Miles traveled day 7: 115
Miles traveled day 8: 161
Miles traveled total: 1,017
Miles to Port Angeles: 3,631
It’s just after midnight and we’re sailing along beautifully. We still have the trysail up, but just because we were really busy today doing other things and didn’t get the mains’l back up. It probably sounds funny that we didn’t have time to hoist a sail when what we’re supposed to be doing is sailing, but the sun was out for the first time in 6 days and we were on a mission to get the boat cleaned up. Besides, with the trysail up, the full jib out, and the current pushing us along, we’re currently making 7 knots even without the mainsail.
The weather faxes we’re downloading from Hawaii are telling us that the lows continue to come off of China and Japan and are being pushed north of us by high pressure. We would like to start turning north but can’t do it quite yet. Today’s 72 hour forecast says a possible gale will develop just 5 degrees north of us if two of these lows combine and bump into a high. So we’ll just plug along here at this latitude and hope to continue being protected by the high pressure just south of us.
In a desperate move out of sheer boredom yesterday Maya made a run for the companionway and an escape from the cabin. It was funny but sad because just as she got out into the cockpit a wave broke right behind the boat, causing all kinds of noise and a big roll at the same time. Needless to say she literally turned tail and was back in her bed in just a second.
I just went outside to make a full horizon scan, which I do every 20 minutes, and I think we’re completely fogged in. Which is odd because the wind is blowing 17 knots. But the sky is overcast and it’s completely pitch black out. As I look out from the companionway it looks like fog out there, but it’s really hard to tell in the complete darkness. And whether it is or not, I’ll still be up and out there every 20 minutes checking the AIS, radar, and the horizon. I had quite a surprise last night after getting a bit lazy about making a check so frequently. We hadn’t physically seen a ship in 5 days, but about this time last night I checked the radar and saw one heading directly away from us, about 3 miles out, going really fast. It didn’t have an AIS signal, but a very clear radar return and when I looked outside I could only see the stern light. Which means it passed very very close to us when I wasn’t paying attention. We think it must have been military since there was no AIS and it was going so fast, which means there would definitely have been lookouts standing watch. Nevertheless, I won’t be missing my appointed time to check again, fog or not.
Teresa
