A Day of Sail Changes

July 31
Cape Flattery to Kauai
Day 9

Noon PST position: 31.17.25N by 142.17.04W
Miles since last noon: 153
Total miles of passage: 1445
Avg. Miles per Day: 160
Course: SW
Speed: 5+ knots overnight; higher today.
Wind: ENE 10 to 20 (diminished overnight; has filled in today)
Sky: Squally, broken sky. Partly sunny.
Waves: NE 4
Bar: 1019
Air Temperature: 77 degrees
Sea Temperature: 69 degrees

Light wind overnight produced our “slowest” day of the passage. But if “slow” is over 6 knots, I’ll take it.

Been on deck most of today. The wind has gone more east than suits me for a run dead down wind.

But putting the wind a few degrees on the port quarter required shifting the headsails to opposite sides, the big genoa to starboard and the working jib to port and canted forward a tad.

That operation took an hour (I’m still very slow at foredeck ops). And then another hour to trim the sails to my liking. And then another hour to “tune” the wind vane to an unusual and difficult course. All complicated by wind that was up and down between 10 and 20 depending on our proximity to the next squall.

I’m ready for a beer.

Several rain showers today, light and misty. Cooling. After my winter and spring in Homer, temperatures are already beginning to feel hot. All the ports are open. The Dorade vents too.

Tropic birds again. All white tailed. And two black footed albatross. A fast flier that I think is a gadly petrel, but it never came close enough to tell. I’m disappointed by the lack of birdlife on this run.

By way of solving the veg-going-off problem, yesterday I cooked all of it into a big (2 gallon) pot of ragout–all the bell peppers, all the zucchini, all the tomatoes, plus garlic, onions, herb mix, chicken stock, and butter. That became the base for pasta sauce with beef, last night’s dinner. Tonight it will be the base for a chicken curry with rice. Looking forward to it.

Sadly, I think the bread is going over the side today. Upside: now I get to try the Pilot Crackers. Downside: I can’t imagine they’re much to write home about.

Been monitoring an International Harvester about to come off the line south of Cabo. Not ideal timing. At present course and speed, we’re still 7 days out from Hanalie Bay. But we have a good head start. Not much more to be said until it makes its intentions clear.