Tuesday 12 Jul 2011

Tuesday 12 Jul 2011
0600 PDT Position: 28 22 N, 137 29 W

06:00 AM
My 10:00 -1:00 watch last night was great. We sailed with the .75 oz spinnaker and followed the wind as best we could. At times we were sailing at over 8 kts. The moon gave us plenty of light. All you hear at night while sleeping is the water rushing past the hull and the rigging squeaking. As for sleeping arrangements, I'm in the starboard pilot berth using the lee cloth to keep me in, Randy is in the port pilot berth, Phil in the starboard aft cabin berth, Curt & Mary in the port aft cabin, Harry was banished to the bow bunk due to snoring, and Tom, Ed, and Graham share the port or starboard settee berths depending on shifts and availability. Got to go now.

10:17 AM We doused the .75 oz spinnaker and raised the larger .85 oz spinnaker hoping to pick up some speed in the light air. We're still "heading to the barn" on an average heading of 249 degrees. We got a hole in the .75 oz spinnaker and are patching it up. Last night we had a few sprinkles but this morning it's pretty clear and we're out of our foulies again. There are a few squalls on the horizon so it could get wet later. Although we're ahead of a few boats, it looks like we're in last place on corrected time. We hope to close the gap and improve our placing by staying on the krumline. I've got to go now so that we can get an updated GRIB off the SSB.

1:15 PM After eight days and 1,100 miles at sea we finally figured out how to make the CD player work for music on board! With multiple iPhones, Pads, smart phones, etc., we just couldn't figure out how to make the CD that Trish made for us work through the boat's sound system. I guess it wasn't much of a priority for us. Here it is on a beautiful sunny afternoon and I finally decided to make it a priority. We discussed the various possibilities with Phil and he remembered where there was a simple cable to connect the CD player with the stereo. Now we have some music and life is good. Thank you Trish! We were now able to play the well stocked music collection on Curt's iPhone. We're still sailing with the .85 oz spinnaker in light winds and calm seas. This was the bargain used sail Graham got from Minnie's in Newport Beach. It's essentially a brand new spinnaker that's working great for the light to medium winds we've been encountering. Phil and Harry patched the hole in the .75 oz spinnaker for use in super light winds. You'd never know we were in the middle of the ocean. I've rarely seen our local waters as calm as this. The water is a beautiful and clear royal blue. Unfortunately, we've seen lots of plastic trash floating by. One interesting side note is that we've seen a few flying fish and squid jump out of the water (flying squid!). In fact, Mary saw one jump across the boat right in front of her face. We've seen some albatross, and boobies (or something similar). We haven't seen any whales or dolphins in many days. One source of entertainment is Randy spilling his drinks. I don't think he's had a cup of coffee without spilling some of it. We've all learned to move to the other side of the boat when Randy drinks his coffee. 1:30 - Tom climbed the mast to inspect the rigging. Everything looked good except that the spinnaker halyard was jammed on the sheave. I need to ease the halyard a couple of inches when raising it so that it doesn’t jam. While aloft, Tom couldn't see any other boats in sight. 2:40 - The winds got lighter so we doused the .85 oz spinnaker and raised the old .5 oz spinnaker. We immediately gained another knot or two with the lighter sail. Our 4:00-7:00 PM watch was, in my opinion, the best sailing so far. We were sailing with the .5 oz spinnaker at 5-7.4 kts on a direct run to our destination. The sky was clear, the seas calm, the temperature was comfortable, the music was playing, and the steering was effortless. At 7:25 PM we hit the half way point with 1,112 miles to go! To celebrate, Randy prepared a special meal of Balinese roasted port (LeeAnne’s leftovers), mashed potatoes, and green beans with a desert of strawberry shortcake. Harry gathered some cardboard boxes and planned to send them adrift on fire as a token to the sea gods. I fell asleep before the sacrifice was launched, but heard it was good fun.