March 17
Hi All,
3:30am Sunday March 18: All is well!!
Oh so much better today than yesterday…..both of us got much more sleep and although I’m still a bit tired/sleepy, nothing like yesterday…
The winds and seas have calmed although still a lot of motion on the boat….need both hands holding on or else….I actually took 2 stupid and non serious falls from unexpected waves…..shocked me more than the physical pain!!!
Current: 2 days ago as we were exiting the Kuroshio current we decided to take the rhumb line to Okinawa instead of the current optimized route. Predict Wind has a route optimize routine that has been easy to use. For the last 400 miles, in the seas south of Okinawa there are mainly 3 strong eddies you must cross. If you go north somewhat then you can stay on top of the eddies and have favorable current most of the time. By taking the rhumb line we were south, saved 35nm and had a 1-2kt adverse current for the past 36 hours. But, that gave us wind with current and even though we had 6-10′ seas, it would have been much steeper waves had there been an opposing current. We had to slow down anyway so having a foul current did no harm to our speed.
We are now on top of the last eddy and will have a 0.5-1.0 favorable current to Okinawa….yeehaw…ride it Mystic!!!!
We did have one Asian sport fisher come take a look yesterday…..came up both port and strbd sides….then peeled off and caught a fish….good for them but gave us a little fright not knowing their intentions!!
Stats:March 16 2330 UTC (7:30am March 18 local time):
Position: 23 49N 125 23E
Traveled: 158nm today; 519 total: 202nm to go; ETA to Okinawa 10-11am Monday….we did find some speed!!!!
Course: 49M COG on the rhumb line
Wind: 10-16kts steady the last 8 hours but should be calming and clocking to SE
Waves: 4-7′ ENE, med period; 30-45points off strbd bow; ride ok….some motion as we go over big waves
Speed: current speed is 7.7 kts SOG; has varied 6.2-7.8 kts today; avg is 6.6 kts today; 7.2 for passage; 1550rpm (normal is 1600)
Weather: 25% cloud cover; sea temp 75 deg F; air temp 76 deg F, 80*F cabin temp; Kathy has SS and leggings on, I’m still in shorts and t-shrt!!
Boat sightings: ~10-15; all cargo ships…..
Fishing: Nope
Sail: down
Fuel burn: 1.15nmpg for Day 2 with adv current and big headseas, not very good; 1.3 nmpg for trip
Hope all is well!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO
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