fetchinketch

The events of the last two days have been driven completely by a little, tiny, 8mm set screw.

That screw came loose on the wind steering vane, which allowed it to fall out of alignment, which lead to it twisting in a way it wasn’t designed to, and that caused the main casting to crack. That whole sequence of events left us steering with the electric autopilot.

The electric autopilot was doing fine. Then Karen says, “There is a little pile of new metal filings here.”

“Where?” says Bill.

“Under the autopilot.”

As I bent down to examine the issue, the autopilot seized up with a loud clunk. A mechanical investigation quickly showed an unrepairable problem. This left us with two choices: continue on 15 days to Hawai’i, or beat our way back to the west coast in 6 or 7 days.

Hawai’i might seem the obvious choice except for a characteristics of most sailboats. They can hold a steady course by themselves when going upwind, but need constant attention when going downwind. Hawai’i is downwind and will require someone to sit behind the wheel 24/7 The west coast is upwind, and the boat will (more or less) steer herself.

So now we are headed upwind toward a landfall between Santa Barbara and San Diego, depending on the wind.

Everything else on the boat is doing well, including all crew members. Weather is warm and overcast. Last night we had a gnarly spell of wind up to 27 knots, but things have settled down to the neighborhood of 15 knots. The forecast is for more of the same all the way in.

I’ll have more of an update later, but we had some more issues around our autopilot. We have decided to head in to Southern California to get it fixed.

I know you have all been waiting on the edge of your seats to find out the solution to yesterday’s riddle. I’ll get to it in a minute…

There is so much new and different it is hard to pick a single coherent topic for a day’s post. One of the things that might be different than some people expect is that the middle of the ocean is not a desert, empty of life.

We have had birds everyday. Black-footed albatross, and a white bird I think is a kind of petrel. I suspect we are as much a highlight of their day as they are of ours. Especially the albatross spend a lot of time circling the boat, checking out the intruder. Or maybe just hoping for a handout.

Every morning while during my rounds checking equipment, I find a few small 4 to 6 inch long flying fish on deck drying in the sun. We see constant marks on the fishfinder, very deep during the day (>1000 feet) but rising toward the surface at night.

As soon as I finish this we are getting our lines back out and seeing if we can find something worth catching!

Right now our weather routing program is predicting an arrival at Diamond Head off Honolulu on the 17th or 18th, but we have been running a little ahead of its predictions so far.

Oh yes… The answer to the riddle about the GPS saying we went way further than we did: While it WAS wrong about how far the boat moved, it was right about how far IT traveled. The key was I was using a GPS unit mounted at the top of the mast, which moves dramatically from side to side as the boat rolls. It adds all those motions up for a total distance traveled. A quick check of the math confirms that is the most likely answer.

There was much head scratching on board yesterday evening. I used the “odometer” readout on our GPS to determine our miles run for the day that I posted yesterday with such glee. Even under those nearly ideal conditions I was amazed at how well we did. For some reason, I went back to my chart, and actually measured the distance on the paper. Surprise! Not 166 miles, but 122, a much more realistic number.

After checking my paper plotting, and rechecking, and re-rechecking, I concluded that it was right and the total distance reported by the GPS was wrong. After much cogitation, I know why…

The boat has three separate GPS sensors that are connected to the network. One is built into the chart plotter in the cockpit, one is part of the AIS system on the stern, and one is part of the combined weather/compass/GPS at the top of the mast. The masthead unit has always given the most stable and consistent reading so that is what I was using.

While we did not go in a PERFECTLY straight line, we certainly did not wander around in our course enough to add any significant extra distance, so that’s not it. Soooo….

What do you think the answer is? All relevant information is in this post, and some information is present just to “unclarify” the issue for extra fun!

I’ll post my answer tomorrow.

[Trevor: Feel free to use this as an example in your GPS class.]

P.S. The skipjack tuna was delicious!

Yesterday shortly after noon I set out a fishing line for the first time on this trip. We had seen some evidence of fish and a little bit of bird activity, so what the heck! While in the middle of prepping dinner…

Dinner: London broil, baked potato, sautéed zucchini. We aren’t exactly roughing it!

…the rod announces the fish bit with a loud zing of line peeling off. Wake Karen from her well deserved nap, get the boat stopped, and in a few minutes we had a beautiful skipjack tuna in the cockpit. Not huge (maybe 6 pounds) but reports are they are very good eating. He’s on the menu tonight.

The second success was our forward progress. Noon yesterday, to noon today we made 166 miles by gps. Awesome. That’s a tough one to beat!

Early this morning we crossed the “magic” line from coastal weather to the tradewinds, those more or less constant winds that blow across the subtropical oceans. Big breeze and a few light showers announced the change in weather pattern and we are now moving quickly along on a beeline to the islands.

Once the morning showers cleared, we have been treated to a beautiful sunny day with the boat flying along at speeds of up to 8 knots.

We did have one major issue today. Our wind vane steering had a major mechanical failure. A small set screw came loose, and a part dropped out of alignment. When the paddle tried to turn, it was trapped and the main casting cracked. Nothing to be done about that out here. Our trusty Wendy is our first casualty. We’ll be relying on the electric autopilot from now on. The primary down side is that we will be running the engine daily to charge up the batteries. Oh well.

1844 miles to go!

After a very frustrating start yesterday where we struggled to find enough wind to get the boat moving away from the coast, an pick up in the breeze overnight got the boat running like a dog with a bone in her teeth. We ended up making a noon to noon run of 122 miles.

During the day today we have had variable conditions, but mostly we are making respectable progress in the right direction. Although that legendary downwind run to Hawai’i remains elusive as we continue close on the wind.

Karen has seemingly completely recovered from her initial queasiness and is having a great time. She did comment that she was glad the wind was up overnight when she couldn’t really see how big the waves were.

Today’s wildlife count, one distant whale spout, one ocean sunfish, a school of white sided dolphin, and an albatross. By the way if you aren’t familiar with an ocean sunfish (Scientific name: Mola mola) it is well worth looking up. The are the largest bony fish, and certain one of the most surreal looking critters.

Update to that last paragraph, moments after I wrote it, more whales, dolphins, and several very large, very fast fish buzzed around the boat.

Going has been really slow. The wind has been light and variable, and mostly from the south. There is a long swell coming in from the West, which has made going kind of sloppy. Karen is “getting her sea legs”, but feeling a little better.

A pod of large dolphins, a minke whale and a couple of albatross were today’s entertainment.

The wind is just now picking up and clocking around to the “right” direction. We’re finally moving faster and in a direction vaguely toward Hawai’i!

Only 2039 miles to go!

The weather between the mainland and Hawai’i is stabilizing, Jimena is still a major hurricane, but is heading away from waters where we will be, and he has no friends close on his heels. So…tomorrow is our departure day. We celebrated with a feast for dinner out tonight.

The boat is ready, we will take on fuel and water in the morning, and then be on our way before noon.

Today was busy with some last minute projects, and provisioning. The whale was back in the marina again today for a few minutes for our daily entertainment.

Overall, I think coming to Monterey was a great call. Besides avoiding weather we really didn’t want to be in, the chance to make a few last minute adjustments was very helpful.

You’ll see more of our posts, more or less daily, as we cross the ocean. Here’s hoping for an uneventful trip!