Day 12, Onboard Update, April 23, 2010

***Life on board***
We made good progress today but are being pushed farther and farther south so at some point we will have to make a turn and head more westward for our destination. The wind direction and swell have made it difficult if not impossible to hold a straight line course for the Marquesas which is a little hard to explain since it is downwind from us. Should be easy right? Well it mostly has to do with the fact that the mainsail casts a "wind shadow" on the headsail when you sail very deep downwind and that causes the headsail to Luff or Flog which can tear it to shreds and must be avoided. So we have to "head up" and thus end up just off of our course (too far south in this case). Our choices are to gybe and do the same thing the other way or to sail "dead-down-wind" which can be dangerous in large swells if the boat turns too much to one side. It could cause us to broach which would be bad.

Not as many flying fish today. Perhaps they are regrouping for another attack. Lots of sleeping was done by all aboard. Adam made some rice and peas and corn in the pressure cooker which we have been munching off of for most of the day.

***Communication***
Checked into the net this evening. We are the furthest boat to the south and out of the westward current by all accounts further north. But at this point, it would be a full days sail due north to get back into the current (which is around 1 knot at most) which would not be worth it.

We received an email from our old friends Asia and Alek onboard "Mantra Asia" who we met in the San Blas and helped transit the Panama Canal. They are on their way to the Marquesas for the second time after turning back with Wind Generator and Engine problems which they were able to fix in the Galapagos. Perhaps we will see them in the Marquesas.

***Weather***
It was overcast for most of the day and is also a bit cooler in the evenings enough that i wore my foulie jacket on my watch. We had a wind shift from the East for a few hours but it returned to SE in the later afternoon. We will see what wind the night brings.

Position (11:00pm):
09 deg 28' S
120 deg 01' W

Alan and the Crew

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Day 11, Onboard Update, April 22, 2010

***Life on board***
We had a slower day today. We have gotten pretty far south now and have lost some of the extra speed we were getting from the SEC (South Equatorial Current) so our average has dropped down a bit. We sent up the #1 headsail on the whisker pole today to try to make more progress west and less progress south (this is having mixed results). Eventually we may have to turn "dead down wind" for a bit to gain some northward and get back into the current. The sail change and the large swell is making the boats motion quite uncomfortable and we are rolling back and forth sometimes violently and without regularity. The problem is that the boat has a hard time sailing at an angle just off of dead down wind. It either likes to sail directly with the wind or about 45 degrees off on either side. THe course we want to take is right in between these at the moment so we have to pick. Since the Marquesas is still south of us, we will probably just stay on the southward heading otherwise its almost like going the wrong way (north)

There were mountains of flying fish today. Will was struck by, not 1 but 2 large flying fish this evening while we were sitting in the cockpit watching a movie. He is apparently quite the flying fish charmer. The decks were covered with them this morning. Adam reported throwing off 18 dried out fish that flew to their death in the night. They smell terrible and leave their scales on everything.

We made a soup today and then rice and chicken noodles for dinner with a can of mixed fruit on the side. Counting down the miles.

***Communication***
Checked in with the net today. They are moving the check in time for the morning net since everyone is headed west and it is getting a bit early be having a net.

***Weather***
Lighter wind today but building back this evening. Swells still up and chop down a little.

Position (8:30pm):
08 deg 27' S
117 deg 50' W

Alan and the Crew

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Day 10, Onboard Update, April 21, 2010

***Life on board***
Yesterday I had a hard time connecting over the radio so I'm putting this update up a little late. It's 7:30am and Adam is on watch. Conditions have remained the same all night and yesterday. Yesterday morning it was mostly cloudy and we watched a small rain shower on the radar pass 2 miles south of us on a parallel course but we never got any rain.

Yesterday afternoon the weather cleared up and last night was a very clear night with the moon full and lighting up the clouds like it was daytime.

Will concocted some salmon/tuna cakes that he fried in the frying pan and we sprinkled corn flakes on for dinner. We also had a movie night last night and watched "Austin Powers" (one of them not sure which) down below. The person on watch, had to go up top every few minutes and check on the boat.

Having finished my latest book. I have now taken to a project that I thought of and bought the materials for while in Panama. I bought a bunch of rope and and am in the process of building a homemade hammock.

***Communication***
Checked in with the barefoot net again yesterday. They are talking about moving the times for the net so that the morning one is not so early. For us it is at 4:30am! and we usually miss it.

***Weather***
Nothing new here.

Position (11:00pm):
07 deg 50' S
116 deg 24' W

Alan and the Crew

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Day 9, Onboard Update, April 20, 2010

***Life on board***
Today was a windier and wavier than normal day and we took several dumping waves over the windward rail that put about 6 inches of water in the cockpit. It was a wet day to be on watch. The swell was around 8-10 feet all day (but I saw some 12 footers in there) and we have had steady 15 knots all day.

We set up some spray dodgers on the windward side to keep splashes of water from making it down the aft companionway so that we can keep it open during the day. Otherwise it would be very hot and unpleasant down below.

We have been running under full main and #3 headsail since last night when we dropped the mizzen as the wind picked up. We have plenty of wind and plenty of speed and are ready to reef the mainsail if the wind picks up further.

Cereal for breakfast and PB&J tortillas for lunch. Will baked an awesome "half way" cake to celebrate our 1/2 way point to the Marquesas! Very yummy. Adam made a great stew for dinner from miscellaneous cans that were starting to rust a little.

Tonight we pass through the western edge of the standard time zone known as "Mountain Time" and enter the "Pacific Time" region. At sea this technically occurs at 112.5 degrees. Tonight we change the clocks back another hour and will be 4 hours behind Eastern Time. We will be in this time zone for the next 900 miles (about 5 days at our current pace) until 127.5 degrees West Longitude where we will set the clocks back AGAIN!

***Communication***
Checking in with the net this evening revealed that we are about 100 nautical miles ahead of our closest neighbor "Dignity" who reported slightly more wind than us and a higher speed, although the proof is in the miles :)

***Weather***
More wind, more waves, and still lots of water. Partly Cloudy.

Position (11:00pm):
06 deg 49' S
112 deg 12' W

Alan and the Crew

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Day 8, Onboard Update, April 19, 2010

***Life on board***
More of the same here on the open sea. We busied ourselves reading and fooling ourselves into thinking we saw a boat on the horizon only to find it to be a capping wave. We have been now 7 days without seeing another boat or any other humans for that matter. (We saw one boat our first day out). We had a snack of canned fruit today and also the Ginger Snaps which were opened just yesterday are now mysteriously gone (big surprise). For dinner I made a tuna soup macaroni casserole which was pretty good. We also finished up the last of the chili and rice from the night before.

I found this morning the largest flying fish I have yet seen. He was about 8 inches long and I took a picture. We also found another squid (this one bigger) sun-baked onto the windward side deck.

I also furthered out course on my plotting sheet and took today a morning sight, fore-noon sight, noon sight, and after noon sight. Thought the moon is out earlier each day it is hard to shoot a sight of it because it has been very faint. At night the horizon cannot be distinguished for taking sights and I have yet to master the morning and evening twilight sights of stars and planets. Those require some planing and pre-calculation so that you can take the sights quickly before the the horizon disappears in the evening or the stars disappear in the morning. I'll be working on it.

***Communication***
We managed to miss both morning and evening nets today first by sleeping in and then by watching a movie. OOps. We will be sure to check in tomorrow morning.

***Weather***
Nothing new. Good wind, going fast.

Position (11:00pm):
06 deg 05' S
109 deg 44' W

Alan and the Crew

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Day 7, Onboard Update, April 18, 2010

***Life on board***
Another beautiful day in the South Pacific here onboard the WTP. We had grits and tuna scrambled eggs for breakfast and for dinner Adam made a chili soup with rice AND cornbread. Man we sure are suffering our here. We also opened our bag of Ginger Snap cookies that we bought in Panama. I wonder how long those will last.

I spent a lot of my day, when off watch, working on my navigation and taking sun and moon sights and plotting our fixes. My best fix today put is within 5 miles of our true position once again after deviating a little overnight.

After dinner we watched another episode of the BBC mini series "South Pacific". We learned that a type of bird we have spotted out here on the ocean can stay airborne for 4 YEARS continuously! No wonder they are so far out here. I wonder if they will fly their whole lives and never see land.

We have made our first time zone change since leaving Galapagos. We are now in what is called "Mountain Time" in the mainland US. Out here however, it's called "zone time" GMT +7. That is, you have to add 7 hours to get to Greenwich Mean Time. We are 2 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. But with daylight savings time it is 3 hours.

We are making increasingly more miles each 24 hours with each passing day. If we keep up, we may have our first 200 nm day! We are no doubt being helped by the South Equatorial Current that is pushing us along toward Marquesas but we don't have a way to directly measure the speed of the current having no "speed through water" sensor on board. We are however, moving decidedly "faster than normal" compared to the feel of our speed when we are not in any current which we can usually judge pretty accurately.

***Communication***
We slept in this morning and missed the Barefoot net but checked in for the afternoon net with our position. All boats are well and making good progress.

***Weather***
As stated, the weather is unchanged owing to the steady trade winds in these latitudes in this time of year. Steady, SE wind.

Position (11:40am):
05 deg 06' S
106 deg 38' W

Alan and the Crew

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Day 6, Onboard Update, April 17, 2010

***Life on board***
We are generally comfortable onboard these days having fallen into what could be called a "routine" of sleeping, reading, and resting. The days seem to be flying by and our progress toward the Marquesas is very pleasing. Knock on wood.

"The wet"....
With the current combo of wind and waves we experience what I like to call "the wet" on a pretty regular basis (at least once every 10 minutes or so) when out of the relative safety of the cabin. Almost always preceding "the wet" is a loud THUMP on the side of the windward hull which instantly sets off what is now an involuntary reaction to everyone on deck to jump, dive, or plunge into whatever spot on deck they think the water might miss. Naturally, the laws of irony, of which mother nature has such a keen understanding, cause "the wet" to fall directly onto those places. Occasionally just one of us is on deck and, when hearing the thud from down below, we listen for the always amusing, "Kersplash.....UHHHHHH!!!". We have found that there is sometimes nothing to do but succumb to the salt. And laugh at yourself for getting all wet.

Fishing....
No luck of fishing today. Although this morning, I found a 4 inch long squid plastered to the top of the bimini (which was folded down for the night) so I guess you could say we caught a squid. Not having an appetite for squid at the time, I used him as bait on my lure but it was, in the end, not to be. Maybe tomorrow.

Navigation....
I took two sun sights and one moon sight just a few minutes ago today. The sun sights, taken before and after local noon revealed that our dead reckoning position was about 30 or so miles off our true position. With the sights factored in, our new DR (dead reckoning) position was within 5 miles of true. I am getting better and faster at taking sights and doing the calculation and it is good to know that I just might be able to navigate us somewhere in the event of a total electrical failure. Knock on wood.

Will is on watch, Adam asleep after having made a delicious soup for dinner and I about to turn in in preparation for the midnight watch.

NEWS FLASH...Will was just moments ago struck in the back by an enormous flying fish while on watch. One of the biggest I have seen. Well done Will. He even had the courtesy to throw it back. Add one flying fish to the days catch list.

***Communication***
We made contact with the barefoot net today in the morning and evening. The closest boat to us is still "Dignity" who is about 60 miles south and 75 miles east of our position.

***Weather***
The weather here has been almost the same for the last 3 days. Wind from the SE, 5-8 foot swell that make the cockpit semi wet and mostly clear skies with occasional clouds. And STAY there! says I to the weather. Knock on wood.

Position (11:40am):
03 deg 21' S
99 deg 41' W

Alan and the Crew

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