Chapter 144: The One With Deja Vu

And we’re off! Again. Trying to cross the Pacific. And so far, it feels very familiar.

We left Friday and the first day was just lovely. There was a beautiful breeze and we were on the move at last! WooHoo!

That afternoon, we set the whisker pole. You know the one: it broke last time we tried this. Now newly repaired and reinforced, it performed admirably-for about 12 hours. Then, at 4 AM (of course), it decided to snap in two. Nothing like venturing onto the foredeck at 4 AM in 25 knots of wind to secure what has essentially become a large javelin plunging around on deck. It was great! The last time it broke, we were only a couple hours from the marina, so returning was an easy call. This time, we were 20 hours out and to return would have meant a 36 hour sail upwind-it would not have been fun. So, we decided to keep going and “figure it out”.

The whisker pole allows us to sail better with the wind directly behind us, which is what much of this passage is. Without it, we will have to take a longer route because we can’t point exactly where we want to go. Ah well. After all, it’s supposed to be an adventure, right?

At the moment, however, the adventure is less than “adventurous”. Because, wind. There is none. Yesterday afternoon, the wind completely died and we have been drifting ever since. Not super fun. The forecast models are all in agreement: we should right now be sailing along in a lovely band of 15-20 knot breezes. Unfortunately, models are not reality. The reality is that there is no wind, so we sit here, bobbing in the swell and wondering what to do. Do we continue to sit here and hope the wind returns? Do we turn on the engine, burn some diesel, and try to make progress? It’s a puzzle. We need all our fuel to get across the doldrums: where the models SAY there isn’t any wind. So using some so early on in the voyage wasn’t planned and gives us range anxiety. On the other hand, sitting here rolling in the swell isn’t exactly relaxing either.
The good news is that we are doing well otherwise. At only 2 days in, we haven’t fully adjusted to the watch schedule yet, so we’re tired and intermittently cranky. Well, I (Bob) am intermittently cranky, anyway. But we are starting to figure out the routine for this long passage. We do a small load of laundry each day by “massaging” the clothes inside a waterproof bag with some detergent, the repeating with plain water to rinse, then hanging to dry. We make water. We check the rigging each day for signs of wear and chafing. We make meals. We do the New York Times Crossword. We will intermittently need to run the engine to charge our batteries but haven’t had to do that yet. We wait for stuff to break. Life at sea: ah the glamour.

And we can report one victory: we have successfully deployed our windvane autopilot for the first time! It’s been a struggle figuring out how to set it up and use it correctly, but I think we have the basics now solved. The windvane is great because it consumes no electricity-bonus! Perhaps a more detailed look at this bit of kit in a future post…

And that is our excitement for now. Send us some wind vibes if you have them.