3:38am Apr 26
A third from Bill:
25 April (morning)
We had a beautiful sail last night. Winds started light, but picked up to 10-12 knots. The moon rose in the east followed by a very bright Jupiter and then the sun. The winds have really picked up now at 0830 local time. We have 18+ knots of wind from the east and are making 9-10 knots beam reaching. The swell is 3-4 feet with 2-3 waves. Actually, a very comfortable, fast ride.
The yacht and crew are doing well and looking forward to making up for the light-air days. We've made 600 nm and have 1760 nm to go. Position is 29.5N 151.6W.
Strong wind, flat water (YouTube link)
Bill and I had hand-held GPS's of which mine was on continuously and he sporadically turned on his. We regularly compared numbers and specifically the distance-to-go. I wasn't doing any desk or laptop work, of which I had my own laptop, and I wasn't constantly tracking our sailed distance. But what got me was that our distance-to-go number was always off by 100 miles or so. I was fairly confident that I entered in the coordinates at the entrance of the correct marina in Long Beach based on info I received from Gib. I really needed to get to the bottom of this and I noted to Bill on a regular basis there was a discrepancy. I asked what coordinate he used for his end mark and never did get a substantial number to work with. I took it upon myself to look at the charts at the nav table to verify my entry in my GPS.
Upon looking at the chart that Bill was using I looked closely at his pencil notes and discovered that he was using the Channel Islands up near Santa Barbara as his waypoint for calculating distance-to-go. I casually brought this up to him and asked him to check the chart. Luckily he came back and admitted that he read the chart wrong.
In my eyes this was a huge error. He was using that waypoint to calculate all the things we consider when approaching land after a long-distance passage. If no one had been checking the navigation on this passage we most likely would have ended up well north of Long Beach. Granted, we still would have hit California but errors in navigation of this sort are not warmly regarded.
This error would have become significant in the several consecutive days wherein we had to consider running to the middle of Baja or close-reaching to a point above San Francisco (in the very rough conditions we encountered several hundred miles from CA). The conditions were so bad that in an effort to keep the boat moving and the shiny side up it was safest to run with the wind and waves and that would have put us well south of San Diego.
25 April (morning)
We had a beautiful sail last night. Winds started light, but picked up to 10-12 knots. The moon rose in the east followed by a very bright Jupiter and then the sun. The winds have really picked up now at 0830 local time. We have 18+ knots of wind from the east and are making 9-10 knots beam reaching. The swell is 3-4 feet with 2-3 waves. Actually, a very comfortable, fast ride.
The yacht and crew are doing well and looking forward to making up for the light-air days. We've made 600 nm and have 1760 nm to go. Position is 29.5N 151.6W.
Strong wind, flat water (YouTube link)
Bill and I had hand-held GPS's of which mine was on continuously and he sporadically turned on his. We regularly compared numbers and specifically the distance-to-go. I wasn't doing any desk or laptop work, of which I had my own laptop, and I wasn't constantly tracking our sailed distance. But what got me was that our distance-to-go number was always off by 100 miles or so. I was fairly confident that I entered in the coordinates at the entrance of the correct marina in Long Beach based on info I received from Gib. I really needed to get to the bottom of this and I noted to Bill on a regular basis there was a discrepancy. I asked what coordinate he used for his end mark and never did get a substantial number to work with. I took it upon myself to look at the charts at the nav table to verify my entry in my GPS.
Upon looking at the chart that Bill was using I looked closely at his pencil notes and discovered that he was using the Channel Islands up near Santa Barbara as his waypoint for calculating distance-to-go. I casually brought this up to him and asked him to check the chart. Luckily he came back and admitted that he read the chart wrong.
In my eyes this was a huge error. He was using that waypoint to calculate all the things we consider when approaching land after a long-distance passage. If no one had been checking the navigation on this passage we most likely would have ended up well north of Long Beach. Granted, we still would have hit California but errors in navigation of this sort are not warmly regarded.
This error would have become significant in the several consecutive days wherein we had to consider running to the middle of Baja or close-reaching to a point above San Francisco (in the very rough conditions we encountered several hundred miles from CA). The conditions were so bad that in an effort to keep the boat moving and the shiny side up it was safest to run with the wind and waves and that would have put us well south of San Diego.
----------------------------------------------------
3:39am Apr 26
Final from Bill (hope I got them in the right order - he sent them all at once but not all were dated)
25 April (evening)
Transom bucket bath (YouTube link)
Hey, hope everyone had a nice Easter. The Easter bunny seemed to have forgotten us, but then we found three cold beers in the cooler. :-) Our position is 30N 151W. We had a fast start today, but the wind died around noon. We took advantage of the time to take bucket showers off the back of the boat and motor to charge the batteries. We tried wing and wing with the aluminum spinnaker pole, but the winds were too light and the swell too big. We hope to be up above the high in 72 hours. We've made 700 nm and have about 1700 to go. Hopefully, a faster trip once we reach 35N.
Dave and Clive have done an excellent job with the food and Mark, as usual, is a mechanical whiz with the engine. He also found a cotter pin on the bow which was backing out of the clevis pin which holds the forestay. It hadn't been bent to hold it in place. The engine is losing about a quart of coolant every two hours, but we haven't had to add oil. I am getting the best of the sat-phone and trying to make use of the weather charts I download.
25 April (evening)
Hey, hope everyone had a nice Easter. The Easter bunny seemed to have forgotten us, but then we found three cold beers in the cooler. :-) Our position is 30N 151W. We had a fast start today, but the wind died around noon. We took advantage of the time to take bucket showers off the back of the boat and motor to charge the batteries. We tried wing and wing with the aluminum spinnaker pole, but the winds were too light and the swell too big. We hope to be up above the high in 72 hours. We've made 700 nm and have about 1700 to go. Hopefully, a faster trip once we reach 35N.
Dave and Clive have done an excellent job with the food and Mark, as usual, is a mechanical whiz with the engine. He also found a cotter pin on the bow which was backing out of the clevis pin which holds the forestay. It hadn't been bent to hold it in place. The engine is losing about a quart of coolant every two hours, but we haven't had to add oil. I am getting the best of the sat-phone and trying to make use of the weather charts I download.
FZPN26 KWBC 251611
OFFPZ6
OFFSHORE WATERS FORECAST
NWS OCEAN PREDICTION CENTER WASHINGTON DC
930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011
CALIFORNIA WATERS FROM 60 NM TO 250 NM OFFSHORE.
SEAS GIVEN AS SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT...WHICH IS THE AVERAGE
HEIGHT OF THE HIGHEST 1/3 OF THE WAVES. INDIVIDUAL WAVES MAY BE
MORE THAN TWICE THE SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT.
PZZ089-252330-
930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011
SYNOPSIS FOR CALIFORNIA WATERS
A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS
THE NRN AND CENTRAL WATERS TODAY. A HIGH PRES RIDGE OVER THE
CENTRAL WATERS WILL BUILD INTO THE NRN WATERS TONIGHT INTO TUE
NIGHT. WEAK LOW PRES WILL MOVE INTO THE CENTRAL WATERS
WED...THEN DISSIPATE THU AS HIGH PRES BUILDS IN FROM THE W AND
PERSISTS INTO FRI. A LOW PRES TROUGH WILL STRENGTHEN ALONG THE
CALIFORNIA COAST TONIGHT AND PERSIST INTO FRI.
PZZ083-252330-
POINT ST GEORGE TO POINT ARENA
930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011
TODAY
W TO NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 20
KT...HIGHEST N. SEAS 7 TO 11 FT. SCATTERED SHOWERS EARLY.
TONIGHT
W TO NW WINDS DIMINISHING TO 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS
BUILDING TO 9 TO 13 FT...HIGHEST N.
TUE
VARIABLE WINDS 10 KT OR LESS. SEAS 9 TO 12 FT. ISOLATED
SHOWERS.
TUE NIGHT
VARIABLE WINDS 10 KT OR LESS...EXCEPT SW PART
BECOMING E 10 TO 20 KT. SEAS SUBSIDING TO 7 TO 9 FT.
WED
WINDS BECOMING NW 15 TO 20 KT LATE. SEAS 7 TO 10 FT.
THU
NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING HIGHEST SE. SEAS BUILDING
TO 9 TO 11 FT.
FRI
N TO NW WINDS 10 TO 20 KT...EXCEPT SE PART 20 TO 30
KT...HIGHEST FAR SE. SEAS 7 TO 11 FT.
PZZ084-252330-
POINT ARENA TO POINT CONCEPTION
930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011
GALE FORCE WINDS EXPECTED THU AND FRI
TODAY
NW WINDS 10 TO 20 KT. SEAS 5 TO 9 FT.
TONIGHT
NW PORTION...NW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SE PORTION...NW
WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT FAR SE PART INCREASING TO 30 KT. SEAS
7 TO 9 FT THROUGHOUT.
TUE
NW PORTION...VARIABLE WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. SE PORTION...NW
WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT FAR SE PART TO 30 KT. SEAS 7 TO 11 FT
THROUGHOUT.
TUE NIGHT
NW PORTION...VARIABLE WINDS 5 TO 15 KT...EXCEPT NW
PART BECOMING SW 15 TO 20 KT. SE PORTION...NW WINDS DIMINISHING
TO 10 TO 20 KT...EXCEPT FAR SE PART TO 25 KT. SEAS 7 TO 11 FT
THROUGHOUT.
WED
WINDS BECOMING NW 15 TO 20 KT THROUGHOUT. SEAS 7 TO 10 FT.
THU
N TO NW WINDS INCREASINGN TO 20 TO 30 KT LATE...EXCEPT
FAR E PART TO 35 KT. SEAS 8 TO 12 FT.
FRI
N TO NW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT...EXCEPT FAR E PART TO 35 KT.
SEAS BECOMING 8 TO 15 FT...HIGHEST SE.
PZZ085-252330-
POINT CONCEPTION TO GUADALUPE ISLAND
930 AM PDT MON APR 25 2011
GALE WARNING
TODAY
NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT NEAR THE CHANNEL ISLANDS
TO 30 KT. SEAS 5 TO 10 FT...HIGHEST E OF 121W.
TONIGHT
NW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT...EXCEPT NEAR THE CHANNEL
ISLANDS TO 35 KT. SEAS 6 TO 11 FT...HIGHEST E OF 121W.
TUE
NW TO N WINDS INCREASING TO 25 TO 35 KT...EXCEPT FAR W
PART 15 TO 25 KT. SEAS 7 TO 12 FT...HIGHEST ALONG 120W.
TUE NIGHT
N TO NW WINDS 25 TO 35 KT...EXCEPT FAR W PART 15 TO
25 KT. SEAS 8 TO 13 FT...HIGHEST ALONG 120W.
WED
NW WINDS DIMINISHING TO 15 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT ALONG 120W
TO 30 KT. SEAS 7 TO 12 FT...HIGHEST ALONG 120W.
THU
N TO NW WINDS INCREASING TO 25 TO 35 KT. SEAS BUILDING TO
9 TO 14 FT...HIGHEST ALONG 120W.
FRI
N TO NW WINDS 25 TO 35 KT...EXCEPT E PART DIMINISHING TO
15 TO 25 KT LATE. SEAS BUILDING TO 11 TO 16 FT.
.FORECASTER SHAW. OCEAN FORECAST BRANCH.
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| 12am 4/26/11 (180nm/756nm) |
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