Goose Neck Barnacles and Sweaters....brr!

August 8, 1315

Today…. We are sailing. I woke up at 4:30 this am and the watch crew said "wind seems up… we were thinking of rolling out some jib".  I looked at the winds and the angles…. Brought out the A2. We have had it up since and the wind has filled in. We are currently rolling along in the mid 8s over ground with almost every mile sailed a mile made good to Duntze rock with 954 to go. Hopefully today we start putting a ton of miles in the bag. Time will tell.  For now we are enjoying the winds and the sun.

During yesterday's swim, I noticed that there were some goose neck barnacles on the trailing edge of the prop shaft stuffing box. It is surprising that these were there and the size they were in the short time since our departure, as the boat was clean when we left. But interesting to see how quickly they grow and where they secure themselves to.

August 9, 0900

Last night, I came on deck at 11 and we quickly decided that white sails were not working for us. Up went the A4 and off we went. We spent the night sailing in increasing winds at 8-13kts on the gps. I personally did not get much sleep as I took at least a third of the driving during the really challenging parts, but everyone did a great job. I was joking with the group that it is strange that 9kts in the middle of the night is starting to feel normal. From 6pm until 6 am we had 93 miles made good, which included the white sail time around dinner through till 11 pm.

August 9th, 1500

Otto (the autopilot) steered the boat from 9 am through till 12:30 at a steady 7.5-8.5 kts mostly on course (it was set to a wind angle), while the crew tidied the boat and sat around in the cockpit chatting and eating lunch (there will be video of parts of this posted on your YouTube Channel "Turnagain50" once we get back to real internet). Lunch consisted of a plate of cold cuts, fresh hummus, cheese and some pineapple-pork sausages with crackers and chips.

So we continue to tick off miles towards Dunzte rock, which is our mark at the entrance to Juan De Fuca, with about 755 to go as of now. The afternoon watch had a great sleep through the morning and felt energized after lunch, and have been hand steering since 1230, while the am watch is sleeping and I am switching between napping and general boat chores (making water, checking all lower easily accessible rigging etc, writing this).

The temperature is changing. I have been in pants all day today (the first time since about day 2 of the race), and the ocean is down to 20C….. brrrr…. There is also much more humidity in the air. The boat is dripping with condensation (outside so far) by the am, and there was a marine layer across the entire horizon this am. I am anticipating true fog shortly as we approach the Fogust west coast of the Island. I hold out hope that some real August weather will still be had once I get back so I can enjoy some family boating while the kids are still out of school.

Until later,

Turnagain

BLACK CLOUDS AND LIGHTNING...oh, and by the way we are half way

Fortunately...

We are still making progress despite variable winds.  The wind has shifted very west over the past 24-36 hours (as expected because we are trying to get up to the bottom of a low pressure system to get some down wind sailing back home) and we are currently motor sailing NNE to get into some of this pressure. We hear that boats in front of us have a bunch of this pressure and are eager to get there and turn off the Yanmar. We are not entirely sure how the boats behind us are even moving, the weather files show that it is very light almost everywhere , except the tropical storms below us heading west and the lows up above us. We have been treating this like a true delivery, if we are not on course and making good time, we are using the engine…. Hope there is enough fuel……

Unfortunately...

Mahi Mahi Fest 2014 is officially over.  Time to start scouting out some tuna.  We have pulled in the fishing lines for now…. Seems someone tipped the Mahi off to candy wrappers and they have stopped biting. We are low on hooks, and are now in preservation mode until we get back into tuna territory - likely Friday.

Fortunately...

We are not currently in the path of any hurricanes.

Unfortunately...

Got woken at 3:45 to say there is lightning about 5 miles out port side and a "REALLY BLACK" cloud in front. I came up to WOW a huge cell or cold front of some sort. So we went into instant storm prep (running different sail halyards for the storm sails, stowing everything everywhere, pulling out storm sails and putting them in the cabin. Short story.... we were prepared, but only had 25 kts and no lightning (yet) phew!!!..

Fortunately....

We are still enjoying ourselves.  Looking forward to our half-way party, and here's hoping the second half is quicker than the first!

Turnagain

Mahi Mahi and More Mahi Mahi

I think we have been out for a while now…. All the days are starting to blend together, though some stand out items included some great spinnaker sailing (again), and lots of fishing. We landed 5, including one we guestimated at 30+ pounds and at least 8 got away. I have almost perfected my Mahi filleting skills, but it is not fast as I am crouched over the fish on the swim deck of the boat. It does keep the mess contained, but the space is cramped without a 3+ foot fish on there with you. Hopefully all the pictures the crew has taken turn out.

Dave and i lost a big one about 40 minutes ago, it was at the side of the boat, then the leader broke or the hook snapped, but it was gone. Earlier today, i saw about 8 Mahi charging at our lures. I was looking out the back of the boat, when one jumped coming in at about 90 degrees of the boat, then right behind that 4 more.. then 2 or 3more. They were going super fast. it is a fun fish to catch.

We have spent many hours motoring, and many more sailing. The sailing today was a surprise for me, I expected we would be motoring for many more miles to the next pressure system, but our total motor hours today were about 6 or 8. So far fuel levels are about what I expected, so that is a bit of stress off.
We are just starting to get into the "garbage zone", but so far it feels like there is less than on the way down here. Maybe our route? Maybe someone cleaned up while we rested in Maui?

Turnagain is the blue one in the middle

Dinner today was Mahi, rice, spinach salad with a great pineapple salsa….. no one has had any issues with the food yet : ( I think "yet" is the key word there). The biggest current issue it appears we may run into is freezer space for the fish!!!! Hopefully, that is the biggest issue we will have on the trip. We are hoping to start getting into the albacore tuna range once we hit 39N (about 400 miles north of where we are), so we will keep the Mahi coming and freezing (or eating) that until they stop biting our hooks then try to arrange our freezer space so we can have some tuna as well.

We are missing our loved ones back home, but making the best of a GREAT sail so far.

Turnagain