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Emails from the fleet
- Thread starter Philpott
- Start date
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Mike Smith
6:28 PM (1 hour ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott
Happy July 4. I was going to hoist the Union Jack but nobody here to see it.
Yesterday was grey skies all day. In general in this stretch the wind has been lighter and switching around by as much as 40 degrees in the morning building slowly during the day and then ramping up a notch after sunset while settling down in direction. Follows the windward side trade wind pattern in Hawaii which makes perfect sense. Does make a huge difference to me as the twin headsails only work above a certain wind speed and in a very narrow wind direction. I don’t think I’d change anything though without having a lot more experience flying spinnakers. For example last night at almost exactly 10pm I got hit by a huge 25-30 knots gust. Like a blast from a canon. I had already furled everything for the night. I don’t think I would want to be flying a spinnaker in that.
If I were good at sighting I could probably have got a sextant sight by now, but I haven’t.
Today turned out to have everything. Grey skies and light winds gave way to real rain storms. Then finally back to blue skies, puffy clouds, real waves to ride and solid trades. What a day!
Well this is as fast as I go so I’m settling down for safe and steady and enjoying the ride.
6:28 PM (1 hour ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott
Happy July 4. I was going to hoist the Union Jack but nobody here to see it.
Yesterday was grey skies all day. In general in this stretch the wind has been lighter and switching around by as much as 40 degrees in the morning building slowly during the day and then ramping up a notch after sunset while settling down in direction. Follows the windward side trade wind pattern in Hawaii which makes perfect sense. Does make a huge difference to me as the twin headsails only work above a certain wind speed and in a very narrow wind direction. I don’t think I’d change anything though without having a lot more experience flying spinnakers. For example last night at almost exactly 10pm I got hit by a huge 25-30 knots gust. Like a blast from a canon. I had already furled everything for the night. I don’t think I would want to be flying a spinnaker in that.
If I were good at sighting I could probably have got a sextant sight by now, but I haven’t.
Today turned out to have everything. Grey skies and light winds gave way to real rain storms. Then finally back to blue skies, puffy clouds, real waves to ride and solid trades. What a day!
Well this is as fast as I go so I’m settling down for safe and steady and enjoying the ride.
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Solstice POL checking in on 7-5-23. Question for ya… are my onboard dailies getting to [email protected] ? Airmail working but not my Sailmail
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )
Wednesday
July 5th
Day 10
What a difference a day makes... ("Lovin Spoonful"?)
Last 24 hours hours have been easy fast sailing (unlike the prior day). No squalls. 16k-22k of wind. Rumbling down the road.
Now there have been a few "things"... after taking a shower (which was way way hot... that Sunshower was "cookin") and changing clothes so I smelled so so sweet... a small seam opened in the big kite (just 3 inches long)... but these things tend to "unzipper" along a seam... so took the kite down, a bit of rip stop tape repair... and back up it goes. Maybe 20 minutes all told. Does have me thinking thru what I do if this chute gives up the ghost... Put up the already socked shy kite... or sock the 3/4 AP and put it up.
Did I work up a sweat! Guess I am taking another shower Friday morning in any case so I am ready for "re-entry" into the world (no one wants to hug a stinky, sweaty, stubble faced sailor).
Dreams...
One dreams A LOT when single handing to Hawaii. At least dreams one can remember details of. Getting up every hour to an abrupt alarm (loud kitchen timer in my case)leaves the latest dream fresh in ones mind. Several times a day for several days. A whole lot of dreaming going on...
Stray factoid...
How much toilet paper should one have on the boat for a passage like this? Well back in 2021 I used 1.5 rolls of toilet paper - and this "fast passage", I am still working on the first roll (but suspect I'll move to that second roll before landfall).
Sea life... birds that is...
As I am getting closer to land the birds start showing up... first a frigate bird (many of which hang on the north side of Kauai out by the lighthouse)... then a bird I couldn't identify but was sort of like a Tropic Bird only a darker color... and then came the booby who made several passes eyeing the Buffalo for a ride. Boobies "love" to hitch rides on passing boats and will leave a mess on deck when they do. I gave this passing boobie a few threatening looks to make sure she/he took a pass on stopping on the Buffalo.
Food...
We all know about a "meal in a pot"... well that mac and cheese with string beans and chicken from yesterday is looking to be three meals in a pot (its a lot of food... more then I can finish today).
383 miles to the finish... less then a LongPac... so two days (and two nights). I see no real squall activity... so maybe tonight will be quiet like last night (I can always hope).
Cheers,
Jim Q
Wednesday
July 5th
Day 10
What a difference a day makes... ("Lovin Spoonful"?)
Last 24 hours hours have been easy fast sailing (unlike the prior day). No squalls. 16k-22k of wind. Rumbling down the road.
Now there have been a few "things"... after taking a shower (which was way way hot... that Sunshower was "cookin") and changing clothes so I smelled so so sweet... a small seam opened in the big kite (just 3 inches long)... but these things tend to "unzipper" along a seam... so took the kite down, a bit of rip stop tape repair... and back up it goes. Maybe 20 minutes all told. Does have me thinking thru what I do if this chute gives up the ghost... Put up the already socked shy kite... or sock the 3/4 AP and put it up.
Did I work up a sweat! Guess I am taking another shower Friday morning in any case so I am ready for "re-entry" into the world (no one wants to hug a stinky, sweaty, stubble faced sailor).
Dreams...
One dreams A LOT when single handing to Hawaii. At least dreams one can remember details of. Getting up every hour to an abrupt alarm (loud kitchen timer in my case)leaves the latest dream fresh in ones mind. Several times a day for several days. A whole lot of dreaming going on...
Stray factoid...
How much toilet paper should one have on the boat for a passage like this? Well back in 2021 I used 1.5 rolls of toilet paper - and this "fast passage", I am still working on the first roll (but suspect I'll move to that second roll before landfall).
Sea life... birds that is...
As I am getting closer to land the birds start showing up... first a frigate bird (many of which hang on the north side of Kauai out by the lighthouse)... then a bird I couldn't identify but was sort of like a Tropic Bird only a darker color... and then came the booby who made several passes eyeing the Buffalo for a ride. Boobies "love" to hitch rides on passing boats and will leave a mess on deck when they do. I gave this passing boobie a few threatening looks to make sure she/he took a pass on stopping on the Buffalo.
Food...
We all know about a "meal in a pot"... well that mac and cheese with string beans and chicken from yesterday is looking to be three meals in a pot (its a lot of food... more then I can finish today).
383 miles to the finish... less then a LongPac... so two days (and two nights). I see no real squall activity... so maybe tonight will be quiet like last night (I can always hope).
Cheers,
Jim Q
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Mike Smith
5:54 PM (3 hours ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott
Wednesday Day 11
I think I did 150 miles yesterday. Probably not today. Grey skies are back. Light wind at about 10-12 knots this morning but at least it has clocked around to 60 degrees towed Hawaii. Over the last 72 hours the wind has not stayed stable in speed or direction for more than a couple hours at a time. Not as advertised.
The last 48 hours for me were tougher than the first 48 hours. I mentioned the rain squalls night before last. Then last night was horrendous. One after another rip your arms off squalls. What’s that song about a little black rain cloud? Somewhere I read (I think it was Jim) someone say he’s never seen more than 25 knots in all his time doing this trip and back. I took some screenshots during one that hit over 30. There is a big difference between 25 and 30 knots at night trying to go downwind. I’m just not that good at it yet, but I am getting better. I can unfurl pretty quickly, that’s easy. But now I can furl even faster, driven by blind panic. Slack on the port side outhaul, slack on the port side clew haul, same on starboard, haul in the jib furler, PDQ. I can do it in the dark with no lights now in about 30 seconds. I have to. Weirdly I have stopped using headlamps or cockpit lights, I literally just feel for everything.
I don’t think I have seen more than the Big Dipper once on this whole trip so far. From where I am it looks like the whole Pacific is covered in cloud. I would like to see the satellite photos.
I fixed the last squeak that was bothering me, the boom mandrel. I inspect most things every day, but I go a lot by sound. The less extra squeaks, knocks, bangs, taps, and the like the easier it is to hear something that ain’t quite right. I caught one of my autopilots, the CPT, yesterday. It was making the normal “brr, brr” sound clockwise but “grr, grr” the other way. I shot some WD-40 in the bearing. About 10 minutes later, back to “brr, brr” on both sides, and quieter, almost “prr, prr”.
Must… keep… going…
5:54 PM (3 hours ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott
Wednesday Day 11
I think I did 150 miles yesterday. Probably not today. Grey skies are back. Light wind at about 10-12 knots this morning but at least it has clocked around to 60 degrees towed Hawaii. Over the last 72 hours the wind has not stayed stable in speed or direction for more than a couple hours at a time. Not as advertised.
The last 48 hours for me were tougher than the first 48 hours. I mentioned the rain squalls night before last. Then last night was horrendous. One after another rip your arms off squalls. What’s that song about a little black rain cloud? Somewhere I read (I think it was Jim) someone say he’s never seen more than 25 knots in all his time doing this trip and back. I took some screenshots during one that hit over 30. There is a big difference between 25 and 30 knots at night trying to go downwind. I’m just not that good at it yet, but I am getting better. I can unfurl pretty quickly, that’s easy. But now I can furl even faster, driven by blind panic. Slack on the port side outhaul, slack on the port side clew haul, same on starboard, haul in the jib furler, PDQ. I can do it in the dark with no lights now in about 30 seconds. I have to. Weirdly I have stopped using headlamps or cockpit lights, I literally just feel for everything.
I don’t think I have seen more than the Big Dipper once on this whole trip so far. From where I am it looks like the whole Pacific is covered in cloud. I would like to see the satellite photos.
I fixed the last squeak that was bothering me, the boom mandrel. I inspect most things every day, but I go a lot by sound. The less extra squeaks, knocks, bangs, taps, and the like the easier it is to hear something that ain’t quite right. I caught one of my autopilots, the CPT, yesterday. It was making the normal “brr, brr” sound clockwise but “grr, grr” the other way. I shot some WD-40 in the bearing. About 10 minutes later, back to “brr, brr” on both sides, and quieter, almost “prr, prr”.
Must… keep… going…
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Tuesday, July 4th
Happy Birthday, America! It was another super light shifty wind at the start of the day. I was just trying to find a combination of course and sails to minimize the rolling in the swells. The wind finally filled in, and we were 5.5/6 knots all day.
I was feeling pretty lethargic and couldn’t motivate myself to get the spinnaker up. I smashed my knee pretty good a few days ago while tripping on deck, and it was sore, but then, while doing the thru-hull repair, I had to do some crazy boat yoga to get all the way over the engine and into the stern area. The only way to support myself and have my hands free was to put all my weight on my right knee. After doing that for a 4th time, I’d really done something to my kneecap. It started swelling and getting red. In the picture, it's looking better than 2 days ago when it was a big red blob. Been icing throughout the day the last few days and taking it easy, and that’s helping keep the swelling down. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling so run down. Anyway, It’s hard to move around right now, so my moves getting around a bouncing boat are very calculated. Today was spent being mellow and icing my knee.
Hoping the wind holds and we don’t start the day again bobbing around for a few hours before the wind fills in, which seems to be the pattern the last few days. Still mostly clouds today but actually had a sunset for a moment.
Day 10 and still not shorts weather! I want my money back!
️Team Tortuga 
~~~_/)~~~
Tuesday, July 4th
Happy Birthday, America! It was another super light shifty wind at the start of the day. I was just trying to find a combination of course and sails to minimize the rolling in the swells. The wind finally filled in, and we were 5.5/6 knots all day.
I was feeling pretty lethargic and couldn’t motivate myself to get the spinnaker up. I smashed my knee pretty good a few days ago while tripping on deck, and it was sore, but then, while doing the thru-hull repair, I had to do some crazy boat yoga to get all the way over the engine and into the stern area. The only way to support myself and have my hands free was to put all my weight on my right knee. After doing that for a 4th time, I’d really done something to my kneecap. It started swelling and getting red. In the picture, it's looking better than 2 days ago when it was a big red blob. Been icing throughout the day the last few days and taking it easy, and that’s helping keep the swelling down. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling so run down. Anyway, It’s hard to move around right now, so my moves getting around a bouncing boat are very calculated. Today was spent being mellow and icing my knee.
Hoping the wind holds and we don’t start the day again bobbing around for a few hours before the wind fills in, which seems to be the pattern the last few days. Still mostly clouds today but actually had a sunset for a moment.
Day 10 and still not shorts weather! I want my money back!
️Team Tortuga ~~~_/)~~~
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
NOTE TO ARMCHAIR TRANSPACKERS:
Mr Hedgehog and I are leaving for Hanalei Bay one day earlier than planned in order to have (almost) all hands on deck for the arrival of the first boats. Greg Ashby is already there, staying aboard s/v Pamela, as is her skipper Dennis Maggard. Synthia Petroka arrives Friday.
Control Central is not available to us until Friday afternoon, but the boats are coming! The boats are coming! We hope there will be room for two more aboard a 37' Crealock.
Keep watching the Jibeset tracker; you'll know shortly after we do which boats and sailors cross the line. This email aggregator needs some sleep, flying United Airlines tomorrow morning. That's how normal people get to Kauai.
Mr Hedgehog and I are leaving for Hanalei Bay one day earlier than planned in order to have (almost) all hands on deck for the arrival of the first boats. Greg Ashby is already there, staying aboard s/v Pamela, as is her skipper Dennis Maggard. Synthia Petroka arrives Friday.
Control Central is not available to us until Friday afternoon, but the boats are coming! The boats are coming! We hope there will be room for two more aboard a 37' Crealock.
Keep watching the Jibeset tracker; you'll know shortly after we do which boats and sailors cross the line. This email aggregator needs some sleep, flying United Airlines tomorrow morning. That's how normal people get to Kauai.
Last edited:
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Thursday Day 12
About 660 miles to go
Clear skies. Trade winds. 12-16 knots at 050-060M. Waves have died down quite a bit so not really surfing like we were a couple days ago. It was never Jaws, but it was fun and I got some good video for Dwayne I think.
What do I do all day? Well today as I reached for the freshwater pump switch I noticed the bilge pump LED blink. It never does that. I went down to look at the pump and all was dry. I sat and stared at the LED and a few minutes later it blinked again. I remember reading something goofy in the manual that might be relevant, so out with the manual. I carry paper copies of the important and useful ones and electronic copies in Evernote (terrible software BTW) for everything. I have a Xylem/Rule pump as do probably half of you. Read along with me on page 6 of the manual describing “Rulemate Imtelligence” and see if you can figure anything out from that. Some of the worst technical writing I have read; and from a British company too. Anyway let’s try testing the pump which by the way means reaching a button that cannot be easily reached from any sane installation position and with a label also impossible to see. Works. And I never saw the LED blink since. That all took me 1.5 hrs. That is about how all Marine hardware works.
I took my first sextant sight! Started with baby steps and took a noon sight, a LAN. Failed pretty badly, over 100 miles off. It’s really hard to get the red sun ball to just touch the horizon on a pitching deck. I am a real fan of David Burch and his books and guides but why does he get wrapped around the axle on the fact for example that the sun isn’t round and we need to correct for that when that error is beyond being in the weeds compared to practical problems in sighting.
The only thing I could get really wrong was the sun Declination 22 deg 38.4 min N from the almanac and I think that is right. So try again tomorrow or I’ll have to start doing sight reduction. My goal for this trip is to take a sight on Hokulea.
About 660 miles to go
Clear skies. Trade winds. 12-16 knots at 050-060M. Waves have died down quite a bit so not really surfing like we were a couple days ago. It was never Jaws, but it was fun and I got some good video for Dwayne I think.
What do I do all day? Well today as I reached for the freshwater pump switch I noticed the bilge pump LED blink. It never does that. I went down to look at the pump and all was dry. I sat and stared at the LED and a few minutes later it blinked again. I remember reading something goofy in the manual that might be relevant, so out with the manual. I carry paper copies of the important and useful ones and electronic copies in Evernote (terrible software BTW) for everything. I have a Xylem/Rule pump as do probably half of you. Read along with me on page 6 of the manual describing “Rulemate Imtelligence” and see if you can figure anything out from that. Some of the worst technical writing I have read; and from a British company too. Anyway let’s try testing the pump which by the way means reaching a button that cannot be easily reached from any sane installation position and with a label also impossible to see. Works. And I never saw the LED blink since. That all took me 1.5 hrs. That is about how all Marine hardware works.
I took my first sextant sight! Started with baby steps and took a noon sight, a LAN. Failed pretty badly, over 100 miles off. It’s really hard to get the red sun ball to just touch the horizon on a pitching deck. I am a real fan of David Burch and his books and guides but why does he get wrapped around the axle on the fact for example that the sun isn’t round and we need to correct for that when that error is beyond being in the weeds compared to practical problems in sighting.
The only thing I could get really wrong was the sun Declination 22 deg 38.4 min N from the almanac and I think that is right. So try again tomorrow or I’ll have to start doing sight reduction. My goal for this trip is to take a sight on Hokulea.
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )
Thursday
July 6th
Day 11
Another beautiful day...
Last evening started a bit ominous with a great big long black cloud going over head just after sunset... but turned out to be no big deal and the start of a beautiful quiet night (now maybe 15k-16k of wind is too quiet... vs today has been more 16k-18k which really helps move the odometer forward). No excitement and no drama. I thought I would need to jibe onto starboard to get a bit mor enorth before getting to Kauai - but I have been slowly headed and are just going to need a short jibe and jibe in maybe the last 50 miles (vs I am 214 nm from the finish as I write this). And maybe I get real lucky and get headed enough I don't need to jibe at all (though unlikely).
Food...
After 11 days at sea it was time for Mary's famous cabbage salad. Cabbage, ramen, tuna, dressing (without the slivered toasted almonds and green onions one would have at home). Sorry but I think I waited too long. The cabbage salad was "okay" - but it was a wee past due not having the "cabbage crunch" one expects.
Spring cleaning...
Getting the boat organized for re-entry to civilization. Sole scrubbed, sails organize, extra water stored away for the trip home (just a few cases). Organizing my "go bag" with wallet, mobile, drugs, maybe the laptop (maybe not)... knowing I will likely finish 11pm ish. Too late to hit a bar or restaurant - and my cottage doesn't become available till 3pm on Saturday. There will be several finishers early Saturday so easy enough to catch a ride (ashore or afloat? not sure where I will end up Friday night... maybe just helping the support boat meet finishers?).
Trepidation...
This year was about getting away from the "electronic buzz" we all live in these days. Unplugging. I know as soon as I get a cell connection (typically 10 nm from Kauai)I won't be able to resist cleaning out the email inbox, text messages and the sort. My work and private electronic life is pretty mushed together... no real separation. Which make dredging thru 12 days of email (likely several hundred emails) sort of like an easter egg hunt. I know most of you know... but if you don't... I retire from Autodesk at Aprill end 2024 (in 9 months). Which should reduce the gain of my "electronic buzz" a bit.
Cheers,
Jim Q
Thursday
July 6th
Day 11
Another beautiful day...
Last evening started a bit ominous with a great big long black cloud going over head just after sunset... but turned out to be no big deal and the start of a beautiful quiet night (now maybe 15k-16k of wind is too quiet... vs today has been more 16k-18k which really helps move the odometer forward). No excitement and no drama. I thought I would need to jibe onto starboard to get a bit mor enorth before getting to Kauai - but I have been slowly headed and are just going to need a short jibe and jibe in maybe the last 50 miles (vs I am 214 nm from the finish as I write this). And maybe I get real lucky and get headed enough I don't need to jibe at all (though unlikely).
Food...
After 11 days at sea it was time for Mary's famous cabbage salad. Cabbage, ramen, tuna, dressing (without the slivered toasted almonds and green onions one would have at home). Sorry but I think I waited too long. The cabbage salad was "okay" - but it was a wee past due not having the "cabbage crunch" one expects.
Spring cleaning...
Getting the boat organized for re-entry to civilization. Sole scrubbed, sails organize, extra water stored away for the trip home (just a few cases). Organizing my "go bag" with wallet, mobile, drugs, maybe the laptop (maybe not)... knowing I will likely finish 11pm ish. Too late to hit a bar or restaurant - and my cottage doesn't become available till 3pm on Saturday. There will be several finishers early Saturday so easy enough to catch a ride (ashore or afloat? not sure where I will end up Friday night... maybe just helping the support boat meet finishers?).
Trepidation...
This year was about getting away from the "electronic buzz" we all live in these days. Unplugging. I know as soon as I get a cell connection (typically 10 nm from Kauai)I won't be able to resist cleaning out the email inbox, text messages and the sort. My work and private electronic life is pretty mushed together... no real separation. Which make dredging thru 12 days of email (likely several hundred emails) sort of like an easter egg hunt. I know most of you know... but if you don't... I retire from Autodesk at Aprill end 2024 (in 9 months). Which should reduce the gain of my "electronic buzz" a bit.
Cheers,
Jim Q
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Mike Smith
Sat, Jul 8, 4:34 PM (23 hours ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott
Saturday Day 14
Squalls are back. I even got hit by one after dawn that seemed to chase me. These make sleep hard. As the song goes “Nobody told me there’d be days like these”. There were some big swells too. I didn’t realize how fast size and swell period can change.
Morning started light and winds shifting around again. Day finished with clearing and light trades. Plodding down the rhumb line.
I see a lot of folks finished together. Exciting! I am so slow though, and hope I don’t mess up at the end. Took me a day to get from the Farallones to SF in the LongPac.
Sat, Jul 8, 4:34 PM (23 hours ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott
Saturday Day 14
Squalls are back. I even got hit by one after dawn that seemed to chase me. These make sleep hard. As the song goes “Nobody told me there’d be days like these”. There were some big swells too. I didn’t realize how fast size and swell period can change.
Morning started light and winds shifting around again. Day finished with clearing and light trades. Plodding down the rhumb line.
I see a lot of folks finished together. Exciting! I am so slow though, and hope I don’t mess up at the end. Took me a day to get from the Farallones to SF in the LongPac.
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Horizon, Day 10
90% of my trip has been with the wind wane steering. Yes, it is slower, but I feel safe knowing that any sudden wind shifts won’t negatively affect my rig when I’m snoozing. Also that I am not stressing my ship’s rudder, which seems to be a frequent cause of failure for some boats in the past. I was surprised to see that it outperformed my auto pilot when deep reaching. It especially shines at night under a starlit sky mirrored on the black sea by sparkling bioluminescence gushing over my side decks and in my wake. I often think about how privileged I am to be part of a timeless tradition of Polynesians who charted these same waters eons ago. I can imagine their excitement at nightfall which was their only way of knowing where they were. Although they would have had bad luck on this trip. Most of the nights have been very cloudy.
90% of my trip has been with the wind wane steering. Yes, it is slower, but I feel safe knowing that any sudden wind shifts won’t negatively affect my rig when I’m snoozing. Also that I am not stressing my ship’s rudder, which seems to be a frequent cause of failure for some boats in the past. I was surprised to see that it outperformed my auto pilot when deep reaching. It especially shines at night under a starlit sky mirrored on the black sea by sparkling bioluminescence gushing over my side decks and in my wake. I often think about how privileged I am to be part of a timeless tradition of Polynesians who charted these same waters eons ago. I can imagine their excitement at nightfall which was their only way of knowing where they were. Although they would have had bad luck on this trip. Most of the nights have been very cloudy.
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
From Randy and Tortuga 7/7
Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Friday, July 7th
I’m no longer awarding the most uncomfortable night of the trip, as I had thought the previous was it, but now all the remaining nights want to win it. Nope. Sorry. No longer part of the Tortuga Awards program, so you can all stop vying for it!
I will say that there was a real moment of zen hand steering around 0300 doing a smooth 7.7 knots of boat speed as a squall was passing over us. The boat felt perfectly balanced while the rain and winds whipped past for about an hour. The winds, dare I say, have picked up a little later this afternoon in more the 15-knot rage, which is keeping us closer to a steady 6 knots of boat speed and is bringing us that time to finish read out on the chart plotter so much closer!
When we occasionally jump up to 6.5/6.7 of boat speed, it actually becomes less than 72 hours! That's only 3 more days of singing sea shanties, getting rum rations, and carving exquisite scrimshaw art. Because, of course, that’s what I’ve been doing this whole time!
The red Sharpie perimeter drawn on my leg has worked and kept the swelling from my knee from spreading farther. Every medical kit should have one of these magic markers. Still lots of icing, elevation, and taking vitamin I.
I had another great sunset; the boat was doing 6/6.5 with winds in the high teens into the wee hours.
We are getting there. Slowly, but we are getting there.
Team Tortuga
~~~_/)~~~
On Fri, Jul 7, 2023 at 10:
Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Friday, July 7th
I’m no longer awarding the most uncomfortable night of the trip, as I had thought the previous was it, but now all the remaining nights want to win it. Nope. Sorry. No longer part of the Tortuga Awards program, so you can all stop vying for it!
I will say that there was a real moment of zen hand steering around 0300 doing a smooth 7.7 knots of boat speed as a squall was passing over us. The boat felt perfectly balanced while the rain and winds whipped past for about an hour. The winds, dare I say, have picked up a little later this afternoon in more the 15-knot rage, which is keeping us closer to a steady 6 knots of boat speed and is bringing us that time to finish read out on the chart plotter so much closer!
When we occasionally jump up to 6.5/6.7 of boat speed, it actually becomes less than 72 hours! That's only 3 more days of singing sea shanties, getting rum rations, and carving exquisite scrimshaw art. Because, of course, that’s what I’ve been doing this whole time!
The red Sharpie perimeter drawn on my leg has worked and kept the swelling from my knee from spreading farther. Every medical kit should have one of these magic markers. Still lots of icing, elevation, and taking vitamin I.
I had another great sunset; the boat was doing 6/6.5 with winds in the high teens into the wee hours.
We are getting there. Slowly, but we are getting there.
Team Tortuga
~~~_/)~~~
On Fri, Jul 7, 2023 at 10:
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Mike Smith
3:28 PM (14 minutes ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott
Sunday Day 15
All those people that finished already must have had pretty fast times I would think. I’m just letting folks know what it’s like at the back of the fleet.
I had a great time today. Set the sails at about 50% last night and went to sleep for a bit finally. No squalls and I must have slept pretty well because when I woke up I had no idea where I was! Of course that was actually true because I messed up my noon sight. I missed a few readings near the meridian. Once you miss the sun’s maximum height, that’s it for the day. I found you can guesstimate by curve fitting to what you have. I’m surprised nobody teaches that method or at least I haven’t seen it.
Then today was like I thought every day would be after the Farallones: blue sky and steady trade winds all day. First whole day that I have had like that. I wonder about everyone else.
I need to do some real navigation! First I found my chart plotter won’t let me add a waypoint relative to Hanalei, it has to be with respect to the vessel if you want to use range and bearing. So I gave up, started to do the math for absolute lat & long and then gave up on that and back to drawing on charts! Or at least on big sheets of graph paper so as not to mess up my paper charts that are both hard to het and expensive now.
Onward!
3:28 PM (14 minutes ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott
Sunday Day 15
All those people that finished already must have had pretty fast times I would think. I’m just letting folks know what it’s like at the back of the fleet.
I had a great time today. Set the sails at about 50% last night and went to sleep for a bit finally. No squalls and I must have slept pretty well because when I woke up I had no idea where I was! Of course that was actually true because I messed up my noon sight. I missed a few readings near the meridian. Once you miss the sun’s maximum height, that’s it for the day. I found you can guesstimate by curve fitting to what you have. I’m surprised nobody teaches that method or at least I haven’t seen it.
Then today was like I thought every day would be after the Farallones: blue sky and steady trade winds all day. First whole day that I have had like that. I wonder about everyone else.
I need to do some real navigation! First I found my chart plotter won’t let me add a waypoint relative to Hanalei, it has to be with respect to the vessel if you want to use range and bearing. So I gave up, started to do the math for absolute lat & long and then gave up on that and back to drawing on charts! Or at least on big sheets of graph paper so as not to mess up my paper charts that are both hard to het and expensive now.
Onward!