The boat sailed well for the rest of yesterday with a reliable NW wind. In mid-afternoon I noticed that the SOG was down to 4.5 kt so I unrolled the jib to a no. 2 and brought it back up another half knot. Occasionally I would tweak Jeff to keep the course to the middle of Vancouver island, north of Cape Flattery.
At the evening radio session Ryan reported that they had torn their spinnaker at a lower horizontal seam and could not patch it up with tape. Ryan said that it was a light spinnaker and I suspect that they pushed it too hard in their haste to get home. They have no spare spinnaker so they will have to rely on the jib for their downwind work as I have. They were almost becalmed and had been advised buy Don to head north. They were planning to motor until they got wind. These guys are anxious to get back home and will motor all they have to. Ryan said that they have 40 gallons diesel which he reckons can run the engine for four days.
I exchanged emails with Jim at Sailmail Tech Support regarding the Getfax problem. He was glad that I had run that last wfax session with the GPS receiver connected because that was the next thing that he was going to ask me. I confirmed that I was not using Bluetooth for my modem-Acer connection and was using a hard wire connection using a printer-type cable. I then basically signed off on the problem and thanked Jim for his prompt response and great interaction, giving Sailmail Tech Support a rating of 10 out of 10. ... Needless to say this resolution has been productive for Jim too because he'll now be ready for the next mini laptop user that reports the problem. I wouldn't be surprised if they eliminate that high baud rate as a Getfax option.
Just after dark I noticed that the jib was occasionally collapsing in a hard roll so I wound it back to a 1.5. I lost a half knot in speed but the sail was much happier. The grib file indicated poor winds for the next day and I was apprehensive about the speed and stability of the wind during the night. I was fortunate with good winds throughout the night. I made checks at midnight and 2 AM to find the boat ambling along happily at 4.5 kt, straight down the rhumb line. I awoke again at 4 AM to find that we were now less than 300 nm from Cape Flattery - 298 to be exact. At 5.30 AM we crossed another threshold: Lat 47N. The latitude of Cape Flattery is 48.23N, which is just over 70 nm to the north. Once I have reached the latitude of Cape Flattery I will be more relaxed about heading directly for it, being confident that I can make the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca with any wind on an arc from NNE back around W to SSE.
While waiting for the 8 AM fax session out of San Francisco (Hawaii is now too far away.) I used the chart plotter to explore the coast down to San Francisco. There are a few bolt holes down the Oregon coast, including the mouth of the Columbia River, but they would involve motoring up long and narrow channels. I would use them only in case of emergency.
San Francisco looked more inviting, of course. There is an unrestricted anchorage tucked around the corner at the north side of the Golden Gate bridge. It should provide good protection from the ocean swell, fast current, and hopefully also the winds that scream through that gap to the sea. The setting should be spectacular, with views of SF and Oakland. Although the SF Bay is large and expansive seen from land the charts tell another story of shallows everywhere. Things must be better than they look on the chart because I've seen for myself some of the thousands of large boats in marinas to the north of the bridge. I envision spending a night at the anchorage then take it from there.
At 7.45 AM the headsail began to thrash due to insufficient wind. I rolled in the jib and as usual lashed the wheel with shock cord. I couldn't complain. The wind lasted long enough to give me good night's sleep while the boat made good progress. Besides, the first real sun that had seen in four days emerged while I was in the cockpit.
I ran the engine for an hour to charge the batteries while making way. The sun had emerged big-time and soon I had my shoes and some damp clothes and towels drying in the sun.
At noon we were at 47.10N, 131.21W. We had a noon-noon distance of 102 nm and were 275 nm from Cape Flattery. I was hoping that the next lot of predicted wind would get me round the cape on Day 30, 20 June.
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