Position: 18-deg 55-min N 124-deg 51-min W
Wind: NNE 20-knots Seas: N 6-ft
Course: 266 T Speed: 5.6-knots
Rig: 100% jib
24-hr distance traveled: 131-nm
We are grateful for many things. Of course, Tao, who steadily moves forward with no hesitation in the face of a 6-ft wave and if she gets knocked just turns back up and keeps going. Our stout SF Bay sails that hold up during this heavier weather. Our new cockpit enclosure/weather cloths that keep us indefinably dryer. Grizzly, who rolls with all of it only getting loud if she smells a can of tuna being opened, all the while providing loving snuggles. Moni (our Monitor wind vane), who is the only one of us that has previously experienced crossing the Pacific (this is his 3rd trip from east to west). Attached to our tiller, he stands watch every moment of the day, holds a better course than either of us could dream to, and only squeaks a little. Really, how did we think we could ever manage without any of them?
The first order of business today was to replace Moni's steering line as it had already nearly chafed through. The second, to eat warm blueberry muffins together in the sun. The third, kitty litter cleaning, during which Chris managed to keep ahold of this important tool as a blue water wave swept over our leward rail. For a moment Grizzly's bathroom turned into a miniature rapid and as the water passed through it redeposited more than half of the rocks to the ocean floor. And then there is radio contact- Chris now has a check-in time of 1900 Zulu on 14.306 with family up in Gualala (please feel free to check in with him at that time if you've got an HF rig). It is great for Chris to get time on the radio as he's been missing it while Shawn has been getting a crash course with both Net checkins occurring during her watches.
Dinner time brought happy hour with apples, cheese and crackers followed by saffron rice with madras lentils to carry us through the night. Having nearly reached the goal of 19-deg N, we decided to fall of a smidgen for a more comfortable ride relative to the building seas. Sunset, a moist star-filled night, and a sunrise later and we find ourselves in the thick of it. We have found the SE quadrant of the NE Pacific high and solid 20-knots of NNE wind. 131-nm is about as fast as we want to go so as not to put too much strain on ourselves or the rig. Just about time to pull the 100% jib down and replace it with the 80%. With current conditions, dryness is a losing battle, though Chris has hung wet cushions, towels and clothes out each day in the sun and we're still doing our best to maintain some sacred areas.
yikes! forgive the naive question but is the moisture from waves? it's like, the distinction between you and ocean is breaking down.... as the kitty litter incident evocatively expresses. parts of the rig becoming the ocean, and the ocean becoming you, one tomato at a time. i love it, keep up the beautiful posts. i love awaiting your next blog posts, and eating them up!
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