DAY 33 - Typing with Mittens

It's June 9. Haven't been doing much typing, because it's a bit tricky with
mittens on. Spelling goes out the window. Caps Lock finds it's way on. And
the mouse pad does not respond well to fleeced thumbs.

Besides the temperature, there are other clues that we're getting closer to
home. Today we're at the 50 degrees of latitude. That's where we live. I'm
sure it can't possibly be 10'C in Campbell River, but it feels good to be
alongside of home. Other clues...we had to pick kelp of the monitor wind
vane paddle. And (drum roll please)...I caught a salmon! Ok, ok, it was a
Pink, and not a big one, but it made a delicious dinner.

We're living in a drip zone. Another memory of sailing in the north that
we'd conveniently forgotten about. Every window and hatch is a constant
source of condensation, and drips incessantly, leaving little moist trails
on the floor, the stove, the cabinets, the bedding...

The sailing is good. We've had enough wind to keep moving. Not always
directly towards our destination, but we are making progress. We're starting
to think about Sitka...should we splurge on a hotel? A massage? Or a trip to
the local rec centre and a new cabin heater?? 650 miles to go.

-----
June 9 noon report:
Position: 50-15N, 150-13W
669 miles to Sitka, Alaska
3642 miles travelled so far
24 hr DMG: 80 nm (our 3rd worst day)
24 hr DOG: 107 nm
24 hr speed SOG: 4.5 knots
Course: 060T
Wind: North 13 knots
Seas: Confused 1.5 meters

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 30 - 3/4 of the way!!

June 6. Day 30. 1000 miles to go!!!! Finally. This third quarter of the
passage seemed to pass much faster than the second. Thankfully. Hopefully
the final 1000 miles will follow that trend!

It was a good day. We continued to have decent wind, around 15 knots,
sending us in the right direction. Seas are about 2 meters, so the ride is
quite comfortable. Our 1000 mile celebration was lovely. I let John sleep a
little longer this morning and whipped up a few cupcakes at the end of my
watch. When he woke up, he used up our last two eggs*, added a dehydrated
pack of egg skillet delight, and a few potatoes, and we had a wonderful
scrambler for breaky. We opened our 1000 mile treat bag (new magazines,
dried mangos, glico pokey sticks, oreos and chocolates). We watched a bit of
tv this afternoon (we're now into the new PanAm tv show). For dinner we ate
the last of our mahi mahi. Looks like we have to start fishing again.

We are getting further away from the majority of the cruising fleet. It is
harder to hear other boats on the radio. We've been able to report our
position each day, but it is possible that we won't be able to report in on
a day with poor propagation. But, if voice fails us, we'll be able to report
in via email.

The good news about being further along is that John reckons we're now
within range of US Coast Guard helicopters. That's reassuring.

Well...we're on the home stretch. And it feels good. Alaska here we come...


*On a side note...I still find it amazing that eggs will last so long
without refrigeration - 30 days! And no sign of going bad. That said - these
last couple weeks, the cabin may as well have been a refrigerator.

-----
June 6 noon report:
Position: 46-59N, 154-52W
938 nm to Sitka, Alaska
3333 nm travelled so far
Ave spd 4.8 knots
24 hr DOG: 130 nm
24 hr DMG: 122 nm
Course: 038T
Speed: 5.2 knots

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 29 - 4 weeks

Well, yesterday was day 28. Four weeks at sea. Our longest passage to date
and still 10 days to go. Bleh.

Tonight, we'll pass another major milestone, 1000 nm to go! Tomorrow, we'll
have another little celebration. I'm sure you've already guessed that it
will likely involve chocolate. Forecast indicates that it's supposed to be
calmer tomorrow, so maybe I'll get ambitious and whip up some cupcakes. I've
got some chocolate frosting that we NEED to find a vehicle for!

Soon, we'll have to change ship's time. Last night the horizon began to
lighten up before 3am. That's a bit ridiculous!! Even if we are approaching
the longest day of the year. Sheesh. We're at the same latitude as Oahu, and
they are -10UTC. Ship's time is currently -11UTC. Switching time zones
creates a timing conflict with the radio net and dinner...but I guess the
3am sunrise just isn't acceptable. We'll see.

-----
June 5 noon report:
Position: 46-06N, 156-57W
1060 nm to Sitka, Alaska
3203 nm travelled so far
Ave spd 4.8 knots
24 hr DOG: 134 nm
24 hr DMG: 130 nm (our best 24 hr distance on this trip yet)!
Course: 035T
Speed: 5.0 knots

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 27 - From Calm to Chaos

The winds have picked up. In the last 24 hours, the barometer has dropped 10
points and we've gone from being becalmed to charging along under storm
sails. We had a great over night sail, as the winds picked up but seas were
still relatively calm. It's really fun to be doing our hull speed for a
change. Now, the swells have caught up to us and we've slowed down a bit to
have a more comfortable ride.

The big news on board Renova is our new heating gadget. John has taken a
trick from his McKinley mountain climbing days and has filled our Nalgene
water bottles with boiling water. Then he sticks these into his newly
fashioned fleece slippers (at least they are good for something), and tucks
them under the covers. This is the best body warmer ever! Great for warming
up the cold toes and fingers after making sail changes on deck.

We're dreaming of landfall (even though it is two weeks away). This is the
first passage where we're not dreaming of the food we'll eat. Instead we're
consumed with thoughts of the humongous comforter that we'll buy, the
powerful electric cabin heater, and the miraculous condensation absorber.
Ahhhh....feels like Alaska already!!

-----
June 3 noon report:
Position: 42-58N, 161-03W
1302 nm to Sitka, Alaska
2949 travelled so far
Ave spd 4.8 knots
24 hr DOG: 120 nm
24 hr DMG: 114 nm
Course: 030T
Speed: 5.0 knots

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 24 - 1569 to go

Well, we're not going to win any speed records out here. We continue to
cruise along with light winds, comfortable for the most part, just a little
chilly.

I baked scones for breakfast as an excuse to run the oven for a while.

As I write, we have the cabin heater burning merrily. It's the first time it
has been run in three years. It's not as warm as I remember. I also have the
CO detector turned on - that thing freaks me out.

At least I have a cozy pair of slippers. John just has two pairs of white
cotton socks. Yuck. Yesterday, I offered to make him fleece slippers from
some fleece scraps we have aboard. It was my domestic goddess emerging. I
wrapped the fleece around his legs, and then used my trusty stapler to close
up the seams. Trimmed the excess with my scissors, and presto magic!! They
are the ugliest looking things I've ever seen, but he did claim that they
were warm enough to make his feet sweaty, which he decided was a good thing.
(Addendum...he later noted that the staples didn't hold, and I spent three
hours hand-stitching them - not my original intention, but I could hardly
deny the guy, right)??

Obviously, not much going on or I would not be describing our clothing
choices and breakfast menu. We saw the sun today, for the first time in 5
days. We've spent 4 days shrouded in a blanket of fog, that made watch
keeping feel absolutely futile. We've seen a couple more ships. And we
caught and lost an albacore tuna (not winning any awards there either),
which we are grieving.

We also did a mid-ocean service of our port genoa winch.

At least we're getting lots of sleep...

-----
Today's noon report:
Position: 39-52N, 166-22W
1589 nm to Sitka, Alaska
2627 travelled so far
Ave spd 4.8 knots
24 hr DOG: 112 nm
24 hr DMG: 108 nm
Course: 040T
Speed: 4.5 knots

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 20 - 1/2 Way to Sitka

Today is May 27, our 20th day at sea, and we're 1/2 way to Sitka Alaska!!
Aboard the good ship Renova, we'll take that as an excuse for a party. A
chocolate party, that is!! Before leaving Majuro, we bought each other
little gift packages that we could open for our 1/2 way point. Majuro isn't
exactly a shopping meca, and it wasn't surprising that when we each opened
our gifts, we were treated to chocolates! Needless to say, it was a good
day, and the snack cupboard has been refilled!

We rounded out the celebrations by having hot, fresh water sink baths,
changing the sheets on the bunk, and eating the last of our frozen chicken.
I know, I can see it now. You're shaking your head at our crazy party animal
antics. Ok ok. We'll calm down.

Let's hope we do the next 1000 miles in less than 11 days. Anyone care to
venture a guess on our Sitka arrival date?

---
Winds have rotated around in the last few days, coming from the South.
Sometimes even South west. Crazy, but good. We're now heading directly
east. This helps us make some good miles before moving north to colder
latitudes. But, more importantly, it keeps us below the nasty looking low
pressure systems that are roving around to the north of us. We'd much prefer
to stay on the edge of the high, if possible.

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 18 - SLOW and steady

May 25th today...and not much to report. Days are all melding together, not
much to differentiate one day from the next. Caught our third mahi mahi.
Still no tuna, although we think this is prime tuna fishing grounds. We saw
our second ship.

We haven't had to turn on the motor in a couple days, but we haven't been
making good time. The wind has been circling from all directions, and we are
often fiddling with sails to keep moving in the right direction. Yesterday,
we made 100 miles, but only 70 towards Sitka. Our worst yet. We completed
our first 1000 miles in 9 days. This second thousand is looking like it will
take 12 days.

One reason is we aren't able to point very high into the wind these last
couple of days. We dropped our genoa to investigate what we thought was a
few loose stitches. Unfortunately, the damage was more extensive, with many
critical seams at the leech and clew completely failing. What a drag. We
even had it reinforced in Majuro in preparation for the trip. Oh well. Just
too much rotten thread after all this time in the sun. So we've hoisted our
old genoa that has been sitting in the laz for three years. We laughed when
we dragged it out. It is filthy. And paper thin. We ripped it almost top to
tail when we first had the boat and I did an insane patch job, with all the
sail tape that I could buy on the island! It looks like a jigsaw puzzle. So
we're handling it with care, gently nudging it along, and hoping it will
last a few more weeks.

If need be, we could repair the newer genoa, but I'd much rather have it
stitched with a proper machine (mine doesn't have a zig zag stitch). So
we'll wait and see. I could repair it by hand, but the sail is huge, not
sure how we'd manage it inside, or in the cockpit, and it would take several
days with both of us working at it!

Noon Report:
Position: 34-30N, 178-17W
2191 nm to Sitka, Alaska
1908 travelled so far
Ave spd 4.7 knots
23 hr DOG: 99nm
23 hr DMG: 67 nm

(23 hrs, because we just moved the clocks forward, ship's time is now
-11UTC).

Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 16 - Brrr

In two days, the temps have dropped ten degrees. On Tuesday, I was wearing a
bikini. Today, I'm bundled in fleece and trying to remember where we stashed
the mittens. 18 degrees may not sound cold to you, but, it feels arctic to
us. We had expected cold, but I hadn't thought it would hit so soon...we're
only at 31 degrees north - same latitude as San Diego.

The last two days have also brought us wind! Mostly from the NW (hence the
cool air), giving us a push in the right direction. It is a bit squally and
we're forever making sail adjustments, but we're pleased with our progress.

The boat has been great. We snapped one Monitor (self-steering) line, but it
was fixed instantly. We found a pile of my clothes had been soaked from a
port hole not closed. Meh. We've just noticed our headsail leech is looking
ragged, so we'll be looking for n opportunity to bring it down to the deck
for inspection and possibly repair.

Today, we'll cross the dateline again...we look forward to our return to the
western hemisphere.



Daily position reports:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN

Day 15 - Ship Ahoy

Saw our first ship out here! First, the AIS let us know it was 10 miles
away. I was able to see it when it was6 miles off, and it finally passed
about 1.5 miles to out stern. It was a huge fuel carrier. Nice to have some
company out here, and a reminder that we're likely getting closer to common
shipping routes.

Day 12 - Pacific Indeed

May 20 - Today the Pacific is true to its name. The ocean is as flat as a
pancake. Smooth as a baby's bottom. And not a breath of wind.

Oddly, it didn't make us restless, as it has in the past. We used the flat
seas to work on a couple projects that we wouldn't otherwise do while
underway. John fixed the bow nav light, whose connections had corroded. I
cleaned the head. Fun stuff like that. We also enjoyed lounging in the
cockpit without any danger of being doused with spray. It was a good day.

Besides, our friend John has just made landfall in Kodiak, Alaska, and he
tells us that it is 8'C in the boat with the heater on. Brrr. He's advised
us to take it slow, and wait for Alaska to warm up. Sounds like good advice
to me!! :O)

Good news - we caught another Mahi-mahi last night. And this one we kept.
Our freezer is stuffed full, but it made a wonderful dinner tonight! It is
our favourite fish out here, second only to tuna.

Life is good.


PS...for those of you who are interested in the numbers. Well I don't have
them. Handy. I'm writing from my bunk. But...I can tell you that until
today, we've been doing 120 nm per day, making about 110 of those miles in
the right direction - towards Sitka, Alaska. Not bad for us, considering
that we're beating into the wind. Today will be different. After coasting
along at 2 knots for most of the afternoon, I can only imagine what our
daily total will be. Still, we have around 2700 miles to go...or something
like that.

Check our daily position reports here:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=V73TN