The Great Escape
Days 5 and 6
Finally sailing again….we were so excited to have wind that we took the tiller by hand for a while…no Monitor Wind Vane
After 24 hours of motoring, the wind returned. In retrospect it was a nice break. I had time to catch up with Jorun, my kids and a few friends (thanks to Strarlink). On board we took the time to create a food map or where we stow all of our food. I would say that we have well over 120 days of food on board stowed in every nook and cranny on board. Plenty of beverages including coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and electrolyte “juices”. Beans, rice, lentils, tuna, canned tomatoes, chick peas, cheeses, nuts, peanut butter, muesli, and various proteins both real and laboratory produced and about 3,000 Cliff Bars. I made the mistake of eating three of them my first day out and I am not sure I will eat another for the rest of the trip. We have decided to include a big sack of Cliff Bars in our “ditch” bag if we have to climb into our life raft to escape a once-in-a-lifetime storm. I am not sure I would eat one even then, perhaps finding Randall more appetizing??!!
Food everywhere!
On the blue tape above is our “map” so after we cover the cubby hole, we know what is inside.
We store all fresh vegi’s and fruits in the V-berth opposite to my bed. Need to enjoy them and use them while they last.
Admitting to myself that I am no longer in Kansas, I finally took this time to change out of my land clothes (cotton underwear, pants, wool socks and Patagonia shirt) and into my warm weather sea-bound attire (gym shorts, REI SPF pants and shirt and Crock shoes). Being at sea for 30 days or longer necessitates a wardrobe that can be worn multiple days (like 10 or 20) without changing (no one brings 30 pairs of underwear). Laundry facilities are not available on board, so we will wait for a day with some rain to do “laundry”. Marino wool is the favored textile for shirts, socks and underwear - it can be worn a ridiculous number of times without the need for changing.
Our first Flying Fish landed on deck last night - a little guy, maybe 3 inches
So yesterday afternoon the wind mysteriously reappeared. Felt really good to hoist the sails, turn off the engine and move through the water under wind power like we are supposed to. We got in a good 24 hours of smooth wind sailing. But all is not well in this piece of ocean. The high pressure and low pressure systems refuse to commit to their namesake, and mix and match with each other like they are playing a game leaving the wind to be somewhere between barely moderate and not enough to sail. This atypical weather pattern makes standard route planning impossible.
Our original route was to head southwest towards Hawaii, round the low pressure system down there and ride the other side of it up (north) all the way to Alaska. Classic trade winds. Been done a million times. Except this time. Because the high and low pressure systems refuse to commit, we can no longer head south as there may not be wind when we get there to push us up to Alaska. And there may not be wind to take us south. So we are taking “The Great Escape”.
No more going south to Hawaii!
Randall thinks our best chance out is to head almost due west. We are more than 600 miles off shore at this point. As of yesterday morning we were as far south as Aatacdero. But now, we are back up to Latitude 38 (San Francisco) on a more westerly route trying to break through these multiple low-grade weather systems. It will take us another 700 miles or so reach “the other side” where we can catch the northerly trade winds to Alaska. This is a most unusual route and filled with the risk of the wind dying on us at multiple points, or worse, backing on us. Not the end of the world, I understand that. Buit is is a wierd route to get to Alaska. That said, we really do not have much of a choice. So west we go!