Thursday 18th November 2010

Started writing this as sun went down in a blaze of fiery red. Couldn't actually see the sun setting, just the colour reflected in a low cloud layer in the W.... glorious .... and, to complement it, in the East, a silvery, bright moon, in a still-blue sky...

It's been a great sailing day in not much swell. Wind has been from E overnight, swinging to NE before dawn and then back to E by mid-afternoon - so regular adjustments of windsteering vane needed. Wind strength was down last night to 9kt, got up to 16kt mid-morning but has generally been a nice 12-14 kt over day and into this evening. So for most of the day, we've made 6kt or more (under double-reefed mains'l still, to be ready for occasional gusts, but with stays'l and genoa)

I was busy from before dawn to mid-morning, with a short break for some more sleep, trying to deal with AP problem - emails back & forth between 'Nereida' and Raymarine UK.... adjusting settings.... trying system out... getting frequent 'drive stopped' msgs.. which often self-cured but not always - in which case, going into 'standby' and then 'auto' worked fine. Tried out 'track' mode to waypoint ... mostly OK but often not... began to get the impression that problem might be a mechanical fault, since drive usually stopped in exact same position each time... But felt more relaxed since AP was mainly coping fine and conditions have been calm and pleasant... Still working on it!

Checked into 'Manana Net' at 1045 and had quick chat with Randy, KH6RC, and Tom, WA6TLL, while starting late breakfast before more sleep, having put us back with Fred, my windsteering 'partner', to ensure no beeping alarms would wake me up... ... Tired!

Woke up refreshed .... and then enjoyed some time on deck. Quick check-in to US MMNet before starting my daily session on 14305 kHz at 3.30pm (PST). Had an enjoyable chat with Steve, and later Meredith, having a gentle sail south down the Baja towards Bahia Santa Maria on 'Silas Crosby'. They come up regularly and are good radio company! Also chatted to George, WA6RIK, and several others who came on frequency, among them several newcomers who were looking for signal checks. All very pleasant... lasted until 4.10pm!

Was looking forward to enjoying a big mug of tea which I'd made ready for my 'sunset watch' - came down to start drinking it - a (rare) big wave had passed by & knocked the mug over on the gimballed stove top - no tea left ...all spilled... grrr!! I'm needing to drink lots of water now - air temp is up to 27C in the middle of the day and sea temp has reached 29C.... and expected to go slightly higher.

We're about 1500-1600 due W of the Gulf of Tehuantepec - which is about to get one of its notorious 50-60kt gales come by over next day or so..... Not a time to be crossing its shallow waters!!

Being a 'la Nina' year, the ITCZ, which we're heading to, isn't as bad as usual. It's around 10N, so hopefully we should be through by Sunday ... Of course, then there's the S. Pacific Convergence Zone - I found that to be the worst one, with enormous clouds and big squalls, when I was coming north this year in June/July.... Will have to keep fingers crossed this time...!

24hr DMG to Thursday morning: 120 ml .... I'm hoping today's distance will be better, with so much of day at around 6 kt. or more.

Remember to check my 'Travels' page to see my track on a map... each red 'blob' shows my daily position at noon UTC (local 4am!).

Wednesday 17th November 2010

Reply from Raymarine was waiting for me early this morning - how to test motor using wires in to course computer.... We were happily sailing along just then under windsteering, so no immediate rush to do that. I took my time looking at a slight change of course towards ITCZ (trying to avoid active areas) when I must have inadvertently keyed an 'Auto' response - and heard the AP starting up!! Great sound...! Went on deck to try it out, and it seemed to be working - maybe differently but, I thought, OK. Sent email with news, asking if anything I should do to test it - got immediate reply from my Raymarine contact with lots of suggestions and a few more questions ...

Got out manuals to sort out my answers and actions needed (re-setting of some calibration items was suggested so I needed to remind myself how to do that).... Finally made changes, taking opportunity to re-calibrate log - it has been way under-reading since just after leaving Victoria - must have caught some gunge or maybe has growth on it, so I used SOG to set boat speed - don't think there's much current around just now. Also sat on deck with some thin spectra line & tied down the shackle on the stays'l foot to the furling gear.... I'd put two extra shackles there when I'd found the foot of the stays'l flying loose on tacking a couple of times, soon after leaving Victoria , but the genoa sheet often caught on them, getting tangled, so I'd been meaning to change things there for a time.

I stayed with wind steering to conserve battery power and eventually got to have breakfast at 1.30pm, thinking things were going pretty well, with wind having slowly increased to near 10 knots and 'Nereida' making a fair speed ..... I'd had to tie in 1st reef by then, with gusty wind making us round up under full canvas, but unfurled the stays'l to compensate - we were on a beam reach in E wind.

Then, this afternoon, I had an absolute nightmare, after chatting on usual radio 'sked' and feeling wind getting up as I finished. A BIG mass of grey, threatening cloud was off to port and giving strong wind... I put on the autopilot to head us away, with wind steering getting overpowered, thinking all now fine - but the boat started behaving crazily - violently swerving first one way & then t'other... Unbelievable...! It kept heading us up, directly for the cloud I was trying to avoid, so I kept having to take the wheel to head us off the wind...... Needed to tie in 2nd reef ... which I finally managed .... Handsteered for quite a bit then we were able to get back onto wind steering with cloud left astern and wind down a touch....

Went down below, feeling pretty low & thinking I might have to abandon RTW effort if AP so useless since I needed to be able to rely on it in times of crisis.... I went to put back the system's course computer I'd got out yesterday in order to look at wiring connections to motor. In replacing it, I noticed big sign on cover saying to mount it vertically ..... It then occurred to me - it has a gyro inside!..... no wonder it went mad!.... it was on its back instead of upright - so couldn't get directions sorted sensibly ... It'd had a major headache!! I was so relieved..... I was sure that was the problem ..... Came up & tested out when wind had calmed down a touch .... AP worked beautifully......! Better than before, in fact, with its new settings.... I felt so much better - but exhausted. Had some food and lots of water.... and got to sleep early... emails could wait...!

The cloud cover was light but about 90% for most of the day, but after that incident, late in the day, there was a gap ahead of clear sky between the big grey clouds. .. and the sky was totally clear overhead, come nightfall.

24hr DMG this morning was 97 n.ml - not very good, due to light, fickle winds earlier yesterday. We're about 1200 miles due W of coast where 'Nereida I' now lies buried in sand near Tenexpa, midway between Acapulco & Zihuatanejo in Mexico.... painful memories.

Monday 15th November

3 weeks into passage... And just as slow as very soon after I started - almost NO Wind ... at 4am this morning, 3-5 knots of wind from N-ENE, boatspeed around 1-2 knots!

9.30am Wind still only 4 knots, anywhere from roughly N to NE and so that makes it very difficult to keep the boat pointing in the right direction on a broad reach, trying to head S-SSE when only making speed of 1.0 knot!...

Solar input is up to 8-11A with the sun trying to get out from a rather overcast sky - that's good!

Just finished checking in to and listening to the 'chit-chat' on several Nets... Interesting how so many people in the USA and Canada, many on land, not just cruisers on boats, keep in contact daily by taking part in radio Nets, or simply use Ham radio to keep in regular contact with each other. I think it has to be due to the big distances so often separating people in the two countries - it's so much more popular than in Europe, where distances are so much less. Being at sea, a good distance from land, it gives me a chance to 'meet' new people, discuss problems and chat 'live' in a relaxed way, without it costing an arm and a leg, as satphone calls would do....

About to see if I can find out what the problem is with my ship's VHF radio - confirmed yesterday as not transmitting. (That's after I've finished downloading
some weatherfaxes). Means getting (with difficulty!) to behind the instrument panel yet again..... grrr! At least it's fairly calm at present. Maybe I'll be able to see why my SSB radio has lost its GPS input while I'm back there..... and have another go at fixing the lost connection between the same VHF radio and the AIS unit... I'm always amused when people are surprised at me saying I normally don't have time to read many novels while underway... there's invariably something to fix! (And getting&studying weather info, replying to emails and writing up my daily log also takes a lot of time - not to mention the small matter of keeping the boat sailing on course as efficiently as I can, in the varying wind conditions!)

Evening: Good news! The VHF radio connections are back together again, hopefully correctly! It took me ages searching through lots of folders in the aft cabin for the manual (which eventually turned out to have been neatly stowed beside the chart table in a sensible place I'd forgotten about), only to find it of not much help. My problem was that there were two possible pairs of connectors in the VHF control unit which could take the pair of red/black bare-ended wires I'd found immediately on opening up behind the instrument panel at the chart table. But on the basis of elimination, and knowing that if I did get things badly wrong, I had a spare handset, I made my choice.

Problem then was not knowing how to fix the two wires firmly in place.... I had no idea how to do it, never having played with these particular radio connections before...but fortunately, with access being so difficult, I decided to remove the connector block to get a good look at it - lo and behold, the wires were held in place by metal pieces tightened by tiny screws I'd not been able to see before - I had thought the wires were somehow gripped in the small holders by springy metal - this was much simpler! So that was finally dealt with and the wires tidied up.

"In for a penny, in for a pound" ... I delved deeper and removed the Pactor modem and HF/SSB radio front to see if I could restore the missing GPS input to the radio - another loose connection dealt with ... YES - success! Lat/long/UTC - all displayed again... I felt I deserved the dark chocolate I rewarded myself with later, after my meal!!

As I was writing this, it was all action - I had to go on deck to adjust the sails, which were flapping - the wind had veered a lot so it was now for'd of the beam and had strengthened nicely... .... Genoa off pole, sheeted in hard to leeward and mains'l also sheeted in hard! We were doing well for a bit - before the wind died and backed yet again... It's varied so much over today.

The only other thing of note was the lengthy radio session I had with contacts on 14305 at 2330 UTC. I had enjoyable chats with Canadian cruisers on 'Silas
Crosby' and 'Kasala' from their separate anchorages on the Baja and then several other people from all over the USA (from Florida to Washington to a mountain top near San Diego) came on to frequency to chat briefly also. Later, after I'd checked in wih the Pacific Seafarers Net as usual, Tom, WA6TLL, 'patched me in' - to make a phone call to a friend over the radio, using his landline - a 'first' for me!! It worked quite well, although both they and I were fading in and out at times.

Now 960 n.ml. due W of Cabo Corrientes, which is just S of Puerto Vallarta on the Mexican mainland. Made just 71 n.ml. over the 24hrs yesterday to this morning.... and we're now 57 miles from this morning's position. At our present speed of 1.3 knots for the next four and a half hours, that should give us the grand total of 63 n.ml. .....! (The wind just increased again - to 9-10 knots, so we were making 5 knots at one point - wow! But it didn't last long....!)

Sunday 14th November

Relaxing in sunshine today, coasting along in gentle swell, making 4.5kt occasionally, mostly 3.2-3.8 kt... in 7-8 kt of wind. Plenty of solar power getting in to the batteries....

Checked in to the Baja Net and was pleased to make several contacts.

Played music... and sang along to the Gypsy Kings' "El Mariachi Desperado" & the ballads of Juan Luis Cobo (from Zihuatanejo) - both highly appropriate when passing the coast of Mexico, as I am! Also Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Buffet, Pink Martini, Josh Groban, ... and other favourites. (It's good having my iPod connected to the radio speakers. I have two iPods - one for light music and one for classical.) I sat in the cockpit barefoot, feeling thoroughly lazy, with a mug of fresh coffee... It felt like a proper Sunday! One of the songs that came up was "You've Got to Have a Dream" (from 'S. Pacific')... absolutely!

Had to pole out the genoa overnight with the wind backing more into the north and we're virtually dead downwind now, but Fred, the Hydrovane, is coping fine... 7-8 kt of wind, SOG 3.2-3.8 kt, occasionally 4.3 kt! At this rate, the ITCZ is well over a week away... our daily runs are unlikely even to get up to 100 ml a day at this speed. I'm often needing to adjust our course with the wind continually swinging about.

Finally got out the electric drill & did a couple of small but important jobs I'd been wanting to do, ready for rough/bad weather coming up again in the weeks ahead - I put up another hook in the head, ready to take wet jackets etc. And I added a fixture to hold the top of my chart table seat leecloth in place - ready for being heeled well over to port in rougher weather. (Another 'fix' that hadn't been made strongly enough - as it turned out on this trip.) The canvas has been forever slipping down, so becoming useless to hold me in place.

At 2pm, I suddenly noticed a ship clearly visible on the horizon well astern of us - no collision danger, so no AIS alarm had gone off. I called the 'NYK Laura' several times on my VHF - no answer, so I used my handheld to call - I was answered... I asked if they'd mind me doing a radio check on the VHF - we tried Ch 06 which we'd just switched to and also Ch 16. Each time they heard me on the handheld but not on the ship's main VHF radio - as I'd suspected from my encounter with the tug and fuel barge the other night. So that's another item to add to the ongoing joblist.... A good thing the handheld is convenient, in its holder and always charged.

Wind has died right down this evening and keeps varying in direction - to just 5-6 knots, anywhere from NNE - ENE, boatspeed down to 2.2 knots regularly...

We're 920 n.ml. W of Islas Marias, off the Mexican coast - the largest of the islands has a prison and the warning is not to get too close on passing by on the coastal route south... and to ignore anyone seen swimming in the waters thereabouts...!!

24hr run to this morning's (noon UTC) position: 127 n.ml. ... tomorrow's will be a lot less!

Saturday 13th November

Another day in sailing Paradise!! ....Such a beautiful day!... Wind slowly dying down from the 20 knots or so we had around tea-time yesterday afternoon to 15 knots overnight and to just 11-12 knots by lunchtime today, mostly NE - the NE Trades (except we're now on the edge of them). With full canvas, including stays'l, we were making around 5-6 knots but by soon after sunset, only 4-5 knots, with wind backed a bit & down to 10-11 kt. Stays'l furled away since on more of a broad reach. No more surfing at the 7-8 knots of earlier and yesterday - the seas have also lain down. In fact, everything is becoming very smooth and very calm.

I went to pull in the mainsheet this afternoon and somehow the line over-rode on the winch....& not just a little bit - this was major! I'd had my eyes on the sail, to see how far I was sheeting it in and didn't notice that anything was wrong until I'd finished.... so the winch had about about eight turns tightly tangled up over each other around the drum.... The only way I could undo the tangle, since the line from winch to jammer was bar taut, was to use another line (I soon discovered it had to be a much finer one) to tie a rolling hitch near the jammer onto the mainsheet and then use another winch to take the load on that line to release the load on the tangled mess, giving myself a bit more mainsheet in the process, to help sort things out. Amazing how such a simple knot can be so important to know about - I'd never have got the line untangled any other way, short of cutting.

I found two tiny squid on deck this morning. I'd found another, a couple of days ago, but so far no flying fish... LATER: Just found two more squid which had been overlooked - calamari rings tonight, for sure!

Because I was up anyway from before sunrise this morning, I did the rounds of the several morning radio Nets I'd been told about.... all of them, just to see what they were about! The Chubasco Net was the busiest - but not with many boaters - mainly land-based people who clearly did this regularly. (All Nets tend to have a 'core' of users who know each other well.) But it did put me in contact with another boater from B.C., whom I'd been told to keep an ear out for, as being down somewhere in the Baja (Mexico). Steve, John and Meredith, on the 'Silas Crosby', are slowly heading S, to spend the southern winter in Chile. We might manage to stay in contact for a bit, but possibly not for long, with distance between us increasing rapidly. Interestingly, I also made contact with Bill, VE7WSM, on 40m, despite our distance apart, for which 20m would be expected to work best - but time of day also makes a big difference.

We're now 725 ml W of the southern tip of the Baja and Cabo San Lucas, at 23N, 123W. The moon is bright, in between a few clouds, and we're coasting gently along - no prizes for speed or 24 hr distance today, but it's very relaxed and pleasant! (We had a good 24hr run yesterday - 146 n.ml, close to the 147 n.ml. of the day before.) I thought about poling out the genoa again, but the wind angle is just not quite right. So long as we're roughly headed S, that's fine. Don Anderson was on the Southbound Net tonight, as usual, and made the comment that, being a 'La Nina' year, the ITCZ isn't something to worry about - that's good news!

I'm off to fry my calamari rings as a starter.....

Friday 12th November 2010

Another lovely day's sailing in settled weather - the kind of sailing everyone dreams about! Good wind, sunshine, small, fluffy, lined-up,'Trade wind' clouds - turning pinky-grey against a vivid blue sky as the sun began to set. Surfing downwind again, as occasional bigger swell came along - but not quite so much as yesterday since swell size down somewhat.

Under poled-out genoa for most of day until genoa was taken off pole and brought over to starboard just before sunset - the wind had veered enough to bring us closer to a beam reach so the genoa was being backed occasionally. I left the pole in place, ready for expected use again over the next few days - we're likely to be on port tack for quite a time.

I spent quite a time both over the day and this evening, simply standing in the companionway, gazing around, relaxing and enjoying the view - it felt so very good - sailing in the sunshine of daytime or under the stars and moonshine (nearly half moon tonight) of this evening.

This afternoon, I checked in as usual around 3pm PST with the US Maritime Mobile Net on 14.300 MHz. The Net Control couldn't copy me too well, so Art, K7WAH, acted as relay, as he often has. The other station who has relayed several times is Rex, KC5AGO. The Net is open 24 hrs a day and can be contacted at any time - there's always someone listening out, willing to help in an emergency, on either the Atlantic or Pacific side. At 3.30pm PST, I went to 14.305 MHz for a 'Nereida' Net - suggested by Dave, KF7HDA, of the Great Northern Boaters Net, so that I could chat to anyone who wanted to contact me. In fact, several people came on frequency and the discussion ended up being centred on radio noise. I'd hoped to have resolved all my RF noise problems with major radio re-wiring and use of ferrites, and with a noise suppressor put in place beside the autopilot hydraulic pump motor, while in Port Townsend over September/October - but not so.

George, WA6RIK, (who is very involved with the Pacific Seafarers Net) arranged for Gordon West, WV6NOA, to come on frequency to discuss a similar problem on another boat he'd been asked to help with (Gordon is a well-known Ham radio specialist). The conclusion seemed to be that the Raymarine course computer, which is connected to all the instruments and controls the autopilot, was the source of the problem. It seems frequently (i.e. on lots of boats!) to be giving out RF noise which normal methods of dealing with fail to overcome - a problem with the central processor and its associated circuitry, it seems. Modern electronics are so complicated these days that resolving problems like this is no longer so straightforward and it needs the manufacturer to sort the problem out at source with the design of their electronics. I'll be asking for their comments and advice, since for the noise to be generated specifically at 14.300 MHz, which is a safety/emergency frequency, is most unfortunate, to say the least!

Propagation was again good later in the evening for my check-in at 0330 UTC (1930 PST) with the Pacific Seafarers Net, again on 14.300 MHz - with windsteering in use and instruments turned off, I had no problem at all talking to people in New Zealand and in Australia, as well as in the USA.

We're at 25N, 123W - just over 600 mls W of Bahia Magdalena in the Baja peninsula of Mexico - a place to where whales migrate to calve each year and from where I had a spectacular dawn exit after a night at anchor early in 2005 - being surrounded by whales in all directions - an amazing sight and one of those special memories!

Thursday 12th November 2010

I'm heading more to S - if gribs & weatherfaxes are to be believed, I'll lose wind if I get too much further E over next few days. Might be best to be well W of 120W, so course changed to S or just E of S.

I've been looking at grib weather files for down to Cape Horn from here - looks as though it's a good idea anyway to stay around 120W most of way down, to set up for the High down in S. Pacific - with a few twiddles as winds dictate.

Finally unjammed the jaw opening of the pole - required a mix of fresh water treatment and careful but firm banging with a heavy spanner on the spring-operated metal 'pin' closure of jaw opening which takes genoa sheet. Oil hadn't helped, so sea-salt crystals were obviously the problem. Finally got the genoa poled out upwind successfully by sunset... Always feels so much better and stable running downwind like that - and speed definitely increases.

Seas quite big and steep now - so surfing lots - over 7-8 knots! Although we're swinging about as waves catch hold of us, it's not too bad ... and nice to see the speed!

Downloaded photo from Honolulu transmitter (KVM) showing cloud cover from 55N down to ITCZ (9-10N) and beyond. (ITCZ, the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, is also known as the 'Doldrums' for the frequent lack of wind for days on end). ITCZ looks active and wide around 135W-125W, then narrow in one section S of here, ~120W, then active and wide again around 110W - pity it doesn't stay still for long enough to help a lot with planning ahead! I just hope I can avoid the worst of the ITCZ bad weather - we'll see when I'm nearer! At the rate of 2 degrees of latitude a day (120 n.ml.), it'll take me just over a week to reach the iTCZ - I hope it's not too bad! This time last year, heading S down the Atlantic, it was really horrible S of the Cape Verde Islands - lightning clouds everywhere and lightning hitting the sea close by "Nereida"... very uncomfortable feelings! No wind, then violent gusts... nasty!

Batteries have done OK today and tonight ... with plenty of sun and wind, no problem during the day, and not too bad tonight, since on windsteering, which has been coping fine, despite the big swell, and have had good wind, so windgenerator has been putting in electrons well, until wind died a touch (down to 15-16 kt now) from 19 kt earlier. Having to keep a really careful watch on volts display all the time....

Beautiful night - some cloud but stars galore, downwind with poled-out genoa and pleasant temp - 19C air and 20C sea now - getting warmer slowly!

"Nereida" at 1200 UTC: 27N, 123W. 475 ml W of Pta San Roque, Baja California, Mexico. We made 147 n.ml. DMG over the 24hrs... better!

(See charts showing daily positions/tracks during passage using links on 'Travels' page on website)

Wednesday 10th November

It was nice to see the clouds 'lined up' along the wind direction yesterday - showing how consistently the wind was blowing -from mainly the N. Basically, we're skirting a High pressure area (the N. Pacific High) so should keep the winds astern. Effectively, we're in the NE Trades although they've yet to swing slightly more to the E than they are at present.

The cloudy weather of yesterday continued overnight, but with bigger grey clouds today, giving somewhat varying wind - in both direction and strength. We were happily under windsteering for a long time - until a 20kn gust came through - a raincloud nearby... followed by some rain, but not much. Onto autopilot, while things are sorted out, after having headed up - maybe a reef in the mains'l would be good...! We were clearly over-canvassed for the conditions....

The trouble with running downwind is that the apparent wind is so reduced, it's tempting to go with that. I always remember an instructor making the comment that the reefing should be not much different from on the wind - "What if you head up suddenly, for some reason?" he asked. I've had to gybe several times, with the changes in wind direction .... a good reason, to my mind, not to have the genoa poled out.... I've been using the stays'l from time to time again, to spill the wind onto the genoa instead. Safe and simple! As I write this, the wind is up to 20 knots yet again, from 12-14kt, and now more just E of N, from NNW. It's proving difficult to make our preferred course of 150-155T with these clouds around making the wind vary so often.

Yesterday, I decided to download a weather fax 'live' (as it was being transmitted) directly to the PC, rather than ask for it by email (they're really big files). But I found the fax 'window' just wasn't behaving.... After lots of effort, searching the computer everywhere, and also getting nowhere with putting in the frequencies manually, I decided the problem had to be a missing item - the 'GetFax ' module was nowhere to be seen among the PC folders. It used to be there - but not now.... I searched among my CDs & USB memory sticks and eventually found a copy - TG! After some copying and pasting, I finally had the fax side of things working - but what a long time it all took!

My next hiccup occurred in the dark hours of this morning when I went to post the noon UTC position report, shortly after writing it around 4.15 am local time (PST). The Pactor modem, which enables me to send emails from my laptop to the SSB radio for transmitting to a shore station on the Internet, was refusing to power up. In my efforts to conserve battery power, I'd thought of turning off the radio completely, instead of leaving it on standby as usual. I'd felt for the switch in the dark several times - and clearly must have eventually disturbed the wires from the radio to the modem. I was pretty sure I knew what was wrong - one particular connection has often come loose if disturbed - but getting to it, behind the instrument panel at the chart table, is another matter - not easy, ... very convoluted, in fact. By 6.30am, I'd just finished putting things back together at the chart table instrument panel, having spent that amount of time getting to the offending rear connection and sorting out the problem - with feelings of hopelessness for a time that it didn't seem to be happening and I'd come to a dead end... grrr!! Without the modem working, no emailing or downloading of weatherfaxes to the computer by radio is possible.

On a happier note - I cooked a delicious steak and onions, with fried potatoes and green beans, last evening - fabulous! I was enjoying it as I checked in to the Pacific Seafarers Net - amazingly, yet again, propagation was fine & I heard almost everyone clearly, as they did me. (Aussie Paul, VK2HMV, came up with a method of disposing of unwelcome rats and mice: get them to drink Coke, which they love, and they'll 'explode' from the gas inside them because they can't burp - yuck!!) I'm looking forward to another good meal tonight - it becomes an important item in the day - especially when breakfast has been delayed to midday!!

We're now at 30N, 124W .... 420 miles due W of San Quintin, in Baja California, Mexico. And we made 136 miles in the 24hrs to this morning - not as much as I'd hoped, but not too bad, considering winds of just 10-14 knots!

Tuesday 9th November

A relaxed, pleasant day with a fair amount of cloud, but no rain, wind mainly from the north and consistently 12-15 kt. Quite a lot of radio chat .... highly sociable!

By this evening, we were 425 ml west of Ensenada, Mexico - I had guacamole to celebrate!! Ensenada is not far south of San Diego and I have pleasant memories of my first check-in to Mexico there in 2005. The Port Captain's people had kept me waiting over someone's lunch-time ('momentido' became over two hours...) on the Friday, to make a credit card payment - and then tried to tell me I'd now need to pay 'overtime' fees since it was gone 2 pm. No way...!! So I stayed for the weekend to complete my paperwork early on the Monday, only to discover that all of Ensenada was 'En Carnaval' - Shrove Tuesday was coming up and the entire population celebrated with dancing and music, with several live bands competing down the main street and in the main square until 4am each night, a fair, lots of food and other stalls, entire families, from babies to grandparents, enjoying the night's entertainment - all in total, friendly security, as I made my way back on sore feet, from so much dancing, to 'Nereida' in the early hours of each morning.

I discovered Mexican bands with their blaring brass and flamboyant costumes - I thought they must be deliberately playing slightly off-key as a joke - but then realized this was their norm!! I well remember dancing the 'pasa doble' in the jam-packed Plaza de la Republica' two nights running! And the processions with lots of floats in the daytime - with the Carnival Queen, ... King, ... and several princes & princesses...! All great fun!

My radio chats today started first thing with the Gt Northern Boaters Net on 3870 soon after 8am .... We're still just making contact, although it's getting more difficult. Went to 14340 kHz at 9am to discuss my battery problem with Bill, VE7WSM in Port Alberni, B.C.. For the second night running, I'd had a major power problem with my batteries showing a voltage way down on what was good for them. I'd been forced to start the main engine to charge them for a short time initially, in order to get the generator to start, the voltage being so low. That kills batteries - so quite a worry!

We decided that the main culprit was running the fridge overnight - the draw is 7A when it's running, so with no power going in from solar overnight or from wind (from sailing downwind), that was pulling the batteries way down . Running the radio for emailing and weather also didn't help - I'm going to have to watch really carefully at night - maybe run the genset for a short while with fridge on & while sending/receiving emails via radio, and then turn fridge off afterwards & overnight if windgen not running. It's called 'battery management'!

At 3.30pm PST, I checked in with Art, K7WAH, Net Control for the US Maritime Mobile Net (in case I couldn't contact the PacSeaNet later) - excellent copy. More discussion about batteries with Bill ... and then I was called by Mike, KE6SAM, of S/Y 'Tortue', in the Sea of Cortez near La Paz - more chatting! We thought it likely that we'd met in 2005 when I was also in the La Paz marina - a nice Mexican town.

I furled in the stays'l to prepare the pole for poling out the genoa (speed promptly went down 0.5-1 knot)... but I couldn't open the jaw at the pole end which takes the lines - so couldn't get it off its holder on deck. I've poured a kind of oil over the part and I'll have to try again tomorrow. If I still can't move it, I'll have to use the telescopic aluminium pole I have - it's much heavier but still works fine. Just much more awkward to manoeuvre than the lightweight carbon pole.

When time came (at 0315UTC) for me to try checking in with the Pacific Seafarers Net, there was no problem - Cirrus, ZL2CVJ, was clear as bell and told me I was to him also... so maybe propagation on that band is getting better at last. Possibly my being further south is a help also.

I'll write my email replies ready for sending now and then get to sleep - being up from 4am in the morning means I have to make up sleep later on. I usually download weather info and look it over at that time also .... radio propagation is usually good then so it's a good time also to connect to send/receive emails.

I was pleased to see the 130 ml 24hr run we made up to noon UTC (4am local time this morning!) - I'm hoping for even better today, with the good speed we've been making - all partly depends on how straight a course we've made. And I just love the way I keep seeing our speed shoot up to over 7 knots, as we surf gently in the following swell...

Monday 8th November

Drama during last night! The AIS woke me up with its alarm going just before 4am..... 'El Lobo Grande', a ship 'with tow', was displayed a few miles away.... crossing our path towards the coast (L.A.), with less than half a mile CPA (closest point of approach) ...Even with us under sail in normal circumstances, I call that 'collision' distance', since they might keep a straight course but we almost certainly do not, especially under windsteering, since the wind is always varying more or less & so our course always changes somewhat in direction.

I called him on the VHF radio - correction - I tried to call him on the VHF - didn't seem to be working. Grabbed the handheld over on the far side of the cabin - called 'El Lobo Grande'. He wanted to pass ahead - was towing a big fuel barge on a long tow...!!! The half mile distance of his CPA did NOT take account of his tow!! "No," I replied, "Please turn to pass astern of me. I'm under sail & have no engine available .." He finally agreed & turned to port, after complaining he couldn't see me visually, I only showed up on AIS when 3.5 mls away & he saw no radar signal (In fact, I've been told by others my radar visibility is good, but often ships' radar sets aren't tuned properly... & maybe, if he was a typical tug, his antenna was fairly low down compared with big ships so his 'line of sight' was reduced).

I turned on our deck light and steaming light to light up the sails - we became highly visible! I put us on automatic pilot to ensure we maintained a straight course to help his manoeuvring. To complicate matters, I found the wind had veered so we really needed to gybe.... Fortunately, with the stays'l set to windward previously, it was now helping by staying filled and the main was well out and on a preventer, so we kept up a fair speed. As soon as he had passed us, I centred the main, gybed the genoa so it was downwind and finally gybed the mains'l and placed the stays'l over to starboard where it was again upwind- it was doing a good job.

Problem then was that I noticed our batteries were now way down with the AP use - far too low... Tried to start the generator - voltage too low. Switched in the start motor battery - still no good. Hurriedly, checked main engine was in neutral and started it up to charge the batteries - it kicked in (relief!). I revved up and brought the battery volts up enough for the generator to start, so I was able to shut down the main engine after a bit & leave the generator running unil the batteries were well-charged - well over an hour. I put us on to windsteering as soon as I noticed he battery problem ....

Clearly we must have been low on power before the incident started, so using the AP was the last straw. My concern now is that the main batteries are damaged and no longer seem to be holding charge well. I'd just written the new position report, at noon UTC (4am PST, local time), before writing up this report, and noticed again that the batteries' voltage had dropped way down - too low again for the genset to be able to start, so had to charge them using the main engine for a short time again.... a worry. I normally keep a constant eye on our power situation, but clearly need to be even more vigilant. There's no problem when the solar panels or wind generator are charging, but overnight with little wind & no sun, that seems to be when the problem arises... even though we're using very little power and we're under windsteering.

Other news..... We've made a fair 24hr distance over the last two days to noon UTC - 133 miles and 130 mls - much better & nearer to what I'm used to expecting. Our speed is around 6 kt now, a lot of the time, so that's far better, with the wind very slowly veering from NNW to NNE now - becoming the NE Trades, in fact... mostly nice and consistent at around 16-18 kt, although dropping tonight to around 14 kt. All very pleasant downwind sailing, rocking and rolling quite a bit at times, but fairly smoot. Plenty of sunshine, although the air temperature is not yet very high, at only 16-17C so I'm still in fleeces - but out of foul weather gear....! In fact, the sea temperature has just got up to a touch higher than air temperature - at 18C!

During the day, thinking it was surely not really helping, I'd tried furling in the (upwind) staysail - our speed dropped... I unfurled it upwind again ... speed picked up.. I was surprised but pleased! It's earning its keep, spilling the wind into the (downwind) genoa but since we're likely to be on this downwind tack now for quite a time, I'll put out the pole during the day tomorrow to hold the genoa firmly in place upwind and see what difference that makes to our speed, if any, so we'll be properly 'goose-winged' - or 'wing-on-wing' as the Americans say.... Always feels good and secure like that, when going dead downwind.

We passed Los Angeles yesterday and are now passing San Diego. As I write this, we're 436 n.mls due W of the San Diego Y.C. Visitor Dock - a familiar place from several visits there!! Greetings from "Nereida" to my friends in San Diego (- and at the Arizona Y.C. in Phoenix)!

Sunday 7th November 2010

"Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day ....."!!

Gentle, if rolly, downwind sailing... blue skies... NO RAIN... good speed... good course.... It was a lovely day today - the BEST!

I put boots, shoes, gloves, jacket and salopettes into the cockpit to dry out - which they did!

I'd got worried last night when I went to cook my evening meal - turned on the hob burner - nada! Surely the tank hasn't run out already? Then I spotted the light was out on the solenoid switch. If the solenoid valve stops working, there's no gas flow possible - maybe that was the problem? (I have a spare on board) But then I remembered there's a circuit-breaker at the chart table - sure enough, for whatever reason, it was tripped. So once re-set, we were back into cooking - a relief! I've had to play around changing (or dispensing with) gas solenoid valves before now - no problem at anchor or in a marina, but no fun in a big swell at sea, especially perched in the open stern of the boat....

After a good meal , and enjoying a lovely sunset , I was ready for sleep, but was up soon after midnight with the wind having veered and dropped suddenly from SW 20 knots to just 12 knots from the WNW - pressure was up from the 1015 hPa of early evening to 1019 hPa - good news in a way, since it meant high pressure was building to the West of us, hopefully giving nice settled conditions for quite a few days to come. The wind has slowly backed more over the day - to NW and on to NNW, now tending more to N. So I unfurled the genoa fully and finally, around noon, and by now running well downwind, I unfurled the stays'l to windward. It spills the air nicely from the mains'l into the genoa and keeps it filled - a bonus of having a cutter rig, since it often avoids having to pole out the genoa and is so quick and easy to do. Our speed increased immediately, showing how effective the ploy is. I was expecting the wind to veer N sooner than it seems to be doing - and that would mean gybing in order to maintain our preferred course of around 150-155T.... one reason I was a bit loathe to pole out too soon! Gybing gets complicated and time-consuming, once poled out!

The wind has been good, at 16-21 knots all day, giving a good speed (often over 6 kt), despite the quite big quartering seas - 3-4 m from WSW-W most of the day, although by evening, down a bit, as was the wind (to 12 knots).

Solar panels were seen for some time to be giving consistenly 13-14A, peaking at 18A at noon - that's excellent, considering the low angle of the sun's rays due to the time of year! They made up for the often low wind-power input due to sailing downwind, with a reduced apparent wind as a consequence.

I also ran the motor to circulate the oil and check it was OK (!). I'd hoped 10 minutes would be long enough, but wanted the cylinder block to warm up before I switched off - and that took 15 minutes minimum- so I revved up in neutral to charge the batteries a bit, thinking that since I was using some fuel anyway, I might as well check out my emergency charging while at it! Despite the gear cables being wired to prevent forward propulsion, all worked well in neutral - good news!

Another lovely sunset to end what for me was the best day of the passage so far - I have felt very relaxed and positive .... and I'm looking forward to quite a few more days like this one. Oh - I nearly forgot - I celebrated the day with a fresh grapefruit and by cooking a large but tasty Chinook (salmon) steak, eaten with buttery potatoes and petits pois .. mmm!! Thanks again, Mike and Kathy! That's tomorrow's meal sorted, as well!

Saturday 6th November

The wind stayed W during the night and over today, but slowly continued to back... from NNW to the present SW, our course changing accordingly from due S to SE - from a beam reach to being as close-hauled as reasonable speed will allow - presently (3pm PDT), around 5 knots. We're well-heeled over, although I did reduce the genoa in an attempt to stop the excessive heeling of earlier. The stays'l is useful in these conditions and we've two reefs in the centred mains'l. wind strength is around 20knots now but got quite light overnight so our speed suffered, being on a run at that time.

At 5am PDT, I was up, as usual, making my noon UTC position and weather report .... What a beautiful night!! Such a clear sky, the stars were amazing.... and the cockpit was DRY, so once I'd trimmed the sails for beam reaching, I was able to pause and really enjoy the moment.... A short while later, seeing our speed down at 3.5 kt, I unfurled the stays'l and more genoa... our speed went up to 5.2 kt and, being still dark, I decided not to risk Providence by letting out another reef in the mains'l - and went back to my bunk for some more sleep before dawn instead....

Up at 8.20am, not so long after dawn, for the Gt Northern Boaters Net on 3870 kHz.... but the wind had backed further & the sails needed attention before I could try to contact them, which I only just managed to do - distance away is getting too much for the frequency now ...The sky was clouding over, to become totally overcast again during the day ... Friends in San Francisco that I'm now passing told me they'd had sun for the last week - but now thick fog... Clearly my timing is bad!

I'm typing this as I lie in my bunk with the boat regularly crashing into the waves (2m or more), still well-heeled over, and with seas washing the deck quite often ... but I did tidy up the odd fallen item just before, so we're fairly shipshape at present. Shortly, I'll cook some food - unless I start to do that during daylight hours, it tends not to happen - at least not when we're in rough conditions.

Clocks go back in US & Canada tonight - they changed last weekend in the UK. I'm keeping to Pacific Time (PST now, not PDT) since that's the time kept by people on the occasional radio Net I check in to for a chat. Confusingly, BST stands for British Summer Time, one hour ahead of UTC, whereas PST stands for Pacific Standard Time.. with their summer daylight-saving time being referred to as PDT - Pacific Daylight Time!

Best distance so far this trip in a 24hr period yesterday - a mere 116 n. ml !! Nothing like the 120-150 ml or more I'm used to seeing... Should improve once I get to the NE Trades.

Friday 5th November Cold, grey, fine drizzle - everything seems to be wet!

I'm so WET!! The air is so damp that nothing is getting dry with the fine misty rain that has been around for several days now. Thoroughly damp jackets, trousers, socks, shoes and boots.... Thank goodness for the vinyl coverings at the chart table - and for towels and plastic sheets to protect anything I'm touching. I need some warm sunshine!!

Wasn't expecting wind to strengthen and back today as it did... Wasn't surprised by the light variable winds we suddenly got around midday, that sent us round in circles at 0-1 knot and had me shaking out the reefs in the mains'l and unfurling the genoa... But I was surprised by the sudden backing and increase from 10 knots ENE to 23knots from NNW that had me up on deck around 4:30pm to reef down again and gybe around in order to keep heading S. Waves are getting quite big again and frequently crashing into us with a loud noise! So it's a bit difficult moving around - and my warm bunk has become even more inviting! Actually, I'm forever switching bunks, depending on the tack we're on ... and my new sleeping bag (for down to -12C!), bought in Victoria, is working out well.

Over the afternoon, our speed increased from 1 knot in the light variable winds to 5-6 knots ... and our heading was good, so that was pleasing. Of course, when the wind really strengthened later, we were doing well over 6 knots for quite a time - nice! So much for gribs and weather forecasts!!

Not a lot to report really, except that our latitude is well over the border from Oregon into California now and the rough weather coincided with passing well off Cape Mendocino - no surprise there!

Wind charging is doing well in the strong winds and solar panels are managing to put in around 4A during the day, despite the grey overcast skies.

I made a hot pasta dish during the evening, preceded by a mug of hot soup - I really needed hot food, I felt so cold and damp!

Contact with the Pacific Seafarers is difficult these days -the 14300 frequency is really suffering from bad propagation just now - and the check-in time of 0330UTC coincides with the worst of the conditions - I managed tonight to speak to ZL2CVJ, Cirrus, the Net Controller - he only just got my weather and position details.

Pity, but I finished the last of some oatmeal choc chip cookies I'd been given before leaving. Thanks, Tricia and Jim - I'd really enjoyed them!

Thursday 4th November

I forgot to mention that I saw a possible water spout near sunset yesterday, as we were in increased winds and seas. I've taken photos to examine in detail - but it looked just like a thin 'twister' of dk grey from sea up to cloud and then on, high up, there were wisps of it. I've heard enough about water spouts to know they're things to steer clear of.... This one was quite a distance away, off our path, but very distinctive. (If it wasn't a water spout, then the US Navy had just let fly a missile!!)

Overnight was very bumpy and wind stayed around 20 knots, veering from SSW to SW by 5am when I was up posting my usual noon UTC position and weather report. I was about to get back to my bunk when the wind suddenly 'switched' direction - from SW to W in no time at all, and died down almost immediately to ~12 kt, and then, soon after, to just 4-5 kt .... so, by 8am, we ended up slopping about, having had to change tack twice, shake out reefs and unfurl genoa. The light wind proceeded to circle around, making it very difficult, yet again, to steer a straight course - I had to make continual adjustments.

By 10:20, the wind was more steady, at 6-9 kt from the N, and the Hydrovane ('Fred') was able to steer a good course, beam-reaching at 3.3 kt. I was famished, not having eaten properly the night before due to the crashing about, and not yet having had a chance to get myself any breakfast, so I cooked myself a big, delicious brunch of ham and eggs with mushrooms (the last of my fresh), potatoes and tomatoes... mmm!!! Swilled down with fresh coffee....

Grey skies .... misty, fine rain ...N wind of only 6kt... Fred was well in control, despite the light wind, so I left him to it and went down below, looking forward to a good sleep. But no, ....as I finished a lengthy cleaning up in the galley, I realized the wind had veered yet again - time to tack again.... With boom preventer and staysail added to genoa and mains'l to think about, that always takes a time. Finally I got to my bunk for a welcome nap.

The good news is that since then we've been heading roughly SOUTH - yippee! - and should be able to keep on this heading for a long time to come... By early evening, the wind had got up well enough that we were making 5 kt or more. In fact, the wind started increasing more as night fell & I decided to take in a reef.

The wind continued to rise and the seas got bigger... we were going downwind now, so seeing 24kt of true wind, I thought maybe the time had come to furl in the full genoa quite a bit, .... maybe take in a second reef ... and soon after, seeing winds over 30kt, maybe best to take in the 3rd reef.....!! We now felt more under control...rather than seeing speeds of 8-9 kt as we sped down waves, swinging about in the big seas rather wildly and feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Of course, it was dark and raining, so I got soaked but being dressed properly, didn't feel too cold.

We're not far from passing Cape Mendocino, 195 ml away, which has a bad reputation for stormy weather and seas - which I experienced the last time I passed by. Tonight's weather is being caused by a small Low to the S, which should dissipate overnight and tomorrow , after which the North Pacific High should settle in nicely ..... I hope! At least we're making excellent speed now, ready for the light winds expected again by tomorrow night, probably .......... Talking about which, being 5th November tomorrow, to my friends in the U.K. ....................

HAPPY GUY FAWKES!! ..... Happy Bonfire Night! ... I hope you enjoy the Fireworks!!

Maybe I'll see a meteorite or two....

P.S. In the strong winds this evening, we've been charging nicely....

Wednesday 3rd November

10am: So nice to see a decent speed for a change!! Making over 6 knots at times, although having to head W (with a helpful tidal current) to get it - tacked around a short while ago and unfurled the staysail to help our speed.... using windsteering, on a very close reach now. With our course having gone from S to ESE in a backing wind overnight, it was time to change and head away from the coast again.. I keep finding Cape Blanco is too often the nearest point on land...

Everything on deck is absolutely dripping wet with the moist air (84% humidity!) - almost foggy but not quite. Sun almost getting through the misty layer above us.

Spoke at length with Bill, VE7WSM, on the Gt Northern Boaters Net (3870 kHz), this morning. He's trying to help me sort out, if possible, where the solar panel problem lies. Agreed to meet again this evening, after I'd carried out a few measurements with the multimeter. Means fishing out my spare length of thin wire to extend from the aft cabin fuses (in the positive lead) to the chart table regulator, to reach the end of the negative wire from the solar panels to check on their voltage, if any. At least there's enough light coming onto the panels now to get a meaningful measurement.

Although big swell was predicted, it's fairly calm now, although we're heeling a touch, so I might try to find the wind generator spare switch once I've done that, in case it's of use also. With the 30A fuse in place, I've switched the windgen on to see if it's inputting anything at all - I still suspect it's putting in something, albeit erratically and nothing like as much as it ought to be.

About to have a late b'fast before getting on with electrical jobs... - It's cold (16C in main cabin) here, so I'll have a hot drink to warm me up.... & maybe put on another fleece layer!!

2:15pm What a WALLY....... !!! I've just presented myself the supreme 'Wally of the Week' Award...... a Dunce's Hat... If I could, I'd be banished to a corner to stay there all day, if not all week...!! (Although I must admit that I keep laughing a lot!) I suddenly realized, when a red light flickered on momentarily as I was taking voltage & continuity readings on the wires to the regulator (having first spent some time checking out same at the fuse box in the aft cabin), that the switch I'd recently added to the circuit, to get rid of radio noise from RF interference from the regulator when receiving, .... was in the 'OFF' position!!! I'd totally forgotten the switch even existed.... No wonder no power was getting in to the batteries........ What a lot of unnecessary agonizing!! Many apologies to all of you who've been racking your brains over my problem - so sorry to have wasted your time!! I've been seeing 6-10A coming in, under bright but overcast skies.

It looks now, with the far stronger winds of this afternoon and evening, that the unregulated KISS wind generator is also possibly OK. That would be good news! It has been erratically putting in some power but seemingly very much less than expected (at 15kt, should input ~8-10A, and at 20 kt, should input ~15-18A). I 've been keeping an eye on how much power has been coming in under different wind conditions today. As I write this, wind has increased to 20kt (i.e. ~24kt apparent) and I've just seen input of over 18A - so maybe wind gen is OK after all and just needed stronger winds? I must keep an eye on it, clearly. Certainly good news in that my charging problem has been fast disappearing since this morning! The thermal cut-out seems to have worked fine when the winds approached 30 knots with a Front passing through around sunset (when we passed out from under a layer of cloud to clear skies). So it seems I've no need to look for the spare switch in order to compare input when using it rather than the present one, which I'd thought might have been damaged.

Good news is we've been making good speed (4-5 kt or more) most of the day and the wind swung from SW to just east of S this morning, so we've been able to sail SW. But it's now getting very 'bumpy' with wind of around 20 knots together with the expected big swell making us crash about regularly. Think I'll reduce the genoa some more, ready for overnight....

Tuesday 2nd November 2010

It's been a good day & I've felt very relaxed - especially after a good deep sleep over midday, to catch up on sleep missed overnight. And in the calm conditions later, I emptied a locker & found the missing fuses - lurking buried in the first place I'd looked, where they were supposed to be.... Murphy was laughing at me! (Unfortunately, in the fog and light wind, I could do no more to test out the reason for the lack of wind or solar power input. Jobs for yet another day.)

The WSW swell this morning, as predicted, was enormous - easily 6m/20ft!! Well-spaced out, with a period of about ten seconds, so not a worry... but fascinating to feel the wind pick up each time we rose over the tops of the waves. And FOG all day ... not so thick, but wet and cold!

After midnight, I spent 1 1/2 hrs on deck adjusting our course continually in shifty wind of around just 4 knots and then retired to the chart table to use the autopilot control there with the plotter display in view to show me which way we were headed and where the wind was... all to keep the boat pointing in the right direction, trying to make SW! In the big swell and with such light winds, the windsteering couldn't cope, nor could the autopilot, but at least I could easily keep telling it what to do so we would point the right way - but only with my constant intervention...pillow to hand, hoping for some sleep - fat hope!! It was a case of either this or sit at the wheel in the damp cold of night to keep us going sensibly in such light airs - this was the preferred option! I'd slept earlier for several hours so didn't feel too lacking in sleep. Several changes of sailtrim later and I eventually goosewinged the stays'l in the morning when the wind went to ENE for a while... We'd kept a good heading, so the effort was worthwhile and we finally got back onto windsteering, which saves such a lot of battery power. It coped fine, dead downwind at 4 kt, in 9 kt of wind with the stays'l out to windward helping the boat balance.

At one point this morning, I gybed and got a big section of the genoa wrapped wrongly around the forestay - a 'genoa wrap'!! I felt very much at risk as I crouched in the bow struggling to persuade the sail to unravel itself, along with the sheets, and get it untangled. Several times when I managed to get a bit of the sail off and wrapped the right way, the wind caught it and ripped it back the other way, the boat heeling as the sail billowed in the wind ... it was a real battle - but in the end, I won, and the genoa and its sheets were calmed and sorted properly - phew! No wonder I had a good sleep later!

If I hadn't paid so much attention to the boat, we'd either have been heading in towards the coast or going around in circles.... Steerage is a big problem with light wind and consequent low boatspeed. I re-traced my path several times...

By this evening, the wind had backed to the N and finally , by midnight, to NW - so we're now heading SSW under full canvas, making around 4 knots in 8 knots of wind on a beam reach. The fog, present all day long, dispersed with nightfall, so we've had a beautiful starry sky - I've seen meteorites and artificial satellites and the Milky Way really does look like stardust strewn across the sky. (Is that Saturn shining so very brightly, high in the W sky tonight??)

It looks to me that for several days, it's to be either more very light winds, often from S, or strong wind from S ... so heading south might still pose a problem... frustrating! Might be some wind off the two Capes, Blanco & Mendocino which we're trying to pass now..

(NOTE: My position is posted daily : Go to 'Travels' and click on "Where is Nereida?" to see where I am and have been recently)

I can't believe how slow this passage south is - previously, it's taken from 5 to 7 days maximum from Neah Bay (at entrance to Strait of Juan de Fuca) to San Francisco .... but today (Day 7, Monday), we're still trying to get past Cape Blanco beating into a SW wind! Each of those previous times, twice in October and once in May, I had winds from the north, with High pressure to my west....

Sunday 31st October (Day 6)

Around 6am, the light wind (7-8 kt) veered from SSE to SSW - better since ESE course could be laid - not fantastic but a lot better than the previous ENE! I always hate having to go north when I want to head south.... I had deliberately given myself plenty of searoom by heading W more, so heading slowly towards the coast for a time was OK. And being more west might have been the reason why the wind was not as bad as f'cast.. grib files showed a band of lighter winds here among the strong winds...

I took in all reefs and put out the staysail in readiness for the 'big blow' expected. Talk about 'the calm before the storm' - absolutely so!! We had flopped about Saturday night and into Sunday morning... but around 8am the wind began to increase and pressure dropped slightly. By 6pm it had reached 27-30 knots from the S, with building 3-4m seas. Not until 6am Monday did it suddenly 'switch off', with the wind shifting to WNW and dying rapidly to 9-10 knots. By 10am it had backed to the SW where it stayed, more-or-less, all day.

My worry is that winds will get too light for heading S after the storm - that's a definite possibility... And more strong S winds are forecast for later this week - getting S is not going to be easy!!

While waiting for the storm to hit & thinking about food for that evening, I remembered the big fresh prawns, sitting frozen in the depths of my fridge, that Kathy & Mark had brought me when they made a special trip down from Nanaimo to see me just before I left...I decided on a prawn curry - which worked fine with fresh tomatoes and onions. I had to cook the prawns anyway to peel them and had some separately before adding the rest in to the curry - they were supremely tasty!!

Can't do anything to fix solar or wind power problems just now - must wait for calmer weather!!

I'm checking in around 2230 UTC on 14300 kHz to the Maritime Mobile Net in the US - Roy, KR6RG, near San Diego, took my details and posted them on Shiptrak on Sunday and Rex, KC5AGO, in Texas, did so on Monday. Each time they checked if all OK on board and queried if my problems had been sorted out yet. It's a 24hr Net, run by volunteers, that is also there to help anyone in an emergency.

Monday 1st November

Writing this at sunset - we've been under grey skies, with lots of rain, all day - suddenly a beam of bright orange shot through the cabin - a spectacular sunset with a tiny band of clear sky on the W horizon!

It's been so frustrating today. After the 32-34 kt of overnight suddenly died down to 7 kt eventually, I've been on deck a lot of the time, shaking out reefs, adjusting sail trim, tacking, gybing... anything to try to get us to head S in a shifty wind, mainly from the S-SW which makes it impossible to sail a good course. When it came from WNW, that was great because we could head due S!! We've just re-traced our path (10 miles in total!) from earlier, and are,yet again, now heading SE - directly for Cape Blanco, in fact... We're 100 mls NW of it and from Coos River.

I'm trying to keep well clear of the coast, especially between Capes Blanco and Mendocino since they have a well-earned bad reputation for their own nasty weather and seas, but the SW wind is forcing me to head closer in. The alternative is to head W-NW, depending on the wind direction. And being close to the wind really slows us down, trying to make a reasonable course. A definite tidal current has often also not helped. Seas have calmed down a lot now from overnight - then it was really difficult to move about at all, let alone safely!

Present plan is to tack or gybe around (depending on boatspeed!) once we reach 126W - I don't wish to get closer to land than that. (I'm now seeing some shipping I didn't see when well offshore.) Present weather forecasts are not looking helpful - either strong southerlies or light fickle winds for this week, possibly combined with some big swell at times ... The frustrations look set to continue!!

One piece of good news is that I managed to stop my propshaft from spinning when we make decent speed. Since the gear cables were wired to prevent engine use in forward gear (a mistake to wire that, I now wonder?), I've been unable to engage reverse gear, as had been intended, so unable to prevent the prop from spinning. (Normally, I engage forward gear when sailing to stop the prop from turning) But in light winds on Monday, it occurred to me that it was the ideal time to tie a cord around the gearbox-propshaft connection while it was stationary - that seems to have worked ... and it's easy to remove.

As I'm about to post this, the wind has backed to SSW... I might have to change tack soon ... but first I must eat!

Saturday 30th October

Well, I'm sitting here in the calm of a beautiful night under a starry sky... Oriion and Sirius high in the SE.... with the wind just swung to the WSW from W a short while ago - but only around 10 knots so far.... We're close-hauled since the sudden wind shift woke me from sleep with sails flappping. Genoa is still full to give us some speed in the light conditions .... I put in 3rd reef before getting to sleep in readiness for blow, even though that slowed us down .... (We were headed S, but now SSE.) Pressure has increased to 1016 from 1005 12 hrs ago, showing H building to SW of here - but Low is swinging around it, aiming at us possibly!!

The morning started quite well with the sighting of an albatross soaring powerfully by!! Great excitement on board "Nereida"! Unmistakable from the many seen in the Southern Ocean earlier this year ... long, 'elbowed' wings, grey-and-white uppers and white underparts and big, cruel-looking beak. I'd heard of people seeing them in N. Pacific (Al on 'Dogbark' in the Single-Handed TransPac of '06 mentioned seeing them up here) but I'd not seen any until my first one seen in the South Atlantic in '08, on my way from Luderitz, Namibia, to St Helena. Later, in the afternoon, a sooty shearwater, or similar, came by - all dk brown with black wing tips and yellow beak... Must get out my birdbook on 'Albatrosses, Shearwaters "& Petrels..."!

The depressing news of today is no input fom the solar panels .... regulator showing no input from panels although it's still showing battery bank volts OK. Fuses in circuit are OK - but I managed to drop one 20A fuse to between the wires below - impossible to get to so far... grrr! Seems I need calm weather to check wiring at panels themselves. Maybe water has got to connections there?? Unscrewed fuse box to look at wiring more closely - seems OK.
Still no joy on wind generator - input still looking erratic - occasionally inputs power with temporary 20A fuse in place (not strong enough .... but still not found missing spare fuses!), mostly nothing... so far have come up with no bright ideas there. Seems like a wiring fault - but where?? Only possibility I've thought of is thermal cut-out in switch on wires down from generator- could have suffered when fuse blew in strong winds of the other night. I actually have an identical spare switch buried away in the forepeak, so must check that in calm conditions sometime soon and maybe try replacing it.

Sun got out late in the afternoon... nice!

Spent an age this morning letting out sails in the lighter wind and tidying upthe mess of lines in the cockpit and sorting out a tangled staysail sheet. It was so much calmer going downwind with NW wind, instead of beating into SSW wind...

Took down courtesy flags etc and ensign - also flagstaff - might lose it and not needed - no ensign flown as would get shredded by so much wind over 7 mths!!

This evening - wind died right down - lovely clear starry night with barometer rising .... Cleared everything ready for expected big storm - but in higher pressure and calm conditions right now!! Easy meal of beans and crab (thought I was picking out a tin of tuna ... but no matter!!).

Sat all geared up, ready to jump up on deck and furl in genoa when wind rises ... staysail 'ready to go' in placeof genoa - better in strong wind and sea conditions.... We're in the 'dangerous quadrant' of coming storm - so when it comes, plan is to head SE to avoid worst of it - maybe...! Decided must try to get some rest - doubt I'll sleep, but must rest at least. (Back to top!!!)

LATER ( SUNDAY 1130UTC): Wind is slowly continuing to back and rise - now from 200T at 14-15 knots, pressure 1017 hPa.... Will post this while still calm out here!!
(Posting noon UTC position to Winlink very soon - 0500 PDT here! We're 188 mls due West of Newport, Oregon at present)

Friday 29th October

Big decision of this evening was: Do I tie in the 3rd reef, well in advance of stronger winds expected, or do I first cook myself the mushroom omelette I really fancied for tonight?...!!

Omelette won, on basis that air pressure was not yet down anywhere near the 1008 hPa I'd been told to look out for by Bob McD (front possibly not arriving until near dawn), winds were rising but not above mid-twenties yet, boat was doing fine ... and I needed energy and a feeling of well-being for the reefing job! I really enjoyed the omelette but needed the cooker strap to hold me in place safely in the bumpy conditions while I cooked. The reefing went well in the darkness - despite the occasional wave splashing me. I took on board the idea given to me by Ian just before I left - to use a winch on the opposite side of the cockpit to help in the reefing (I'd run out of winches on that side with the genoa, staysail and running backstay all taking up one each...) My new Helly Hansen foul gear (given by Pauline of Force Four during my Southampton Boat Show visit) has been proving very useful in the bad weather since leaving and the seas have definitely been testing its waterproofness!

Suddenly realised this afternoon that the wind generator wasn't putting in anything. I got quite depressed for a while, thinking I was going to have a major power problem without it, and then I remembered I should check the fuse .... the 25A fuse had blown - presumably with strong winds first night out from Strait. I know I've spare fuses somewhere .... but could I find them? ... more cause for feeling down... I did find ones at 15A rating, so was able to confirm eventually that the generator is working fine. Initially, I wondered if wiring were dodgy since, even with fuse in place, and before it too blew in good wind of today, we were putting in good power for a time and then nothing...or nearly so. But I think maybe it was the fuse failing erratically that gave that impression. So problem now is to find missing fuses and make sure I shut down the generator if wind gets up above 30 knots. I might have to dispense with fuse and join wires together to give supply to batteries - dangerous since could damage wiring if unprotected.... But without its input, we're going to run short of power regularly....

Well, I had a good sleep this morning and I'll get some now - it might be a busy night if the front arrives early or winds get up a lot more. Presently we're going well under triple-reefed main, well-furled genoa and staysail at 4.5 knots on 235T in 23 true knots of SSE wind.... The front can't be far away since pressure has dropped now to 1009 hPa (from 1016 this afternoon and 1010 an hour ago).

Thursday 28th October

What a contrast!

Rough seas and winds, getting up to 30 knots on occasion, all night long ... a bumpy ride! And then suddenly, mid-morning, pressure rose, winds were from the SSW rather than SSE-SE & we were into very light winds and struggling to make speeds over 2-3 knots, changing tack with the fickle wind direction to get best advantage and avoid being forced north...... But oh so slow, even with all reefs shaken out and full canvas... but quite a lot of sunshine and blue skies in between clouds.

Great excitement at one point - winds increased rapidly and veered, only to turn into a typical 'cloud effect' - heavy rain came & went,.. wind died ... and died ... as a dark grey cloud moved away - and we ended up, yet again, wallowing around! Kept light winds all day, with the occasional shower for excitement, and on into the evening...

Forecast is to continue light on Friday, with a very stormy weekend - a DEEP Low headed this way and a deep trough tagged on - so two 'hits' on their way: on Saturday and on Sunday... Can't be avoided since the system is so extensive... Maybe the forecast will turn out wrong - that wouldn't be a first!! But if right, there's some big swell coming on Sunday/Monday.

Amazing how gusts always come after reefs have just been shaken out.

Decided I must eat better, since important to keep up energy levels, so had a 'proper' meal tonight - but the lazy way - a pre-cooked meal in a vacuum-packed foil pouch - delicious meat, potatoes and gravy with the last of some fresh broccoli I added in. Followed by dessert of dried cherries and prunes - added in a Mars bar for good measure - totally decadent!!

Will have to tack around soon, to avoid going too far west, towards the centre of the forecast storms. Wind is SSW 10 knots just now and we're due west of Grays Hbr, about 100 miles off, so a fair amount of sea-room, although I prefer to stay outside the continental shelf until past Oregon..