Thursday, July 24, 2014

July 24 Position Report

7/24/14 Wandering Dolphin POS

0700 Hawaiian Standard Time / 1700 GMT
N 37 24.77  W 159 43.90
COG 030T
SOG 4.5 kts
DMG 105 nautical miles
DTG 1833 nautical miles

Wind: E 5
Pressure: 30.10
Temp: 78F
Sky: overcast
Seas: 1 ft
Engine on motoring @ 1800rpm

Good Morning,

It is a foggy and chilly morning out here today.  This is the first day we have woke up to fog.  The dodger windows are all dripping with condensation on the inside and for the first time since we left Oriental, North Carolina headed for the Bahamas, almost eight years ago, it feels nice to go below and feel the WARM cabin!  It seems strange to read the thermometer and see that it says 78 and yet with the fog and all we are chilled and wrapping the polar fleece around us in the cockpit.  By the way I am still in my shorts but after a pretty cold night I think I will break out the polar fleece tonight.

We are in the High.  We were hoping we could sail until 39N but it must have stretched out to 37N.  We cannot motor our whole way across and there is still a little wind blowing today.  Yesterday I noticed one of the big seams in the main was pulling apart.  It had only separated about six inches right in the middle of the sail.  That is a pretty easy fix but if I were to have left it up it would have gone all the way across the sail and that would have been a bigger job than I could do by hand at sea.  The wind was still blowing though and I knew I couldn't fix it and wrestle with the sail on deck at the same time.  With the wind blowing at 5 or so I should be able to fix it today.  If I can get the main fixed and back up we might be able to sail along at 2 or 3 knots and save fuel for when the wind truly dies.

I wonder if I can talk Becky into making cinnamon rolls for breakfast today.  We have been eating very well but this time we left with almost no candy or sweet stuff on board... Not my idea by the way... I am not of the opinion that smokers should quit on a long offshore passage... There is enough stress to deal with out here... You need comfort where you can get it.  I digress.  We would all warm up to cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa.   Ok, that's my pitch, I'm going below to make it.
Hmmm not sure if we're going to get them this morning.

Yesterday we had scrambled eggs for breakfast, Parmesan noodles for lunch and burritos for supper.  The fridge still has some good stuff in it so now that it is getting cooler we will start to have pizza and other yummy stuff.

As I have been writing this the fog has turned to a foggy drizzly rain.  Sure glad we have AIS you could never spot a ship in this stuff.

We were expecting to see a lot of trash from Japan out here but so far we have only seen three of those fishing balls.  I am betting that there will be more as we cross this high.

I have read a lot of books written by people on these long offshore voyages and for the life of me I cannot figure out what it is they write about.  Day in and day out things are pretty much exactly the same as the day before.  The big changes in each day are simply what you eat or maybe the set of the sails.
Hey the wind filled in to around 10 from the ESE just now so I cut off the engine and pulled the jib out and we are sailing again and the rain has stopped too.

Thanks for the messages and if anyone is bored and would like to say hi we would sure like to hear from you.  If you go back to the older blogs at the start of this voyage from Hawaii there is one that tells you how to send messages.

Hope Everyone Has A Great Day!
Captain Tofer, Becky, Emily, Kanyon, Kaleb, and Benny

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