Captains log: Explanation required and wild tales of holding on!

Date: July 9, 2022

Time: 14:30

Location:31.26.440N / 127.53.639W

First off, my long winded emotional post from yesterday was surely caused by sucking diesel fumes for hours on end. Running the engine was never, ever part of the plan for our "sail" to Hawaii, however, plans change and strategies must be re-evaluated. 

Why we led the pack out of San Francisco. Given the conditions we had leaving, sailing south was surely our best route, even when thinking of this in retrospect. There's a giant high pressure system thats been sitting in the middle of the pacific probably 2500 miles across and about 1000 miles high. To refresh, high pressure = little to no wind. This concern of no wind was significantly discussed via email among the racers prior to departure and at the skippers meeting two days before the first start. Everyone knew that this no-wind situation was going to be of very significant concern. As it turns out, it has resulted in a highly problematic situation for nearly everyone in the race, but at this point, its affected us far more than the other boats.

WHY? 

Before the race I kept joking with people who were asking me about it and I said it was analogous to seeing a camper van lined up with F1 race-cars at the starting line of an auto race. We knew that setting out, but even this good ol' camper van can really get up and go when there's enough wind. 

What is enough wind?

The race boats are extremely light weight and are comprised of fancy kevlar or other exotic materials made to hold excellent sail shape and be light weight at the same time. A light-weight boat will sail somewhat quickly in light winds. Our boat on the other hand is a blue-water cruising boat. This means she is very heavy and stout, comfortable to ride in, luxuries such as comfortable sleeping quarters, full kitchen, 6 foot + head-room etc. The worst situation for a boat like this is light wind. In about 15kts of wind she will hit close to her maximum speed. To summarize, our boat performs extraordinarily poorly in very low wind, but is extraordinarily safe, comfortable and holds a nice speed when the winds are strong. This is why the gap between the racing boats and our cruising boat is growing day by day. If winds had been stronger the gap between us would surely not be this significant. 

To exacerbate the situation, the faster boats have been able to escape the high faster than us. Because we are slow, we cannot quickly escape this monster, this beast, but not the violent beast, the sleeping beast of no-wind. This morning our navigation app said at this speed, our estimated arrival time in Hawaii would be in 46 days from today, so we cynically laughed and hoped we would make it there before September. We laughed it off but each of us inside knew that it's not really that funny. We need wind! 

Other jokes going around the boat are that it seemed so many family and friends were so concerned about the safety of our voyage that they "over-prayed" the calm sea stay for us. The joke continues that everyone should simply be praying for our safety, even if it means we're in 30 foot high waves, surfing down the faces, holding on for dear life. Even if we're in that situation we welcome it, as long as we are safe. So for all those praying for calm seas, please shift the focus to stronger trade winds and our safety. Thank you.

Today we continued to bob around making forward progress at a whopping 1.5kts. Again we were happy about the 134 gallons of fuel on board as we fired up our diesel and have been motoring south to continue to escape this lack of wind state. Just in case anyone is wondering, 134 gallons is a lot but its not anywhere close to the amount of fuel it would require to get to Hawaii, so we're just motoring, even if its not towards Hawaii, to escape this high. 

Overheard:

"Last night I used baby wipes to take a shower and this morning it feels like I have an oil slick on my entire body"

In response to that comment:

"Last night I used a bucket of salt water and soap to take a shower. It was amazing! I thought it worked so well and I felt so good. But this morning, I woke up with my skin burning like my entire body has a sunburn from the salt water I used to bathe in last night!"

So our wild tales of holding on in the pacific have not yet been experienced. Hopefully the truth of the remaining portion of our remaining 46 days to Hawaii will be somewhere in between skidding down the faces of 30 foot waves and motoring across good ol' lake Pacific.