my position once a day, so if you want to know where I am, use the "where is luckness" link.

(*) oh. For non-sailors. I just realized that I've been using the term 'AIS' as if everybody knows what it means. All large vessels (cargo ships, etc) are required by law to transmit AIS. The information they transmit includes some information to identify their vessel, their exact location, their course, their speed and some other stuff. My AIS receiver knows where I am, what my course is and what my speed is. With this information, its able to calculate what the closest point of approach between our two vessels will be, and when it will be. It has a number of criteria which I can modify that are used to sound an alarm if the other vessel is going to come within some distance of me. Its a really awesome bit of technology. AIS information is transmitted via VHF signals, which are line of sight. Normally I receive information on the other vessel at 30 or 40 miles, sometimes greater. This means that by the time I actually see it, if I ever see it, I know how we are going to pass each other and if I don't like the outcome, I will already have started making changes. Smaller boats such as most fishing vessels, sailboats, etc are not required to have AIS. So when I scan the horizon every 20min, I am really looking for small targets which tend to be slower as well.

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March 20.  24 hour surface

March 20.  48 hour surface

March 20.  72 hour surface

March 21.  24 hour surface

March 21.  48 hour surface

March 21.  72 hour surface

Passage to Hawaii: day 7

Date: Mar 18, 2012
Distance remaining: 1899 Previous 24 hour run: by GPS: 102

Date: Mar 19, 2012, Time: 10am Hawaii time
21° 51' N 123° 56' W
Wind speed: 12 / wind dir: 050 (NE), Heading: 290, Speed: 5.0
Barometer: 1022, Water Temp: 66
Log: 3757, Batteries: %100
Distance remaining: 1751 Previous 24 hour run: by GPS: 147

Mostly sailor talk today.

Two days ago the wind was decent but not the steady trade winds I hope to encounter on this passage. Between 10am and 10pm the wind was in the 9kn range giving me a boat speed of around 5 knots. At 10pm my log records my being becalmed. 3 knots of wind and a boat speed of 0. Once there is any swell in the area, 3 knots isn't enough to move the boat as the waves take away any speed you have built up by the light wind. By 12:20am the next day wind was in the range 5-8 and I was moving slowly at 3-4 knots, but in directions which didn't really help my goal (arrive in Hilo) as the direction of the wind was all over the chart. A north wind arrived at around 4am and I started to move in a useful direction (toward Hilo). By 6am I had 11 knots and was moving at over 6 knots and this lasted until 10am when I move to the next day in my 24 hour cycle of measuring progress.

Yesterday at 10am also marked a steadily increasing N to NNE wind. I was finally seeing winds behind the beam! Yay. At 2pm I had 17+ knots of wind doing a beam reach toward Hilo at 6.5 to hull speed at 7.2. This kept up until around 1am when it started weakening. I had left the boat running quickly all night seeing if I could make a 144nm day by the log (6 knots for 24 hours) and was foiled by this weakening wind. It felt like I was doing over 6.5 knots for the 12 hour stretch of 10am to 10pm but the log only recorded 70nm during this period. This was an exilerating sail. The swell had built up to 10 feet with combined wind waves, so there were periods sitting in the cockpit when I was looking up at the wave tops. But as the wind wasn't that high, there were few breaking waves. The boat tracked like it was on rails, it was really awesome. The boat was balanced with a reefed main, staysail and double reefed genoa, the monitor wind vane was having no problem steering a straight course across the seas. I sat for hours and watched it all pass by. By 2am the wind had weakened t 12 which would be plenty of wind in light seas, but in the water I was in my speed was reduced to 5. Currently I'm sailing in variable wind speed (5 to 10) at boat speeds from 3 to 4.5. The seas continue to flatten but there is still a 5 to 6 foot swell around and so as the boat rocks in the light wind the sails backwind and there is a lot of noise among the blocks, lines and sails on the boat. The previous night with 17 to 20 knots doing a beam reach in larger seas, the boat was quiet as it cut through the water.

Looking at the weather forecasts, it seems I have several more days of the present conditions. The high that had good wind in the area I'm currently in dissipated two days ago. A new one moved in but is also going to dissolve quickly. A third high is approaching and is three days out now, although this is all subject to change.

If sailors want a steady sail to Seattle from Mexico, they would wait until later in the summer when the pacific high is well established. That would give them a trade wind ride once they entered them, which I would probably have by now. At this time of year, the weather is much more variable. But I'm enjoying being out here and am looking forward to the two more weeks (or more) that I have left.
?oh, a bit of non sailor talk! I found my first small (2in) squid on deck this morning, along with a small (3in) fish.

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March 19.  24 hour surface

March 19.  48 hour surface

March 19.  72 hour surface

Still sailing to Hawaii! Day 5.

Date: Mar 16, 2012
Distance remaining: 2112 Previous 24 hour run: by GPS: 142

Date: Mar 17, 2012, Time: 10am Hawaii time
22° 16' N 119° 32' W
Wind speed: 12 / wind dir: 312 (NW), Heading: 249, Speed: 6.0
Barometer: 1018, Water Temp: 66
Log: 3543, Batteries: %95 (-19 Ah)
Distance remaining: 1996 Previous 24 hour run: by GPS: 117

The wind was fairly variable two days ago, the previous time I sent an update. The wind strength ranged from around 9 to 17 knots, and the direction was NW to N. I remained sailing upwind the whole time - I've yet to have the apparent wind behind the beam. Just before dark the wind started to strenghten and I unbagged the staysail. At that point I was sailing with a reef in the main and two in the genoa in 17 knots of wind and if I needed the staysail during the night I wanted it to be ready. A had less sail up than I could have had, but I wanted a comfortable ride during the night.

Yesterday the winds ranged from 8 to 13 knots and the direction NW to N, another variable day. When I made my record in the log 20 min ago the wind was 12 knots, its now fallen to 7. I expect it will strengthen soon, back and forth.

It seems that I'm in an area of ill defined winds and weather, and the GRIB weather downloads show this clearly. They also show that in a few days, as the local weather changes and I make my way west that things should improve. Its possible I may have my first NE winds on monday which would allow me to sail downwind?if there is enough of it. Sailors are fickle. To much wind, not enough. Wind from the wrong direction. I'm making pretty good progress and am happy to be out here.

At the moment I'm sailing with full genoa, staysail and main making pretty good progress through these light winds. My direction is SW back toward my rhumbline and this varies every 30min or so according to the wind direction.

I assume sailors will all find the above completely fascinating - but non sailors may find it a little dry. Hey, I saw some dolphins yesterday! A large pod or perhaps 100 dolphins came over to play for an hour or so. I moved forward to the bow and waved and yelled at them, which they seemed to like as they became more animated. They're fun.

Other than that, the only other fascinating thing is the color of the water - its a deep blue, really nice. Its also very clear - as the dolphins dove down around the boat I could follow them for quite a distance down. I hadn't realized it was that clear until there was something to see down there.

There really isn't very much out here. There have been no ships transmitting AIS within 100nm of me for the last two days and I have seen no ships visually for two days when I was able to spot a freighter 7 miles away at night (which I had seen on my AIS receiver over 10 hours earlier.)

Everything is going well! I'll send an update to the blog in a few days perhaps. It may be longer if nothing continues to happen. By the way, on a trip like this, 'nothing' happening is a good thing. I hope not to have exciting stories to tell, aside from wildlife sightings, at the completion of this journey!

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March 16.  24 hour surface

March 16.  48 hour surface

March 16.  72 hour surface

March 17.  24 hour surface

March 17.  48 hour surface

March 17.  72 hour surface

Third day outbound

Date: March 15, 2012, Time: 10:00am
22° 30.6' N 114° 44.5' W
Wind speed: 12 / wind dir: 345, Heading: 270, Speed: 6.5
Barometer: 1017, Water Temp: 69
Log: 3308.9, Batteries: %100
Distance remaining: 2263 Previous 24 hour run: by GPS: 142

I'm currently a few miles south of my rhumb line, and hours ago I altered course to head more directly toward my destination. I'm about 10 degrees north of the direct bearing to Hilo and so will make a little more northerly over the next little while. For most of yesterday and this early this morning I was sailing on starboard tack at 40deg apparent. Once I relaxed that to 60deg where we are now, the boat sped up nicely. So far, its all upwind sailing. I'm looking forward to some downwind sailing later... The weather GRIB file shows a high ridge approaching in 24 to 48 hours. This will confuse the winds here and delay the tradewinds I have been looking forward to. Drat.

At 5:45am (8:45 local) I was on deck looking around when a whale broached directly in my view! It was maybe 200 yards off the starboard beam of Luckness. The whale went down and then broached again. Most of the whale's body got out of the water and there was an incredible splash. It was awesome! 15 minutes later I saw the same whale broaching again to my stern and more north of where it was last time. Other than that, there isn't much going on here. Sleeping, eating, reading, some gymnastics as I move around the cabin. The swell is increasing in size, to perhaps 9 feet but the ride is fine.