Current position as of 0000 UTC July 15th is 34° 50’ N 152° 44’ W Current Heading: 80°M Total distance made good (DMG) = 934 nm DMG last 24hrs (0000UTC-0000UTC) = 73 nm Engine hours = 0 Avg true wind speed (TWS) = 17 kts Avg speed over the ground (SOG) = 4.7 kts Avg swells = 3.5 ft Recap of Day 10 We both remember from the previous passage to Washington how hard the first half was, it is tough to see the finish line when such little progress is made and we don’t feel good. This is the point where we are close to a third of the way but not half way by any means and everything just seems to be in slow motion, it is a painful sail to be on and I am hopeful that my spine surgery at the other end will relieve all this pain. Hillary just keeps plodding along but I know this rough weather has both our nerves on end and she has remarked how this will hopefully be our last very long passage for more than a year, to think in the last 6 months we have sailed over 12’000 miles. Our biggest challenge was the exactly what we knew it would be and that is getting good rest or rather the lack of it, Hillary has done slightly better and can sleep almost anywhere and anytime but being thrown around the cabin can break anyones spirit. We placed a second reef into the mainsail today as the winds have been above 25kts and we have forgone the genoa for staysail alone, this means we are making slow progress and with the wind almost directly out of the north we are not making the progress we had hoped. Our two best headings are 300M or 70M which are both not even close to ideal, we can narrow that gap a little but then it gets miserable and we would just be bashing into the building waves, the 1.5 to 2 metre swells are now so riled up by this wind they are only 7 seconds apart. This means we are trying to avoid taking them directly on the bow (we would launch off the top and plow into the next – bad) and trying not to have the waves directly on our beam (the crests are what roll the boat and are more dangerous than the wind). We don’t really have much else to say but if you have seen our recent track on our website you will get the picture, the good news if that over the next 48 hours we see this high pressure ridge passing us and then we can maybe grab the tail end of the gale westerlies to the north of us. We really want to get to 40N where the weather might be more in our favour but as it is with weather and slow boats by the time we get there who knows what will be coming for us. We are staying positive with good things to come for the rest of this year, it is just hard to focus with less than 3 hours of sleep a day and we have many days to go. The fish is a great life saver and we have been eating well and watching a movie or two while on watch to pass the time, again just like last passage we know that we will soon look back on the rough weather as a distant memory. Thanks for all the comments team! Ty & Hillary
