SF-SD Day 8, Gale 3

The gale winds began to subside in the early afternoon and soon we were sailing again on a starboard tack, heading SE. The VHF radio weather report stated that the storm would make landfall way up in Eureka, CA, near the Oregon border. There were flash flood warning for central and south California, so they must be expecting some serious rain - which is sorely needed, as far as I can tell.

Before dark we ran the engine for an hour to charge the batteries. We ran the engine for two hours yesterday which I would have expected to keep our battery voltage levels up for at least two days. But on the other hand we are using a lot of extra power for the HF radio and the electric bilge pump.

Pump. We could hear water slopping in the bilge and could not seem to keep its level down. We needed to see what was going on. I looked into the bilge while Arnold had repeated sessions of pumping. We were relieved to confirm that we did not have an uncontrollable leak. We had let the bilge sections get so high over the previous hours that it took a while to get to the point where the level of the bilge water was stable just below the keel bolts.

Our starboard water tank ran dry this morning, after only 8 days out. Arnold and I discussed the ramifications for our stay at the Sea of Cortez. We will have to be able to replenish our tanks every 2 weeks or go on more severe water restrictions. I don't know much about the water situation in Baja. There are towns and the economy caters to yachties. On the other hand, the place is a desert.

By 8 PM we were south of the latitude of San Diego.

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