Day 26 - On the Move to the South

There was a good wind all night long. At one point it was strengthening to 16 and 17 kts and I was considering putting a reef in the mainsail, but happily the wind weakened slightly and we sailed into 14 and 15 kts all night. At 6 AM I saw with pleasure that the wind had backed even more and we were making a COG averaging 180 degrees, and for short periods slightly east of south. This was the first time in too many days that we were easting and for now the headlong rush to the Marquises had been arrested. We were at longitude 121W28 and I hoped that this would be as far west as we would get. Our average speed had been well over 5 kt and at 6.20 AM we were at lat 01S45, having made a full degree and a half of southing in 18 hours. The boat had traveled well. Occasionally the hull would slam into a wave, but generally the only sounds were the hum of the wind charger and the rush of the water past the hull. This was accompanied by little rolling but the expected amount of pitching.

At 6.30 AM I tuned into CBV Chile to see if I could get a weather fax. They were transmitting and I captured 7 very clear faxes over a period 75 minutes. Then they stopped transmitting. Unfortunately all of the faxes concerned the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico area, which was a disappointment. However, at least I learned that I can pick up their transmissions clearly and I now have some insight into when they transmit. I will try to tune in earlier to see what other faxes they transmit and hopefully capture their transmission schedule. In the meantime I will rely on the Pt Reyes weather faxes out of California, though they are getting fuzzier and fuzzier as I move south.

Late yesterday afternoon I treated myself to a salt water bath in the cockpit and a fresh change of underclothes. I had been wearing the same set for over a week and I've learned that when your underclothes start to feel oily it is time for a change. I decided to have a go at clothes washing and put the two sets of dirty underclothes in a large bucket, added a generous amount of liquid clothes detergent, then filled the bucket almost to the top with water and left it to agitate overnight. Judging from the color of the water this morning the technique cleans clothes very well. I then wrung out every bit of salt water from the items that I could then rinsed them in maybe 2 liters of water and left them in on the cockpit seats so that the sun and wind can dry them a bit before I bring them in.

And last night I slept under a sheet for the first time since leaving La Paz. For about a week I've been sleeping in a track suit bottom and a long sleeve top, with socks to keep my feet warm. Last night even that wasn't enough so out came the sheet. I wear long clothes in the cabin most of the time, but for deck work I still strip down in order to keep my clothes dry.

Precisely at noon our position was 02S14, 121W24. In the last 24 hours we had made good 120 miles in the direction 188T. We had made 119 minutes of southing, just one minute short of a full 2 degrees. To top it off we had moved 4 minutes to the east since 6.20 AM. The boat was on the move and I was fairly sure that we had found the SE trade winds.

The weather faxes out of Hawaii showed Hurricane Kenneth packing 75 m/hr winds at roughly 10N 110W. The good ship Pachuca and her crew passed through that area 9 and 10 days ago. Providence.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com