Well folks, we continue to enjoy a lovely passage, and we're moving along smartly.
Just not in the direction we'd expected, but still, we're eating away at the Northerly component even while we continue moving further East as well. Recall that Hilo is North and WEST of us. The WX forecast had the wind from the East or just a bit South of East for the past several days, but for the past almost 24 hours the wind moved from ESE to SE to darn near South. To keep moving well we sail at 120 degrees apparent wind, which puts the true wind about 15 - 20 degrees further aft, so when the true wind is coming from 170 degrees relative to True North, our course over ground is as much as 30 degrees relative to True North. That's not good. We'd like to be sailing at 000 deg right now, as we've already made a full degree (60 nautical miles) to the East, and we'll have to sail all that back on the way to Hilo.
On the upside, that'll also allow us to point farther downwind when we wish, which will put the seas further aft, which will make for a nicer ride. Rather than the herky jerky rapid roll and banging on the hull and splashy ride we get with beam seas, having the swell well aft of the beam results in a pleasant rise and fall of the boat, a soft pitching motion that allows us to move easily and safely around the boat, cook without risk of getting scalded by hot water (one of the biggest risks we face), and we sleep much better.
We had an absolutely blue skies clear day yesterday, and spectacular stars after sunset. I was hoping that we had moved far enough North that I'd be able to observe both the North Star and the Southern Cross at the same time, but the 1/2 moon was bright enough to obscure stars closer to the horizon (there's also a haze effect down low) and by the time the moon had set, clouds had arrived and most of the sky was obscured. Good grief, Charlie Brown, I just can't win. . .
Anyway, I stood watch until a bit after midnight then rousted Isabel for her shift. We both slept well while in the rack, and given that there's nothing in this piece of ocean but us, while on night watch we set 30 minute alarms and catnap to try and remain fresh. There are alarms on the boat systems to alert us to AIS targets and big wind changes, so it's best to remain as rested as possible. I learned in Navy survival training, the SEALS and others use a napping system to remain as rested as possible, limiting naps to 30 minutes, or sleeping in 1.5 hour blocks to allow REM sleep cycles. We do our best to observe that protocol and it seems to work well for us.
Naturally in a busy seaway or dynamic weather / sailing conditions we wouldn't nap at night but might as well while we can. We haven't even seen a Chinese fishing boat out here - but we do know they're around somewhere, hoovering up anything that lives.
We shook out reef #1 yesterday afternoon when the wind went down to 12 knots, and we're still tooling along with full sails. Got us a little extra speed. The wind got deep enough that we could have drug out the Parasailor, but not with the risk of squalls and rapid wind changes in our near future. That sail is a bit of work to setup. Even harder to deal with taking it down if things blow up rapidly. Foredeck work adds risk of a MOB or injury; we don't need that so far from any other human.
The motion was kind enough last night that Isabel whipped up a fresh stir-fry rather than whip something out of the freezer. She could do the same tonight, but we've also agreed that we need to keep making room for that mahi-mahi we are planning to catch. We've already got about 7 kilos of sushi grade tuna in the the freezer, so we don't want to catch a tuna, and we haven't eaten mahi-mahi in some time, so that's what we're hoping to nail. About a meter long is a manageable fish - anything bigger and it's a real task to get aboard and properly butcher. A meter long fish will also provide a lot of good flesh. Oink.
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