Day 10: A Report from Dave

August 20, 2010
15:42 HSST (01:42 UTC August 21)
Lat: 41 16.4 North

Lon: 143 16.9 West
Distance to go: 951 nautical miles (under 1000!)

As I'm sure you are all growing bored with my perspective on this trip, so I thought it would be nice to have blog entries from other on the crew. The first to step up to the plate is Dave. Here is his report:

An update of life on the high seas with your hardy, intrepid travelers. The bouncy, head-on seas of last night have been replaced by easy, rolling swell from the NNW, quartering in on Capaz's port bow. Easy sailing today, with sunshine all day up until about 20 minutes ago. Sunbathing, reading and fishing from the Lido Deck have been the highlight of the day. Everyone is hoping for an albacore strike after too much success with mahi-mahi. (Yes, there is such a thing as too much luck fishing: "Fish AGAIN?" But that's how it goes when you roll with Captain Brad "Fish Killer" Baker.) The race is about neck and neck and neck and neck for the lead in our summer reading derby, as books get devoured and passed around and devoured. Every once in a while the reading is interrupted for a little sail trimming or repair work. We nightly watch an episode or two of The Big Bang Theory (sitcom), and wish that Penny would just fall for Sheldon already. Following dinner is usually a movie. Yes, for these hard men of Capaz, who fear no fish (until the 4th night in a row) nor stormy sea, homesickness is the only true hardship, as we miss our loved ones at home. Your correspondent speaks at least for himself that it won't be a moment to soon to reacquaint with his wife, Meline, and 5 month old boy, Reef, when at last we find port, in approximately one week's time. The water and air temperatures continue their decline, making showering on the swim step a somewhat chilly affair, and chasing the fleece layers from the depths of stowage. Brad insists that turning around and going back to Hawai'i is, in fact, not an option. Randy, who will be starring this fall in the reality series, "Boat Chef on Stormy Seas" just re-entered the galley for his nightly role as Director of Cruise Cuisine. He volunteered early for this role, likely after sizing up the competition, and figuring out that he would rather cook dinner for four every night of the trip than eat anything that I might decide to "create" for a meal. So he is a smart man, as well as a good and diligent chef. To his credit, Brad has stepped in on several occasions and Harold and I are nothing if not mighty in the meal cleanup arena. While my thoughts certainly turn to home, this is a great journey and an amazing opportunity to cross this vast ocean that I have previously only flown over. It could hardly be more different than life at home, and only confirms and inspires my desire to undertake similar journeys on my own boat in the future.

Aloha, Third Mate Dave

Day 9: Dolphin Day and Fixing Stuff

August 19, 2010
17:09 HST (03:09 UTC August 20)
Lat: 40 26.8 North
Lon 145 45.3 West
Distance to go: 1072 nautical miles

Sorry for the late blog entry today. The afternoon was spent with Harold and I doing a repair to the mainsail:  one of the slides had broken off. The big repair though was to the gooseneck on the boom (where the boom attaches to the mast). One of the tabs that holds the gooseneck to the mast had broken off. We attached two L-brackets using some metal epoxy. This should work for the remainder of the trip, but I'll have to get the boom repaired and welded once back to Seattle.

The other highlight was a large pod of Common Dolphins decided to come play with us. It was a big group that seemed to enjoy leaping out of the water and playing off our bow. They hung with us for about an hour. Very cool!

We are still motor sailing, but should be just sailing tomorrow. The wind should increase as we move into the day after tomorrow(Saturday).  A low should pass in front of us moving from NE to SW. The GRIB weather files show winds up to 20 knots for us, so I suspect we will see winds into 30 knots at times. It will be downwind which is a good thing, but we wanted to make sure the main and the gooseneck were in good shape for the coming breeze. It will be nice to get some sailing in after all of this motoring. After the low passes us,  it looks like we will end up with another light patch before a NW breeze fills into to bring us home.

The very preliminary and I stress preliminary ETA is sometime late on the 26th or more likely during the day on the 27. Lets see if it comes to pass.

Capt. Brad signing off.

Day 8: Halfway Baby!

August 18, 2010
16:35 HST (02:35 UTC August 19)
Lat: 38 43.7 North
Lon: 147 57.3 West

In a couple of hours, we will be equidistant between the start of this trip and the finish. We continue to motor in very light to no wind. It has been a mellow day with a lot book reading and I-pod watching. This morning, I put the hand lines back out. Harold and I were the only two on deck enjoying the surprisingly nice sunny morning. We discussed politics and current events. I realized I'm not really prepared to enter real life again. Being out cruising, I have been truly disconnected from what has been going on back home. I will be returning in a couple of months but it will be with a whole new perspective on things. This is a good thing. Anyway, while we were having our discussion, a rather large mahi mahi started jumping through the air making B-line toward our lures. I kid you not! I have done . . .  I don't know how many . . . .  crossings like this and have never seen anything like it. The fish, from a few hundred yards off, maybe jumping a half dozen times until it reached the lures and immediately took the port side squid. He didn't stay on the hook long and Harold and I thought he was done, but nooooo.  He was still in the game. We watched again as he came up behind the starboard side squid and took that lure. He eventually managed to shake that one loose as well, but it was very entertaining to watch. Right after he threw the second lure, a small albacore size tuna type fish took the same squid, just like yesterday. This fish managed to escape as well. The making of future fish stories has been the highlight of today. Big Halfway Day party tonight!

We might even drink a glass of wine with our movie!

Capt. Brad signing off.

Day 7: Motoring, Mahi, Movies and Pizza

August 17, 2010
21:52 HST (07:52 UTC August 18)
Lat:37 24.1 North
Lon: 149 28.8 West

After an evening of quiet sailing, we motored most of the day today, sometimes getting help from the sails when there was a little wind and sometimes not (like now). Sorry that I didn't blog earlier, but you know the days are just packed with reading, sleeping, resting.....you know. Actually, I did do a few chores like get the inner forestay tightened up, fixed the charger for the Sat phone, weather routed, checked on our fuel consumption, stuff like that.

Last night, we watched the second of the Shackleton series. Those guys were tough. It's amazing what they went through and he didn't loose a single person. Amazing! Dinner was Pork Loin served with a cabbage dish. Again excellent. Randy has pretty much become the dinner cook on board, of which I know Dave, Harold and I are very appreciative.

After a couple of days off from fishing, I decided to put the lines back in the water this morning in hopes of catching something other than mahi mahi. I didn't even get the second line all the way out before a rather large mahi mahi took the lure. We took a video of Dave and I pulling the fish in and then releasing it. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera started when I spotted a school of mahi mahi leaping out of the water heading out away from the boat. They would jump like a dolphin would, flying through the air in an arc. They were a bright blue in color and there must have been 20 of them. I had never seen that before and had no idea that they did that. We also hooked a small tuna but it didn't make it to the boat before throwing the hook. Later in the day we hooked another mahi mahi which we also released and decided to pull the lines in hoping for better luck catching an albacore tuna tomorrow.

We watched a couple of movies today. First was a movie called "Wanted" which none of us had seen and new nothing about. It was a story about a secret fraternity of assassins, lots of good gore and gun fights. The second movie was the Abyss, special addition. I hadn't seen this movie for quite a while and forgot how good it was. While watching the movie Randy made up some pizzas, so it was Movie and Pizza Night.

The sea conditions have really laid down and the drizzle stopped today. It's still warm enough to wear t-shirts outside when it's not windy. We all took advantage of the mellow conditions to take showers on the swim step.  We are all smelling clean again, at least for now.

It looks as though we will motor until the 21st, then sail for a few days. After that the models show it getting light again. We are motoring slow so as to save fuel for future light air.

I am on watch right now and will be until 11pm. Dave comes on after me. Ah, the moon just poked out from behind some clouds. I think I'll go on deck and enjoy the evening before I had things off to Dave.

Capt. Brad signing off.

Day 7: Post is coming

As is well on Capaz and they will post from the boat later tonight!   ~PJ

Day 6: The Wild Night

August 16, 2010
15:12 HST (01:15 UTC August 17)
Lat: 34 57.6 North
Lon: 151 32.8 West

Last night, the wind picked up to 30 knots plus. We were caught with our pants down around our ankles. The Navigator (me) had said that the wind shouldn't blow all that hard. Well . . . . . it blew pretty darn hard and the corresponding seas matched. We were using the genoa, not the smaller jib that we use most of the time. The problem is the genoa is lighter and doesn't reef (get smaller – less sail area) very well. We also couldn't roll it up all the way because in the heavy air the roll was so tight that we ran out of line to roll it up. This morning at 4:30am during an attempt to reduce sail, the lazy jib sheet got hung up on the inner stay. While trying to clear it, we bore away to keep the jib from flogging. While I was on the foredeck, Jorge(the autopilot) decided he couldn't handle the downwind conditions and turned himself off. The boat accidentally jibed. Luckily, no damage other than a broken traveler line. Consequently, we had an “all hands on deck” call to get a second reef in the main and to get the boat back on the proper course. Things were a bit exciting last night.

During the morning hours the wind died and we took the opportunity to change sails back to the smaller jib. It's a good thing we did, because the wind picked up again from the South and we are now sailing downwind in 20 knots of wind and very confused seas. Not all that comfortable. The weather has definitely changed as well. We now have a constant drizzle with a marine layer overcast skies.

Jorge has been acting up. After working flawlessly for 4 days, he has now started faulting fairly regularly. I took out the drive motor and took it apart to see if there was anything obviously wrong. I didn't really find anything. The motor was quite hot when I took it out so I decided to slow down the rudder response so the drive motor wouldn't work so hard. It does seem to be better, but does cut out every so often. Bummer!!!  Hopefully, it will last for this trip and our cruising in Canada.

Last evening, we watched the movie “Tropic Thunder” which was a lot of fun. We had chicken tacos for dinner as well. Today, we mostly are trying to catch up on sleep and stay dry, so we are all below. Well .. .. .. it's bouncy and I'm tired of looking at a screen, so I think I'll sign off for now. All is well aboard Capaz and we are making good time!

Cheers!

Brad

Day 5: Change in the Weather........

August 15, 2010
16:08 HST (02:08 August 16 UTC)
Lat: 34 00.2 North

Lon: 154 11.4 West

The good news is that we are still sailing. The bad news is that the situation is likely to change pretty soon. Over the last 33 hours, we have had excellent sailing conditions. Yesterday, we sailed all day under spinnaker. We took it down before dark, jibed from port tack to starboard tack and stuck the genoa out on the pole.  We ran wing on wing. Our course for a good part of the night and today has been directly toward the barn, meaning every mile made has been made toward Cape Flattery. At day five, we are about a hundred miles less than one third of the way there. Good progress so far.

Last night, we had fish again. We decided that fish three days in a row was a enough and kept the fishing lines stowed today so we could enjoy a change of pace. I see that Randy has pulled out a box of chicken broth. I suspect he has something in mind for dinner tonight.

We have really settled in to the routine. At least once a day, we all gather in the salon and cockpit and talk about varying subjects as we get to know each other better. It's a fun group and we are getting along famously. The the wind has been blowing up to 20 knots from generally aft.  The seas quite mellow for that wind speed. This makes for a relatively comfortable ride conducive to hanging out, reading and doing whatever.

For the '”What Has Broken Report”: The thermostat for the fridge stopped working.  I just connected the wires so that it runs whenever we have the genset running. This works fine for now but we will have get a new thermostat as soon as we are plugged into the dock regularly. I spliced a new genoa sheet and now have two custom tapered genoa sheets. When we hoisted the genoa, we noticed a 3' long rip in the foot. We had to lower it again and do a repair using sail tape, a strip of dacron and 5200 adhesive. And other then the Autopilot misbehaving early on in the trip we really haven't had much going wrong with the boat. Now I must touch wood again so as not to jinx things.

Change in the weather.....Ok so it's transition time. We been riding a SSW wind for the last 33 hours or so. This wind has been compliments of a warm front associated with a low that passed well to the North of us. That low and this front are in the process of dissipating. The weather model shows an interesting transition phase where we are likely to have very shifty winds for the next couple of days. At least it looks as though we will have wind to sail in at least some of the time. After that the models shape up for us to do a lot of motoring as we attempt to get to the east side of a building high pressure and NW winds. The good news is this motoring will be mostly toward where we want to go. That is........if the weather behaves as I forecast that it will. Time will tell.

Capt. Brad signing off

PS PJ Bryce and Austin, I love you!