A Three-Reef Kind of Day
March 1 , 2019
Day 148
Noon Position: 46 49S 134 51W
Course(t)/Speed(kts): ExS 7
Wind(t/tws): NxW 20
Sea(t/ft): NW 4
Sky: Altostratus, frontal clouds
10ths Cloud Cover: 10
Bar(mb): 1017+, falling slowly
Cabin Temp(f): 64
Water Temp(f): 52
Relative Humidity(%): 70
Sail: Main and working jib, two reefs, close reaching on port tack.
Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 144
Miles since departure: 20,349
Avg. Miles/Day: 138
Days since Cape Horn: 91
Miles since Cape Horn: 12,708
Avg. Miles/Day: 140
Longitude Degrees Made Good (degrees minutes): 3 30
Total Longitude Made Good Since Cape Horn (degrees minutes): 293 41
Avg. Long./Day: 3.23
Rhumb line course to Cape Horn, 2,574 nm. About the distance from San Francisco to Hawaii, a route I’ve run several times. Such a comparison makes the Horn seem close. But those “to Hawaii” miles and our “to the Horn” miles are very different: the Horn is still quite far off and the intervening weather and requisite southing, a big challenge.
But it’s March, MARCH! I remember distinctly doing the around-the-bottom math just after Mo’s first Cape Horn rounding. Then March seemed a likely second-approach month–but an impossibly remote future. Now it is the future. Makes me shiver to think it.
No mistakes now, please. No major gear failures. Don’t push too hard. Give up on your precious daily average figures. Just focus on getting around. Keep the boat fit for getting around. That’s all that counts.
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It was a two reef kind of night, and it’s been a three reef kind of day. Winds have been edging into the north and increasing incrementally since about midnight, when I gave up, got up and got kitted up to put a second reef in the main.
We had stars early. I thought how pleasant it will be to do some star hunting in the cockpit over a beer. But ten minutes later, the stars were gone, erased by cloud cover I hadn’t even seem coming. That’s how fast things change down here.
Mo is close reaching into a minimal sea, but it doesn’t take much head sea to pound, and that’s been our lot today. With the boat on her ear and bucking freely, I’ve not got much done. A little sewing job on the clear hatch covers. A little reorganization of a cupboard. A lot of eating. Some reading. And long rests in between.
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This wind will keep veering east, and soon Mo will be headed south. How much to let that happen is the question for the night. There are powerful (and welcome) westerlies on the way, but I don’t wish to tempt them overly by being too, too much in their path.
neat sewing! I am impressed. :-))
I notice the Genoa poles do a lot of work but we haven’t heard from them yet. Are they just silent workers or maybe you haven’t asked them yet how they are.
Randall, A shirt tail relative of yours (Debbie and Kevin Haesche) informed me that you are a graduate of Lodi Academy. I took over the Shop program after Harry Olsen in 1983 and taught History and shop there for 33 years. I am now retired since 2015 and rebuilding a ’52 Chevy PU in the school shop. So now I know why you know Kelton Rhoads! Have been enjoying your travels since figure 8 1.0 just after you left SF on your first attempt.
Hang in there and keep the course. You will feel better once you pass the first knock down location again and successfully round the Horn once again. I always look forward to each days post.
Haven’t heard or at least I did not notice if you got the Hydro generator and the propulsion engine generator problems figured out?
Also a big thank you to your wife and the team that keeps the communications and publications coming. We all appreciate it.
Blessings
Tom Larsen
Yes, Indeed, Tom Larsen, I thank you, as well, Randall, and your home base, for making my day with your wonderful posts! Love the water spilling out of the deck scuppers in this photo, close reaching!!! Love every photo and every word! THANK YOU! My husband, Andy, rounded Cape Horn on March 21, 1967 but he was coming directly from Tahiti!! He took a very bad knockdown approaching Cape Horn, someday you can read about it in Des Kearn’s book, ‘World Wanderer” it makes good reading when I am sitting under the palm trees in Fort Lauderdale. Like you, Andy repaired all the damage and carried on!!! For Andy, the greatest adventure was rounding Cape Horn in his little 30 foot wood sloop with zero electronics, there were none back then!!! I am so grateful to you for sharing all your wonderful moments. You keep all us arm chair readers waiting impatiently for your next log posts every day, come wind or no wind, sea or calm, stars at night or stormy clouds. THANK YOU!
Mom wonders aloud about the “reading” thing. She does it all the time! Zoey thinks those “book bones” are for chewing on and Mom gives her big growls. But she says she would love to know what you have in your “book bone locker”.