Light and Variable

• Sept 6
• Day 7
• Noon Position: N37 57 8 W139 38 1
• Course/Speed: WNN 6
• Wind: SW 11
• Bar: 1023
• Sail: Close hauled, all plain sail.
• Noon miles: 131
• Total Miles 936
• Average Miles/Day: 134

We motored through the night on a flat sea with the engine at 2100rpm and making 5.5 – 6 knots. In the morning, the wind was light off port and Harmon suggested we motor sail, which we did for a time. At some later point I switched off the engine from pure fatigue of sound and speed did not diminish. What joy, silence! Included in silence is the whoosh of wave and the breath of wind. Naturally.

We’ve been sailing since. Slowly. Close hauled on a SW wind. In the afternoon a line of squalls on the back side of which wind went W and N of W. Now our course is due N and we bang into a low chop. Fine if it were time, but it is not time for N. 

At 1400 we crossed 38N, the latitude of San Francisco. We waived, from 800 and more miles off shore.

No birds; no fish. Lots of cloud. So far today we’ve eaten left overs. I’ve done chores on deck; Harmon did the favor of cleaning below. Together we investigated the rotten egg smell below until discovering it was … a rotten egg, which has been dispatched.

Not much story today. As sailors will tell you, it’s the light and variable days that take the most attention.

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