Day 19 Panama to Hawaii

Clipperton is already a distant memory, so time for an update on how things are going. The plan was that after Clipperton we’d just be sailing in steady northeast trade winds, but reality is (was) a bit more stubborn. Below is the track since then.

After the island (the one with the little circle) we were able to head up and our speed picked up (blue < 5, green >= 5, yellow >= 7 knots, red >= 9 knots). For the attentive reader: yes, the tracker has been improved and can now show speed as well, and for the last few days also wind if you zoom in far enough.

Two days later, in the middle of the day, a rain shower came up from astern and the wind swung 180 degrees from one second to the next! As you can see, we spent quite a while floundering about. It took about twelve hours for the wind to come back a bit. We hadn’t had any rain to speak of since Panama, but that day more than made up for it.

The last few days we’ve mostly been heading west, at first still edging north a little. That’s to get into the most stable weather possible. It looks like we’ll arrive in Honolulu on the 3rd or 4th of June.

The boobies keep on hitching rides; there are six of them now, and for the past 3 days they’ve finally figured out that they’re not tolerated aft of the mast.

We also had a lost swallow on board for three days. At first it just kept flying around, but at some point it (he? she?) dared to land and was even spotted sitting on Arnold’s chest. Sadly, the next day we found it dead in the dinghy. Too far off course; this little land bird can only go 4 days without food and there’s nothing out here (we tried fruit, but that didn’t do the trick). Oh yes, Jiminy Cricket has also departed this life. Unfortunately we haven’t found him yet.

After Clipperton the bread we’d brought along ran out, so now I bake a fresh loaf every day in the bread maker. That works really well, as long as you use the right flour. The Panamanian wholemeal flour is useless; I tried it, but in the end I just baked a new loaf. The next day I tried again with a lower percentage, but it’s simply very strange stuff. Luckily there’s still enough wholemeal flour from Tenerife on board (thanks, KJ + Tan!) and loads of white flour.

The vegetables from Panama are by now finished and/or rotten; we’ve got half a leek left. Even half of the big onions we bought there have already gone overboard, but they were in a plastic bag which did have some holes in it, but perhaps too few? Strange, the “old” onions from before that keep for months. They do look a bit different though, with a different skin too.

We run a watch system that rotates every day. Officially during the day as well, but apart from the first watch we’re very relaxed about that. So the first night watch starts at 20:00, the second at midnight and the third at 04:00. We shift one watch each day, so on the first day you have, say, 20:00, the next day 04:00 and then on the third day 00:00. The first watch cooks and takes care of drinks at 17:00, with dinner at 18:00-19:00. The third watch does the dishes. We’ve really got into the rhythm now and we’re also getting enough sleep by now, so we’re not tired or anything.

Yesterday Arnold and I were sitting quietly in the cockpit reading a book when suddenly, with a bang, the Hoyt jib boom broke again. This time it was a classic fatigue fracture in the stainless steel part of the hydraulic cylinder. Probably not helped by all the misery of last year. And perhaps even made worse by it, because the head turns out to move up and down rather stiffly. First we tied everything down and furled the jib. Then we replaced the jib sheet with one that runs through a classic fairlead on the storm jib track. That went surprisingly easily and the loss of speed on our current course is minimal.

After that, Rudolf, Arnold and I removed the cylinder so we could take measurements more easily. I’ve sent an email to the Dutch dealer, who also knows the boat, but of course this happened on a Saturday, and Monday is Whit Monday too!

Oh well, it is what it is, and we can just keep on sailing. The water tanks are brim-full with water from the watermaker, the diesel tanks are far from empty and we have plenty of food too. The boat is still sailing along nicely. Today we’re going to treat ourselves to fresh sheets.

Another 1738 miles to Hawaii, until next time!