As we are concluding our second week at sea, we both have the feeling of “are we there yet”? We were pleased the winds increased enough for us to have brief moments of sailing 9 knots. Generally the wind is not steady enough to maintain the 9 knots, but steady enough to maintain an average of 8 knots for several hours. Then out of no where the wind disappears. We are left moving at 6 knots and rolling back and forth because there is not enough wind to fill the sails and keep us heeled in the 10 to 12 feet of waves.
There is something to going nine knots on the water. You feel like you are flying. The boat feels like it lifts out of the water almost riding on top of the waves. We have a fixed propeller and the shaft turns when water pushes through the fixed prop. At lower speeds you can hardly hear or feel the vibration, but at nine knots the prop spins so fast turning the shaft the boat has a soft singing sound. We got into discussions about fixed props vs. folding props and both agreed that it would be nice to add on an extra 3/4 knot of speed that is advertised by folding propellers. Three quarters of a knot doesn’t seem like much, but if you take our average speed for the day add three quarters then multiply it by the miles in a day we have traveled, you would realize that instead of being a hundred and thirty something miles from the Big Island we would actually be outside of Oahu right now.
We have retired the audio books for this trip and both dived into a book of our own. We are in good spirits, but a little tired. The wind likes to perk up at night and adjusting the sails gets a bit noisy and tiring. We hope tomorrow that we’ll actually see land, and you might also be able to see our position. At ComfortCruising.com in the menu click the “Where are Wade and Sara?” link, and at the top there will be a map of our AIS feed. Our AIS feed is our real-time location, only when near an AIS station, so we can only assume that Hawaii actually has an AIS system.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Math Be Hard For Sailors – Hawaiian Islands
Destination: Hawaiian Islands (19°15.545’S, 154°31.747’W) Prize: Hawaiian post card from us to you and a black pearl with shell Submissions are accepted until 4/17/16.
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.
Ves. Pos. 18°16.893’N, 152°28.901’W
SOG: 8.9 kts
Course Over Ground (COG): 315°
Time: 12:00:03 PM 4/22/17
Nautical miles to destination as a bird flies(Crs Rng & Brg): 130 nm
Compass degree required to reach destination as a bird flies (Crs Rng & Brg): 297° Apparent wind speed (AWS): 17.1 kts
Apparent wind angle: Starboard 94°
