Miles traveled days 11 & 12: 207
Miles traveled total : 1,527
Miles to Port Angeles: 3,263
We’re sailing tonight with the jib out on the pole in front of the mains’l, making 5.5 knots to the NNE. Two days ago we had a difficult day trying to make miles towards home. The wind had shifted around in front of us, turning us to the southeast. We couldn’t point very high (sail close to the wind) because we still had the trysail up, but we decided to tack and see where it got us. When we were done tacking we were pointing northwest – a 180 degree turn. Not so good, so back we go, thinking it was because of the trysail. After we finished the repairs and had the main back up we tacked again, with the same results. What we realized was that the 3 knot current was no longer our friend and pushing us west in the light air, so back we tacked, sailing much longer to the southeast than we wanted, until the current eased enough to allow us to turn back again and point northeast. Of the 100 miles we sailed on Tuesday, only 44 of it was in the direction we want to travel – a very frustrating day for sure.
We need to make some ground north now because, dare I say it, the last of the lows coming off Japan is going by and the latitude we’re at now will be totally windless in another 2 days. We have no idea if the succession of low pressure systems was a normal spring pattern and is done for the summer, or if it continues on and we’re just getting a brief respite. That’s the problem with just passing through an area – it’s impossible to understand what the weather’s doing in a such short time.
What we do know now, though, is that the GPS is going to tick over to less than 3,000 miles to go in another day or two, and that’s a huge milestone. If we stretch it a bit we can convince ourselves that we’re a third of the way done with this passage. The weather’s been beautiful during the day, but it’s getting chilly now. The water temp is below 70 degrees, and a sweatshirt is mandatory attire when we get out of the sea berth at night for watches. There’s no moon right now so it’s completely pitch black outside, which still bothers me even after 4 years of passagemaking.
Tonight on Yohelah we’re making ground northeast….
Teresa
