Saturday, July 23, 2016

Circling the runway

We are still in a holding pattern. Its not a bad place to be stuck, in the middle of the most beautiful blue sky and ocean. The trades winds are gently taking us toward Hawaii but our sails are reefed n and we are limping along at 5 knots. There will be a weather briefing tonight at 8:00 and we should know then if we are allowed to continue on. At our current rate, we wont be making landfall until Tuesday morning anyhow. So unless Darby decides to stick around longer than expected, we will be taking shower and drinking mai tais on Tuesday.
It has gotten hot here and we are going to try and rig some shade on deck for the watch crew. Its also hard to sleep below during the day, so by th time we get to land I suspect this crew will be all tuckered out and sun kissed.
In the meantime, its great sailing weather and life is good.

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Darby blarby

Welp, no evidence of any tropical storm that we can see out here 495 miles away from the Islands. Actually the closer we have gotten, the calmer the conditions. Currently we are cruising at a conservative 6 knots with a reefed main and jib. We could easily be carrying more canvas but we are not racing as fast as we can towards Hawaii and planning on letting the storm pass until we enter the 120 mile safety zone. The strong winds are not the only concern, its the sea state that can last a few days after the storm passes. And big swell in Hawaii means BIG SWELL. This place invented the big swell. So we are playing it by ear and getting all weather info we can. Fortunately we are a very slow boat, so there is no rush, even if we wanted.
In other news, the night sky tonight is marked as one of my all time favorites. Kathy and I dimmed the instrument lights and were speechless. It was so dark we couldnt see the front of the boat as we sailed into sheer blackness. There is nothing to hit out here in the middle of the ocean, so on night watches you basically just stare into the night and make sure the wind doesnt shift too rapidly. Is become warmer as we head south and we no longer need our foulies. Once this dumb storm gets out of our way, we will be able to see land again. Its going to be weird to stand on terra firma again. My body is so used to lurching and being thrown around.

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