The biggest swimming pool in the world
Day 9
Stats - 9/7/2023
Time: 2300
Trip Miles: 1,050
Weather: Clear evening, the stars are out
Wind: 6 knots from the WSW
Sea State: Calm - 3 foot swells from the SW
Propulsion: Motoring at 5.5 knots of speed (again!)
Sea Temperature: 73
Good morning to you all! No big story to report today, but we do have one huge breakthrough, something that Randall reports has never taken place on MŌLI. Today’s blog is a series of pictures and explanations. Please read on…
Sunrise this morning. Due to my watch schedule (0400 to 0800) I get to see each sunrise and they are all so different out here. Today was nice and orange, but as you can see, maddeningly calm!
Ok…so here is today’s big “EXTRA EXTRA”. Never before on MŌLI has Randall, or anyone else, taken a swim. With Randall it is understandable as he singlehands the boat (sure would be embarrassing if he lost his boat!). But with moi aboard, and no wind, and water in the 74 degree range, Randall had a change of heart and asked if I wanted to jump in. He did not have to ask twice…
The water felt so refreshing and I guess this counts as my “bath” after only nine days (dang, I was shooting for 30). The Pacific Ocean is the world’s biggest swimming pool. Here are a few stats: 1) One-third of the earth is the Pacific Ocean, 2) There is significantly more Pacific Ocean than land on this earth, 3) It contains 714 trillion gallons of water! I did find it a bit scary to tread water as it was 15,000 feet deep where I went in (that is a long way to the bottom!) BTW, the average depth of the Pacific is 14,040 feet and the deepest part is 35,797 feed deep.
Clearly at this moment Randall is not sharing my serene state of enjoyment as MŌLI continues to move away from me in the current. Promises were made to Jorun that I would not fall off the boat, but jumping in is another story. Randall’s mood recovered after I climbed back safely aboard and Randall had his moment in the drink.
Once rinsed off with fresh water and dried ourselves off it was back to work. No, Randall is not concocting tonight’s desert. He is packing the lubricant delivery tube that connects to the propellor drive shaft. As of late the shaft sleeve has been demanding more and more lube which is concerning because the more we motor, the more lube the shaft demands. Every hour that we motor, on the hour, we turn the lubricant knob to make certain it is delivering a sufficient quantity to the propeller shaft so that the shaft will not run dry, overheat and, well that would be the end of our motoring. Randall brought plenty of lube, but he cannot fix the root problem until MŌLI is on the hard in Homer. Please join me in crossing your/our/my fingers.
Take a look at our present diesel capacity. Due to the lack of wind, we have been motoring more than usual. We have gone less than one quarter of the way, but have already used a fair amount of our diesel. One of these days we will hit some wind and lest we forget, MŌLI is a sailboat, after-all.
Well, it as been another great day aboard MŌLI as twilight falls upon us. The wind, unfortunately is still on vacation but promises to return soon. Goodnight to all family and friends.