Ug!
May 13, 2019
Day 220
Noon Position: 23 34N 58 45W
Course(t)/Speed(kts): N 2.5
Wind(t/tws): SSE 4
Sea(t/ft): NE 3
Sky: Clear
10ths Cloud Cover: 0
Bar(mb): 1021
Cabin Temp(f): 88
Water Temp(f): 81
Relative Humidity(%): 44
Sail: Spinnaker and main.
Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good (nm): 112
Miles since departure: 29,632
Avg. Miles/Day: 135
Leg North Miles: 6,704
Leg North Days: 54
Avg. Miles/Day: 124
We sailed slowly north most of the morning, not for our course but to keep the sails full. At noon I raised the spinnaker for more speed and bore away. This, as it turns out, is the international sign calling for the wind to go from not very much to none at all.
Which it did.
Hard not to be frustrated. Forecast calls for light winds of nine knots from the SE that feed into a larger wind river to the west. Big difference between that and two knots of nothing.
Large squall clouds on the distant horizon astern have not moved all day. Raggedy desiccated cirrus ahead foretell more dead air.
Where is the wind? I expect flat calm in a week. Not now.
—
Today I replaced the anchor windlass switch with a switch from the spares bin. Nice weather for digging into the anchor locker, where lives the windlass.
The old switch fell apart in my hands the last time I raised anchor to begin this trip. That was Drake’s Bay just north of San Francisco in October of 2018.
Haven’t needed an anchor much since, but it might be called for along the coast of Newfoundland prior to St John’s. I did a neat job if splicing in the spare only to find it does not work.
So, we’ll be hot wiring the switch if the anchor is needed.
—
You know it’s approaching time to make landfall when…
The locker that held over forty packets of ground coffee upon departure now has nine.
The two milk crates that once were full of two-pound bags of muesli now have but two bags.
The locker that was bursting with toilet paper now has twelve rolls.
OMG your luck sounds like my luck or is that called sailing. You can run low on a lot of things but coffee is not one of them. Maybe if you get close enough to shore Jeff Bezos can try out his new new drone delivery system with you without any worry of the FAA claiming something or other.
Hate those dead air calms!! Maybe whistle for a wind?
Photo of the deep blue after the low stock of tp in the previous photo. Nuff said.
It turned out the wiring on my boat’s windlass failed at the switch’s connection at the solenoid side.
Of course, I took everything apart at the windlass before I figured it out. I call these things four hour twenty minute projects. They only occur on a boat.
Now i’m thinking you got the time……..
I just heard from my friend Ted in St. John’s that you have been communicating, and that you intend to haul at RNYC. I’m so happy that you got connected – there are no better hosts on that wonderful island than Ted and Karen and you will not find more welcoming and generous people than Newfoundlanders.
Love the hat! 🙂