Today we entered deeper into a high pressure system and as expected the wind became lighter. By 9:30 am we had to start the engine to motor-sail. And at around noon the sea became a glassy calm and we put away our sails that were just hanging limp. Further north this high pressure air is being split in two by a newly formed low, combination front, which looks to be directly in our path and to cause an unfortunate situation of head winds, although not too strong. In the northern hemisphere low pressure systems rotate counter clockwise and high pressure systems rotate clockwise. As we motor, or hopefully recommence sailing north, the low pressure will be on our east side and the high pressure on the west. In between the high and low the circular motion of both of these systems will cause winds to be out of the north, the direction we are going, called head winds. This weather prediction is still three days off and can change as we near its location of 40 degrees latitude. We are crossing our fingers once again and hope we are lucky.
Speaking of luck, preferably good luck, sailing can be about luck, just like anything else. A half hour difference in time can mean missing a squall or a day difference could mean missing a storm. And it seems like luck can play the ultimate role in weather after a period of more than a week since leaving port. Today however, our luck regards missing garbage, of which we have seen more than usual. The garbage we see is not plastic bags or McDonald’s super size cups like in the Ala Wai, Honolulu, nor lost slippers and plastic bottles that line so many island shores, but large floating buoy balls and other miscellaneous marine gear. Today we were a little startled by a pile of rope floating on top of the water. This looked like a 100+ ball of 1″ nylon rope and it just floated by within a couple feet of the boat, and we both looked at each other alarmed because not five minutes earlier we had just started the engine. When we are sailing the propeller doesn’t do much in the water except cause drag because it is a fixed propeller. But to tangle a 1″ diameter nylon braid line in the prop would be a mess to untangle underwater in addition to causing damage to the cutlass bearing. Today we were lucky in that no garbage got closer than this. We have seen enough articles on the internet regarding the great floating garbage area of the Pacific that we were not sure what to expect. Certainly nothing like what is shown on the internet has been seen by us, yet, and we are happy for that.
There often is not much to do during an ocean passage, and so we often listen to audio books. Then there are days like today with no wind and therefore no sails to tend or watch and flat calm seas. So we decided to experiment with our fishing, more specifically why the mahi only hit one of our hand-lines. As a background, we were so impressed with the hand-line given to us by our friend Josh that we decided to make a second one on our sail from the Marquesas to Hawaii. The second hand-line is 100 feet long and if you remember the hand-line that Josh gave us is 50 feet long. It is always and only the cedar plug on the long line that the mahi bite. We even switched lures on the long line from a usually good Black Bart lure to a yellow and green mahi squid lure. So today way swapped lures between the two lines to see what would happen. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, absolutely nothing happened. Even though the weather and water temperature remained the same 76 degrees, not a single fish bit today. Perhaps it is that we travel a couple knots slower while motoring, perhaps the mahi are gone, or perhaps the mahi will only bite a cedar plug on a long line? So our effort to stifle boredom by this experiment only caused less excitement by no fish being caught at all. This is our first day to have caught nothing, so we vaguely deduce that mahi like the cedar plug lure on a line that is at least 100 feet away from the boat. Unlike yellow-fin tuna which seem to gobble either cedar plugs or squid lures 50 feet from the back of the boat. Or is it more that “luck” thing we mentioned in the first paragraph?
Even though we caught no fish, we still ate fish from the prior day. Sara made a wonderful meal of baked crusted mahi that had been marinating in vinaigrette and other seasonings in the fridge overnight. This was surrounded by brussel sprouts marinated the same and baked together. Super Yummy!
Only 134 miles made good towards our destination over the last 24 hours.
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. 33°25.559’N, 163°19.575’W
SOG: 6.0 kts
Course Over Ground (COG): 002°
Time: 12:28:00 PM 7/21/17
Nautical miles to destination as a bird flies(Crs Rng & Brg): 1236 nm & 355° Apparent wind speed (AWS): 7.1 kts
Apparent wind angle: Starboard 73°
Outside Temperature: 74°
Water Temperature: 74.8°
Barometer: 1023
Engine RPM: 2100 (started at 9:38 AM)
Risk the Weather Guy gave us our fourth waypoint to sail towards 40 00N 165 00W
Math Be Hard For Sailors Tip:
We do not pull into unknown anchorages during the dark. So an arrival time during daylight hours is much more likely. Yet the nights are pretty short during Alaska summers. There are so many unknowns when arriving to a new anchorage our motto is to heave-to or sail back and forth to fish outside a passage, harbor, or anchorage if we arrive before good light.
Upon arrival we will have to choose between two passes, Akutan or Unalga, that connect the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea ao as to reach nearby 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). Be sure to consider that we will be going through one of these two passes during slack current/tide for guessing our destination time. Good luck.
