Hello,
It is very nice sitting in the spacious pilot house of Capaz and watching the Simpsons while it is raining out. There are no worries with the radar and AIS on. Being at sea naturally gives me lots of ideas for my boat. Radar and AIS are on the short list. I didn't fish at all today because it was raining and we still have a fair amount of mahi mahi left. I don't want to overtax the north Pacific mahi mahi population too bad. We are getting into tuna territory, so Ill give it a go tomorrow. I got a nice email from my cousin Kate. She taught me a new world for "gnarly" that they say in Australia... "hat". It is blowing 20 with some bigger puffs and might get a little "hat" in the next 24 hours. If we have to reef the mainsail, it will be work because we don't have the first reef tied in. We could just double reef but we like going fast and Capaz is very stable wing on wing. We have the working jib poled out and the main and mizzen prevented. I also demolished "The Alchemist" yesterday and I'm going to pass it around. Hope y'all are well.
Snotty Day
From Captain Brad
What a difference a day makes! Up until today, we have had ideal weather: sun with just the right mix clouds so that things don't get to hot. Warm nights, life was good. I guess it's a byproduct of heading north. It's like doing a Hawaii race in reverse (that and you can motor). Today we have 100% overcast with showers that are heavy at times and almost a constant drizzle between the heavier rains. The sailing is good. The winds have been hovering around 20 knots and we have been sailing downwind for some time now. We are all very much appreciating the pilothouse and have spent much of the day below. This is all fine and dandy as long as the autopilot continues to work.
The weather: Well . . . . the low that will pretty much pass directly over us is moving too fast for us to stay out in front of. Our hard easting has come to an end for the moment. I do believe that coming this way definitely is paying off. We have been sailing in an excellent band of wind now for 2 days. We jibed earlier today and are now sailing wing on wing at a course that is only a few degrees to the left of the shortest route home. the wind will shift such that we will point her directly at the barn for at least a couple of days. Slowly the wind will come forward [more northerly on their heading] and we will eventually be beating into the wind [going upwind]. We may even tack. The wind will also likely build to as high as 30 knots, but according to my weather info this won't happen for another day or so. In preparation we'll go through the boat and make sure everything is secure. The first reef in not run in the main and we will likely run that later today.
When we sailed just north of Hawaii in the trade winds the winds reached the high 20's. The boat handled it beautifully. If they get that high again, it will be fine, it's just going to be colder. I was just pondering that on the next evening shift I'll probably have to don a full set of rain gear. I guess the Hawaiian vacation portion of the trip is over for the time being.
Sequestered below with the autopilot driving we decided to watch a few episodes of the Simpsons and Seinfeld which worked perfectly. Breakfast was pancakes courtesy of Mr. Kurt Hoehne (Abbey he really does cook). I served up my world famous tuna melts complimented with a bowl of hot chicken soup, crackers and finished with a freshly cut pineapple. I don't know what the plan is for dinner yet.
We are solidly in the middle of the trip now. In fact, tomorrow we will be closer to Neah Bay than we are to Hawaii. I'm sure we will have some sort of halfway celebration. Well, that's it for now from Brad. I know that I can speak for everyone on the boat, to all our loved ones out there we love and miss you.
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