Pacific Crossing Day 10

Hurray! We have sailed halfway around the planet... er, hmm, make that halfway across the Pacific... well that is, the Pacific ocean between Cabo San Lucas Mexico and Hilo Hawaii.

Shellbacks no more, we are seasoned mariners. Ha! To celebrate Connie is making pancakes, no small feat considering that King Neptune turned up the fun house level this morning.

We motored for 8 hours last night, caught up in the approaching high pressure to the north. It is moving south into our territory, bringing with it light winds. If you are following us on the Delorme In Reach you can see that we've turned south somewhat to get away from the high.

If you want to see the location of the high pressure on your PC, just go to this web address: http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/PYBA90.TIF

See how the pacific high is just north of Hawaii?  This shot I added later once we got to Hawaii.

Our approximate location, if you want to find it on that NOAA map is 21.5N 133W.

We are trying to skirt the bottom of the high pressure so as to keep wind in the sails. We are also measuring our diesel fuel so we know just how much motoring we'll have to do. At night when the wind drops we'll not want to fly the lightweight gennaker (too risky dousing it if the wind pipes up) so when the wind drops, we'll crank up the diesel and let her run at about 1400 RPM so she sips fuel at about 1/2 gal per hour. Then we'll take our shifts and be able to sleep.

So there you go. Halfway there. Can't turn back now. Our fate is in your hands. Send us good thoughts. Drink a beer for me. Have a couple.

Scott, Connie, and Scott

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