5/23/14 Wandering Dolphin POS
GMT 1200
10 17.76N 114 20.35W
COG 250T
SOG 5-6 kt
NTN 123
DTG 2681
Wind: W 12-15
Current: +1.5
Temp: 89.8 F
Pressure: 29.6
Sky: mostly clear nasty cloud bank to the East (the low?)
Seas: 3-4 ft short interval on the nose, from wind against current these waves have caused us to reef and slow the boat so we don't beat her and ourselves to death.
Sails: all sails set, double reefed main, single reef jib, full stay s'l. Close hauled.
Good Morning!
Wow! We have been moving with no stop and no engine, batteries charging from solar and WIND, for two days now! Our fantastic weather guy directed us into the helpful current and has also put us in a great position to take advantage of the helpful side of the tropical depression that is breathing down our necks. It should pass just to the north of us and we should get helpful, although on the nose, west wind from it. Wandering Dolphin loves going to windward so we can make good time going SW, and as the wind moves to the NW we can move up to west ourselves. The advantages of going a little south right now are: We stay in favorable current with a boost of 1.5 knots and it keeps us on the "safe" side of this tropical depression. The south side of these storms is the side you can easily bail out on by just heading south. The wind actually helps you leave the system whereas in you are caught in the north the winds are much higher and actually pull you into the system. The storms also move to the north due to the Coriolis effect. The actual spin of the earth sets the system spinning and close to the equator there is not as much force to this effect so they cannot get ramped up. So if it looks like it could turn into an actual tropical storm we would sail south and the storm would move north. Remember, we are not blind to all of this thanks to Bob Cook of Ocean Pro Weather and also thanks to our friend Bob Thomas (owner of Sweetest Thing) who generously donated the cost of our weather routing to Hawaii. I get weather info twice every day from Bob Cook and if we needed to change course immediately he would send us a msg to our sat phone.
Yesterday we happily worked the boat. I had to drop the main at one point to add some sail tape to a couple of wear spots, and to replace the nylon webbing on one of the slides. Benny was my helper as I hung on to the mast and sewed in the new webbing. We tied off all of our wet stuff to flap and dry in the sun. WD must have looked like The Beverly Hillbillies Boat sailing along with towels and underwear flapping away on the lifelines. Some fish probably got a big laugh out of it. Speaking of fish... Nothing on the meat lines yet... Hmmmm, wonder why?
Yesterday we celebrated 20 days at sea! Wow! We had rice for breakfast, peanut butter wraps for lunch, and a special supper of homemade YUMMY PIZZA and EmilyAnne made chocolate chip cookies!
Messages: You guys are awesome! There are too many messages from yesterday for me to answer you all so just a few but know that we appreciate every one! Well there were two from one guy trying to bring us down yesterday but we just deleted his and read the rest!
A couple of you asked when we will get to Hawaii: Well, that all depends on this wind. If the wind keeps blowing we should be around the 7th or 8th of June.
Someone asked when we can go grocery shopping again:
Hawaii!
Brian asked about the tropical depression and I hope I answered that in the paragraph above.
Jennifer M: thanks for the messages on the blog, you can also send free messages right to us real time on our sat phone, just look at past blogs to see how. Exciting to hear about your move on to your boat!
Thanks for all the jokes, riddles, trivia, news items and encouragement form all of you. And thanks to Mike for passing on messages from the blog itself.
I'm gonna get this sent out, Rebecca will do a family blog this afternoon!
WE'RE SAILING!
Captain Tofer, Becca, Ems, Kan-man, Kaleb, and Benny
GMT 1200
10 17.76N 114 20.35W
COG 250T
SOG 5-6 kt
NTN 123
DTG 2681
Wind: W 12-15
Current: +1.5
Temp: 89.8 F
Pressure: 29.6
Sky: mostly clear nasty cloud bank to the East (the low?)
Seas: 3-4 ft short interval on the nose, from wind against current these waves have caused us to reef and slow the boat so we don't beat her and ourselves to death.
Sails: all sails set, double reefed main, single reef jib, full stay s'l. Close hauled.
Good Morning!
Wow! We have been moving with no stop and no engine, batteries charging from solar and WIND, for two days now! Our fantastic weather guy directed us into the helpful current and has also put us in a great position to take advantage of the helpful side of the tropical depression that is breathing down our necks. It should pass just to the north of us and we should get helpful, although on the nose, west wind from it. Wandering Dolphin loves going to windward so we can make good time going SW, and as the wind moves to the NW we can move up to west ourselves. The advantages of going a little south right now are: We stay in favorable current with a boost of 1.5 knots and it keeps us on the "safe" side of this tropical depression. The south side of these storms is the side you can easily bail out on by just heading south. The wind actually helps you leave the system whereas in you are caught in the north the winds are much higher and actually pull you into the system. The storms also move to the north due to the Coriolis effect. The actual spin of the earth sets the system spinning and close to the equator there is not as much force to this effect so they cannot get ramped up. So if it looks like it could turn into an actual tropical storm we would sail south and the storm would move north. Remember, we are not blind to all of this thanks to Bob Cook of Ocean Pro Weather and also thanks to our friend Bob Thomas (owner of Sweetest Thing) who generously donated the cost of our weather routing to Hawaii. I get weather info twice every day from Bob Cook and if we needed to change course immediately he would send us a msg to our sat phone.
Yesterday we happily worked the boat. I had to drop the main at one point to add some sail tape to a couple of wear spots, and to replace the nylon webbing on one of the slides. Benny was my helper as I hung on to the mast and sewed in the new webbing. We tied off all of our wet stuff to flap and dry in the sun. WD must have looked like The Beverly Hillbillies Boat sailing along with towels and underwear flapping away on the lifelines. Some fish probably got a big laugh out of it. Speaking of fish... Nothing on the meat lines yet... Hmmmm, wonder why?
Yesterday we celebrated 20 days at sea! Wow! We had rice for breakfast, peanut butter wraps for lunch, and a special supper of homemade YUMMY PIZZA and EmilyAnne made chocolate chip cookies!
Messages: You guys are awesome! There are too many messages from yesterday for me to answer you all so just a few but know that we appreciate every one! Well there were two from one guy trying to bring us down yesterday but we just deleted his and read the rest!
A couple of you asked when we will get to Hawaii: Well, that all depends on this wind. If the wind keeps blowing we should be around the 7th or 8th of June.
Someone asked when we can go grocery shopping again:
Hawaii!
Brian asked about the tropical depression and I hope I answered that in the paragraph above.
Jennifer M: thanks for the messages on the blog, you can also send free messages right to us real time on our sat phone, just look at past blogs to see how. Exciting to hear about your move on to your boat!
Thanks for all the jokes, riddles, trivia, news items and encouragement form all of you. And thanks to Mike for passing on messages from the blog itself.
I'm gonna get this sent out, Rebecca will do a family blog this afternoon!
WE'RE SAILING!
Captain Tofer, Becca, Ems, Kan-man, Kaleb, and Benny
Always fun to read your blog. Keep them coming. Take care
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