Poseidon’s Garden theory is in effect and working wonderfully! We are no longer circulating the water through the tubes in King Neptune’s Garden. Generally, on a timer 16 times a day water is pumped from a reservoir, stored in one of our compartments, into the top garden tube (aka fence post) then gravity drains down to the second fence post, and finally drains back to the reservoir. When we are sailing the water level fills the tube too high and sloshes out because of the sailing motion. We have tried different intervals to prevent the water from sloshing, but nothing has worked. The original garden at sea we created was called Poseidon’s Garden and was a non-circulating garden. The idea was to have the plant roots sit in water and the natural motion of the ocean would agitate the water and provide air to the root systems. Poseidon’s Garden was a success with the exception it was not fixed to the boat and swung back and forth and could potentially hurt someone, so we retired Poseidon’s Garden. King Neptune’s Garden is fixed to the side of the boat, so all we do is close the valves not allowing all of the water drain back to the tank. The natural motion of the ocean agitates the water and keeps the plants alive and doing very well.
Yay! Lunch for tomorrow. Another mahi today. Two got off the hook but they were too small and we would have given them back to the sea anyway. Just before sunset one mahi was just the right size. We are still using our handlines to fish because we don’t have to slow down to bring in the fish. They seem to love the cedar plug lures because they won’t even go for the Black-Bart squid junior lures we normally use to catch our tuna.
We made 175 miles good towards our destination of Dutch Harbor today – Yay.
Today is the final day to submit your educated guess on when we’ll arrive in Dutch Harbor Alaska, see details below.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Math Be Hard For Sailors – Alaska
Destination: Dutch Harbor, Alaska or where we drop anchor (53°53.677’N, 166°31.029’W)
Prize: Alaskan post card from us to you and a 12X16 Penrhyn Black-tip Shark poster Submissions are accepted until 7/20/17.
Please only submit the date and time only, no need for your crazy calculations via ComfortCruising.com Math Be Hard For Sailors Contact Form. Weather: Sunny and partly cloudy
Ves. Pos. 28°42.817’N, 161°15.531’W
SOG: 8.1 kts
Course Over Ground (COG): 340°
Time: 12:00:06 PM 7/20/17
Nautical miles to destination as a bird flies(Crs Rng & Brg): 1528 nm & 353° Apparent wind speed (AWS): 16.6 kts
Apparent wind angle: Port 88° Port side
Outside Temperature: 74°
Water Temperature: 78.6°
Barometer: 1023
Risk the Weather Guy gave us a third waypoint to sail towards of 35N 170 Distance made good towards our destination is 165 nautical miles.
Math Be Hard For Sailors Tip: Upon arrival we will have to choose between two passes, Akutan or Unalga, that connect the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea to reach Dutch Harbor. Traveling in and out of a pass like Akutan or Unalga is similar to how we enter and exit an atoll. We try our best to time our arrival based on the tides and currents. The nice part is we are in the United States and NOAA provides a lot of information (http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov). For those that have already submitted your date and time of our arrival you have one extra day to research the tidal current times and resubmit a new guess if necessary. Be sure to figure out if we will even be able to enter either pass during slack time and make our destination at the time you guessed. Good luck.
