Day 4: Tuesday 3/19
A VERY GOOD DAY; OH WHAT A RELIEF
As the speed decline continued (was now <5.0 kts) my stress/anxiety level climbed into the bad headache zone….ugh!!!!! So last night not being able to sleep Les and I (as well as Kathy and Rose) were determined to do all we could to gain some speed back. We first worked on the course and settled on 246M as the best and rhumbline to Hiva Oa.
Second we raised the sail…..yeah. The apparent wind has been 0 – 7 kts so we thought we would give it a shot. We think if nothing else it is helping to steady the boat and might be giving us a 0.05 – 0.1 kt help…..well, at this point everything helped…..at least it was not hurting us!!!!
While all of us had read from other trawler blogs that have crossed an ocean and used fuel bladders that during the first week the boats suffered from squatting and loss of efficiency with the fuel bladders in the cockpit, you are never quite sure if that is happening on your boat or not. We have two 160 gallon bladders in the cockpit adding ~2300 pounds. This afternoon I determined we had just enough room to empty the port bladder. So, after discussing our method, Les and I emptied the bladder with no issues. We saw an immediate 0.5 kt gain…yes, yes, and more yes….we were doing 5.9 kts!!!!! I definitely was doing the Happy Dance!!!!
Les did a great job keeping the bladder under control while it was emptying by continually cinching all the ratchets and straps. He then rigged a line from the flybridge and raised the bladder to get the last 10-15 gallons out and let the bladder drain while we gave it a good washing. We then let the bladder dry in the sun, rolled it up and stored it in the dinghy as it does have a slight diesel odor!!! We think that some of the slow decline in speed was due to this squatting effect, as well as, using fuel from the internal port fuel tank was making the squatting effect worse by losing weight in the middle of the boat.
A few hours later around 5:00, we downloaded emails and we received an email from Bob Ebaugh on m/v Mar Azul. If you recall we met Bob and Elaine in Grenada and buddied boated with them along w/Bill and Deb on Renegade to Bonaire. Bob sent us the Oscar current grib and it was spot on. It showed the favorable current leaving the Galapagos and then around 93 deg W getting into a 1 kt counter current…..which is exactly what happened to us. This grib shows the counter current lasting all the way to 120+ deg W and it shows a favorable current at around 5 deg S starting around 100W and lasting through 120 deg W.
So, we made a course change to make our way towards 5 deg S. We are on a course of 235 deg M and we will make 3 deg S 100 deg W by sometime Thursday morning. When we see the favorable current we will turn west at the first opportunity. If we stay on this 235M course we will reach 5S at 103W sometime Friday afternoon. We would prefer to not have to go all the way to 5 deg S as we are concerned that the wind/waves will increase and make the ride rougher. We shall see how this plays out!!!!!
So, a bit frustrating, is all the hours and hours of route preparation/planning gone out the window….all those hours using the Pilot Charts, studying current maps, setting up Bouyweather buoys along the route, discussing the route with weather routers, et al…..all changed…….arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
Kathy and Rose fixed yummy, gourmet meals today…..I think my lovely bride could sense my stress level about to explode and thought excellent food might help reduce it a bit…..we started with Jimmy Dean sausage/egg sandwich….Egg McMuffin ala Kathy….with a mango/banana smoothie…..my favorite breakfast……they then had for dinner a beef tenderloin on the grill with a baker and sautéed cauliflower, broccoli and onions…..whoa and YUMMERS!!!!!
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Position 3/20 @ 1300 UTC:
All is well. Conditions have been mild! When we made the course change from 260 deg to 235 deg the conditions did get a little rolly…..we had a 2-3′ wind/wave chop almost on our beam…..we turned on the stabilizers and the ride was ok. During the course of the night the seas calmed down and the ride smoothed out and we turned the stabilizers off.
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Position: 2 08 S 98 18 W
Traveled: 134nm today; 517nm total; 2490nm to go; ETA sometime 4/7, lost a day or so
Course: 237M HDG, 234M COG; being slightly pushed to the south
Wind: for the most part ESE-NE <6 kts but had brief periods of 7-10 kts
Waves: 2-4′ S-SSW swell; 14 sec period; had 1-3″ wind chop/wind against current steep chop; ok ride; had to use stabilizers for a while; very calm, glassy seas now, no stabilizers
Speed: current speed is 6.1 SOG, has varied 5.8-6.4 SOG since course change; avg 5.6 SOG today; 5.7 SOG total for passage (we planned for 6.0 but hope/want 6.5).
Weather: mostly sunny, clouds/squalls to the west and north but way in the distance sea temp 82. deg F
Boat sightings: 4 since we left; 1 today going north, on AIS
Fishing: 2 bonitos which we don’t like so back to the sea they went; total of 5 bonitos but nothing on the grill yet 🙁 ((((
Fuel Burn: After 72 hours we were burning 2.00 nmpg, 206 gallons total….not as good as we planned @ 2.25 nmpg, so 10% more than plan…..ugh, ugh, ugh. We did empty the port 160 gallon fuel bladder today….yea…..we got an immediate 0.5 kt speed gain 🙂 )))))!!!! We should see better #’s tomorrow hopefully!!!!!
