A Day of Epiphany
Day 22
Noon Position: 01 53.52N 127 06.23W
Course/Speed: SSW 5
Wind: ESE 12
Sail: Full working jib, reef in main
Bar: 1015
Sea: SE 5
Sky: Clear
Cabin Temp: 84
Water Temp: 73
Miles last 24-hours: 119
Miles since departure: 2645
It’s been a day of epiphany.
Since entering the SE trades and putting Mo close hauled, I’ve been mystified at a) our consistently slow speeds and b) our inability to make southing without a whopping lot of westing into the bargain.
I blamed this on the skipper, who had little experience getting his good ship to go upwind. Not a one of you called to disagree.
My heading wasn’t translating into miles made good in *that* direction, but I had no idea by how much because I wasn’t tracking heading closely, only course over the ground. This is my first “fancy” chart plotter, and I’ll admit with some embarrassment that I had no idea a unit that is getting but one signal from the sky could surmise heading. Course, sure. But only Monte knows my heading and he only whispers it to me.
But look at that! I even get extension lines that show the variance between the two. And holy smokes–heading and course are out by 30 degrees. My intuition was right, at least.
Other evidence. We’ve had a couple days of very poor mileage, results that don’t correspond to my visual check of our wake. Chart plotter says 4.5 knots over the ground. Randall says that looks more like 5.5 knots through the water.
Today we took off. On the same wind speed and set of sail our course-over-the-ground speed went to the high 7 knots and touched 8 knots several times. Yippie. But when Randall looks over the side, it still looks like 5.5 knots through the water.
Other evidence. Damn this swell. At the moment I’m having a tough time hitting the right keys on the laptop because for the last hour we’ve had schoolbus 8-footers rolling through and the swell is crashing and breaking everywhere. Wind speed: 12 knots. Those who sail San Francisco Bay would say this looks unusually like a wind-against-tide kind of slop.
Conclusion: this particular quadrant of ocean is experiencing some currents not noted in the Pilot Charts, which show only an slow, unvaried west-trending set. Actually, it’s likely a hybrid of Mo’s natural leeway, the leeway she is gifted when she bangs into the SE swell, and then whatever odd current is happening hereabouts.
Otherwise it’s been a day of chores on deck, like re-reeving Monte’s control line. Nice sailing day, but I’m looking forward to the more easterly trades we are slated to get below the line.
Water temp is dropping way off relative to air, and it was recently ten degrees warmer I think. That may mean water from somewhere else – current.
I got caught in a similar current a number of years ago almost in the same area. Heading 190 and tracking almost 250 for about 24 hours. Thought I was in the twilight zone for awhile until i figured it out. I ended up missing Hiva Oa by about 80 nms and dare I admit used my motor to make port after 47 days out of Vancouver. Enjoy your voyage, Robert Graf
why do you have a reef in the main with 12 knots of wind ?
I think we have the same plotter. If so it is capable of displaying Current. When things settle down you might try fiddling with your display display options. I use it constantly up in Alaska where currents are often diffent than forecast.
Shake out the reef and sheet the damn main in. You can’t go uphill with the main eased..you’re footing, so stop it.
Go Easterly !!!