DAY 7 - On the Move

That good breeze in the early afternoon yesterday did not last long. I spent the rest of the day sailing the boat at 2 kt when I could, and laying ahull when the the wind was too weak. The winds popped up from various directions.

I spent an hour in the afternoon to dig up whatever electrical wire that I could find so that today I could have a go at setting up extra grounding for the radio. Also, I put hung a rigging knife in the fold of my life vest. I'll put the other one in the cockpit ready for quick access.

I heard Jeff's father Charlie in Arizona hailing Jeff at their session time. Jeff was a bit late responding so I told Charlie that this was Robert from Pachuca. He heard me and asked if it was Richard. My signal was obviously weak, and I could barely hear him. Soon I think that I heard Charlie say something to Jeff about going to another frequency due to the noise.

The 7.30 PM session with Richard and Jeff was OK. Surprisingly I could hear Richard over 1000 miles away better than Jeff who was only 200 miles away. Both Richard and I are both unhappy about various aspects of our radio rigs. Richard has a lot more practical experience than me and I am sure that he will solve his problems. I told told him that I was getting no recognizable weather fax signals out of Honolulu and was resorting to San Francisco for my weather faxes which were not exactly crystal clear but readable. Richard said that I am too close to Honolulu. I asked him if there was some sort of skip issue and he said Yes. In Honolulu there was no skip issue because I was getting the ground wave.

Richard gave me his position (39.20N, 153.28W) and said that he was heading west at between 3 and 4 knots. I thought that I had heard wrong but he confirmed that he was heading west, expecting to find good wind. Richard is the man on the spot and he has much experience but it nevertheless disturbed me that he seemed to be darting in one direction then another.

I made first contact with Chris Boscole who I think is on Maui. The reception was terrible. We will try again tonight and have agreed on two alternate frequencies if we have trouble making contact. Chris says that he has a "gold" ground plate on the hull of his boat and in fact he had dived that day to clean it and cut his hand pretty bad in the process.

After my 7.30 radio session I noticed that the wind generator was humming. I went out, unrolled the jib, and I was soon moving west at about 3 kt. This wind held, backed, and I went to bed with the boat heading NNE. The alarm went off at 2 AM and I was delighted to see that Pachuca was on a NE course. It looked like a win-win-win situation for me: heading East to try to catch the effects of the Pacific High, heading North where the Westerlies were, far far away, and heading almost directly for Juan de Fuca. I woke just before the alarm went off at 6 AM to find the boat still headed NE at about 3.3 kt. Jeff the Monitor wind vane steering had performed above and beyond the call of duty. Being on a port tack just off the wind meant that the wind vane had the outboard motor hanging off the rail on its mounting board right in its face. That was not a problem for Jeff. He steered the boat flawlessly all night.

I had breakfast then went to the foredeck to tighten the port lazy jack, loosen the starboard one, and inspect the deck, rigging, and lines. I then hoisted the full mainsail and was soon doing over 4.5 kt.

At 7.30 AM I was at 25.09N, 157.16W (ie Lat 25 degrees 9 minutes North, Long 157 degrees 16 minutes West), about 200 nm from the north shore of Oahu, headed ENE at 5.3 kt on a port tack. I sailed more or less east until noon, the time of this report.

After a second cup of coffee I rigged up a thick piece of wire to act as a ground from the tuner to the ocean. It will be interesting to see if this has a discernible affect with my voice communications tonight.

At 11.30 AM we got a small shower which gave me an excuse for a cockpit bath. It's easy. All you need is a bucket, a sponge, dish detergent, and a measuring jug. You scoop 3/4 bucket of salt water, add detergent, then wash yourself out of the bucket using the sponge. The hard part is pouring the cool soapy water over your back. Then draw 750 ml of fresh water and rinse down to the legs. It probably won't be this easy in the colder climates.