Jeez, lot’s to do out here. I’ll try to post more in the next couple of days. Before this trip I went out on a 24-hour shakedown cruise. I wish it had been longer and that the wind had been a bit tougher. Now that I’m out here and the seas are larger (6 to 9 feet for now), the boat is rocking and rolling and small things are breaking here and there. I’ll get them all fixed, or manage without whatever has broken, but it would have been easier at the dock.
Anyway, sailing conditions are almost ideal. I’ve got 10 – 15 kts of wind from astern. Maybe a tiny bit more would be nice, but I don’t want to be greedy. The swell has built overnight, so the boat is sliding down the waves and rolling. It’s reminiscent of downwind tradewinds sailing, just a bit colder. What I had forgotten was how hard it is to do the simplest tasks when the boat is rolling this much. But you get used to it.
It’s been sunny yesterday and today, which helps with the navigation (remember that I use a sextant to navigate). The sea is bright blue and flecked with whitecaps. My next waypoint is Guadalupe Island, which is about 70 miles SSE of me right now. I should see it late this afternoon and pass it during the night.
I love being out here, but it’s a lot of work. I’ll try to describe my normal day in a later post.
The highlight yesterday was navigational. A bit over 100 miles offshore and almost due south of Ventura is a buoy which marks Bishop Rock (a dangerous rock just below the surface named for the hapless steamer “Bishop” which first found it by hitting it). All that’s visible is a buoy about nine feet high. I thought it would be fun to try to sail right past it, if I could find it. It’s not easy to used a sextant and the sun to find something so small in the big ocean. Anyway, yesterday around noon, there it was! I was pretty pleased with myself. By comparison, Guadalupe Island is easy, since it rises a few thousand feet and is visible from 20 or 30 miles out.
The stuff that has broken includes the outlet hose for the toilet. It is an old hose and has cracked. So now I need to replace it. That’s a stinky, wet job that is lousy even at the dock. It’s less fun in a rolling boat.
My high-tech LED navigation light at the top of the mast shorted last night and stopped working. That was a more serious problem, since I need to have the nav light on so that other boats can see me while I’m sleeping at night. I called super electrician Dave Decrevel on the sat phone and he talked me through a way of rerouting the wiring that would get the light working. So now the nav light works, though the strobe and anchor lights don’t (though I can do without those).
The radio has started acting up. It won’t tune and then locks up on 12 Mhz. Don’t know why yet. This could become a more serious problem as I get further away and need to use those frequencies for long-distance communication. I called tech support at SGC, the makers of the radio, and they have given me an idea about something to try out. I just need to squeeze into a very small space (which is now jammed with gear) and unscrew some leads. Maybe later today or tomorrow. In any case, the radio still seems OK on other frequencies, so I can still receive weather broadcasts and transmit email.
Anyway, back to work. More later.
Fair winds,
David