Underway Day 30 LightSpeed Sailing from Marshall Islands to North America

July 25, 2014 @ Noon boat time GMT -8 (UTC July 23 @ 2000)

Day 30 LightSpeed Sailing from Marshall Islands to North America

Day 17 at sea since our last anchorage at Bikar atoll, Marshall Islands.

Underway position: 43 40 N 174 34 W

Distance:
162nm day/2722nm trip total

Course 005T
Speed 7.4

Weather:
Wind 14 @ 095T
100 % Cloud cover
1024 mbar
Air temp 59F
Sea temp 56F


The sea temperature has dropped 10F degrees to 56F in the last 24 hours and it's noticeably cooler inside the boat. Thick fog continues to veil the seas with a grey nothingness, but otherwise we're enjoying near perfect sailing conditions in light winds with calm seas. Average speed since midnight is 7.36 knots. Over the last few days we've been watching the possible formation of a low pressure system to our SE and now it's officially materialized. Here's the NOAA forecast:

.GALE WARNING...
LOW 38N178E 1011 MB MOVING N 10 KT. WITHIN 300 NM E AND NE
SEMICIRCLES WINDS 20 TO 30 KT. SEAS TO 9 FT.
24 HOUR FORECAST LOW 41N178E 1006 MB. WITHIN 240 NM NE
SEMICIRCLE WINDS 25 TO 35 KT. SEAS 8 TO 12 FT. ELSEWHERE WITHIN
360 NM NE SEMICIRCLE WINDS 20 TO 30 KT. SEAS TO 9 FT.
48 HOUR FORECAST LOW 46N170E 1002 MB. WITHIN 540 NM N AND NE
QUADRANTS WINDS 20 TO 30 KT. SEAS 8 TO 13 FT.

We're in the NE semicircle and thus can expect conditions to deteriorate later today. The good news is we're getting pretty close to Adak and the strong winds should generally blow us in that direction. We've been trying to move east the last few days, so when the wind gets stronger we can sail a deeper more comfortable angle to the seas. The real trick is going to be finding a safe anchorage at Adak. The anchorages we'd prefer are on the Bering sea (north) side of Adak and to get to those requires running Adak, Kagalaska or another strait all of which ebb/flood between 3-5 knots. Current against near gale winds could make for some severe conditions and from other reports we understand the current predictions are not so good. Combine the restricted visibility of fog with strong winds, seas and currents and it looks like we'll be extra glad to get the anchor down safely in some snug little cove on Adak in about 3 days time.

We baked bread again yesterday, but the dough fell just before we popped it in the oven and then the oven flame blew out further compromising the process. Kathy made a pizza for dinner and this morning I made a huge pan of hashbrowns, sausage and eggs. It seems our appetites have upped a bit in the cooler weather.

That's it for now.

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