Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 15

Small island? Tsunami debris? Dead whale? About half a mile off the port bow was something for sure, and it had attracted a large number of birds. It was low in the water and would disappear from time to time below the swell. The chart showed no island, no submerged mountain top. Dead whale became the favored theory because of the coloring. As we sailed into its lee, we knew for sure, because we could smell it. Definitely a dead whale. People talk all the time about the risk of sailing into tsunami debris but what about hitting that dead whale in the middle of the night? Even if it did not sink you, you would have to bear the odor for the rest of the voyage. Dead whales have always been with us, but I have never seen them mentioned in the press except when one washes up on someone's beach.

The three of us were enjoying a nice afternoon in the cockpit when we noticed a container ship about five miles off our port quarter. Then we heard someone calling the "sailing vessel near 44 north and 152 west" on VHF channel 16. I answered and it turned out to be a ship's officer named Curt who just wanted to chat. He recently purchased a 42' long cruising sailboat named Ocean Quest and is in the process of refitting it for extensive cruising. Curt wanted to know all about the way in which NS is equipped, and discussed what he has purchased for Ocean Quest and what he has in mind. He is retiring and will be cruising in the waters of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska where he was a tugboat captain before he moved on to cargo ships. I hope to see Curt and Ocean Quest down the road.

One of Curt's comments was music to my ears. He said that NS has a very strong radar profile and that he could see us from 18 miles away. I had always assumed that the two Davis radar reflectors mounted in the rigging 35' above the sea would provide a good radar return, but this was the first time that I had received positive verification, out here where a good radar presence really counts.

At UTC 2200, July 27, 2012, we are at 44 22.405 N, 150 37.894 W. Our Day's run was 98 miles.

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Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 14

Slow day, forereaching with full main and light yankee at about four knots throughout the afternoon and night. Mostly overcast and misty. We have definitely left the sunny tropics behind. By daybreak the wind had gone entirely. We tried to find a breeze for a couple of hours, then turned on the engine, since we needed to charge the batteries and make fresh water. After two hours, we saw wavelets forming and turned the engine off. We were able to find a breeze that gave us a knot at first. Amazingly, Rangval was able to follow it. After a couple of more hours, we are up to four knots. Hope it holds.

At UTC 2200, July 26, 2012, we are at 43 55.776 N, 152 48.436 W. Our day's run was 85 miles.

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Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 13

Whales! Lots of them! Too close for comfort!

At dusk we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a large pod of whales. For at least a quarter of an hour they surfaced and dived as near 100' from Norwegian Steam, often in pairs and in once instance five together. Never in Mexico did I see so many whales anywhere near as close to the boat. Jean, Jon and I stood on deck in awe and wonder. In my case, at least, there was a good admixture of dread. What if one of these leviathans damaged the boat? No repair facilities nearby. Every whale was larger than NS. You could hear them breathing, smell them. Unforgettable!

The next morning we saw two more. This time they were a comfortable quarter of a mile away. These were definitely the same breed. I think they were humpbacks but Jean is not so sure.

We noticed this morning that the sea water is quite a bit colder. We are going to need to dig out warmer clothing.

We ran all night wing-on-wing on the starboard jibe, full main with light yankee poled out. During the night, as expected, the wind continued to veer to the west and then to north of west. In the morning we deployed the port spinnaker pole and jibed around onto port.

At UTC 2200, July 25, 2012, we are at 43 36.993 N, 154 44.489 W. Our Day's run was 98 miles.

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Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 12

The wind kept getting lighter and lighter during the night. At the same time, it was veering to the south, enabling us to run with wind astern without heading west. At six in the morning, at the end of my watch and the beginning of Jon's, the two of us raised the main, erected the starboard spinnaker pole, replaced the storm jib with the staysail, jibed the staysail around and poled it out. Still not enough sail area. We shook the reefs out of the main, then had breakfast. When Jean got up, we replaced the staysail with the light yankee and are currently running with full main and poled out yankee. With all the sail area that we can muster wing-on-wing, we are averaging about five knots.

We are now at about the half-way point, in terms of distance. We have reached the latitude of Cape Mendocino, that infamous point on the California coast which sees gale force winds whenever the high gets very close.

At UTC 2200, July 24, 2012, we are at 42 26.201 N, 156 16.035 W. Our day's run was 100 miles.

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Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 11

For the last two days, I have been unsuccessful in making any connection to Sailmail. Those of you familiar with High Frequency radio, the technology used by Sailmail, know that in the frequency range assigned (2 MHz -- 30MHz) successful communication at any given moment is almost entirely dependent on the reflectivity of the ionosphere, which changes constantly. I hope that the problem is just the ionosphere and not something gone wrong with the transceiver, the antenna tuner, antenna conections, etc. You may read this post as early as this evening or you may not be able to read it until after we get to Neah Bay and get a WIFI connection. I wish I knew. In any case, I will continued to write these daily reports, queue them up for transmission, and hope for the best.

Pete Libbey brought stuff to bake bread along on the Mexico-to-Hawaii voyage, but never got the opportunity to bake anything given that being on watch 50% of the time left little time for much else. Pete generously left his bread kit behind. Two days ago when we were nearly becalmed and again today when we are not, Jean has used Pete's sour dough bread mix to bake bread in the pressure cooker. Delicious. Thanks Jean! Thanks Pete!

I had been hoping for wind to carry us north through the space temporarily vacated by the high, and today we got it. The wind had been building all day, but by 10 at night it had gotten to be too much for the yankee, which was the only sail we had up. I called the crew on deck and we brought the yankee down, alright, but when we tried to hoist the staysail in its place, we found that the sheets had gotten very fouled up. It was too dark to straighten this out, so we sailed the rest of the night under bare poles, averaging 3 and half knots. Rangval could not keep the boat going straight, so Jon and Jean spent the rest of the night in the cockpit, each steering for an hour and a time and trying to sleep in the cockpit when not steering. At first light, we raised the storm jib and have been sailing that way ever since.

At UTC 2200, July 23, 2012, we are at 40 49.929 N, 156 51.165 W. Our day's run was 94 miles.

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Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 10

The wind died again in the early afternoon. Another three hours of having to endure the rumbling of the engine to be followed by three of the most idyllic hours of sailing on a sunny and gentle ocean. In the night the wind grew stronger and in the morning we reefed down twice. We have been sailing since just after dawn at better than 6 and half knots, reaching with light yankee and double reefed main. This wind is welcome. We need it in order to get up to latitude 45 while the window through the high remains open.

At UTC 2200, July 22, 2012, we are at 39 32.479 N, 157 59.422 W. Our day's run was 117 miles.

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Noon Report -- Kauai - Neah Bay, Day 9

I am enjoying standing watch and am thinking now that it was a mistake to have fully delegated that responsibility to Pete and Gay on the Mexico-to-Hawaii voyage. I take the two-to-six watch, morning and afternoon. This morning was magic! We had reached the high and the sea was nearly flat calm. Starlit night with no moon. Close reaching with light yankee and full main, averaging four knots. A Korean freighter crosses our path about three miles ahead. Once it has passed, I can relax. I watch it steam under the big dipper, which is just above the water and, during the next half hour, exit, stage left. What is that to starboard? Another freighter? No, it is Venus rising. By four, the sky is starting to get light, but all the stars still shine ever so brightly. By five it is light. At five thirty the sun rises. Now I remember why I looked forward to the dawn watch as a young Vic-Maui racer.

Just after dinner we were suddenly becalmed, after enjoying steady, though diminishing, winds for eight days. Then we knew that we had arrived at the high. After some time, a breeze sufficient to give us steerage-way appeared and Jon hand steered for about a half an hour while it built to be strong enough for Rangval to take over. About ten, becalmed again. I was ready to start the engine, but then the wind came back, giving us the beautiful sailing conditions described above. This morning we were becalmed once more and we motored about four hours. Touch and go. We are still looking for the wind that was predicted.

Since leaving Kauai, we had hardly seen any debris, just one or two small plastic items a day, typically small storage containers or net floats. Now we are seeing junk all the time. It is still isolated items, similar to what we saw before, just much more plentiful. The largest items we saw today were something that resembled a beer keg and something else that looked like a small plastic dinghy.

We have reached the latitude of San Francisco.

At UTC 2200, July 21, 2012, we are at 38 05.662 N, 159 40.691 W. Our day's run was 72 miles.

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