Lat 32d 49m N, Lon 133d 14m W. COG 260d mag, SOG 1.6 kts.
We are about 800 nautical miles due west of San Diego, and we’ve got broken, puffy clouds overhead. It’s pretty warm and some of the crew have taken advantage of the gentle conditions to do a little washing up in the cockpit.
There is no wind in our neighborhood. This was expected, but it doesn’t make it easier. As a matter of fact, there seems to be a very large area of little to no wind, and we’re not the only Pac Cup boat stuck here. The forecasts predict more of the same tomorrow, and some improvement after that. This is going to be a very slow couple of days.
Last night we were sailing fast, aiming at the full moon as it set over Hawaii. In the early hours of this morning the wind basically died, with occasional micro-squalls giving us a little speed (not always in the right direction, but we take what we can get). We’ve got the light-air spinnaker up, but it spends more time collapsed than drawing. It does give us a little push from time to time.
We are looking forward to dinner tonight: Swedish meatballs over noodles, and a bacon-blue-cheese salad. This is being prepared by the self-proclaimed “guy with the whitest legs”, but I couldn’t say for sure. We have a fairly diverse menu on board, including Italian, Swedish, Indian, Chinese, Mexican, and of course West Coast.
The calm water lets us see lots of floating trash. We’ve spotted many buoys and floats, a large blue plastic 55-gallon (?) drum, and uncountable bits of plastic — bottle caps, styrofoam, and various unrecognizable pieces. We’re not even near the “Gyre”, and this fits with my belief that the trash is everywhere, it’s just the calm conditions in the Gyre (and now here) that let us see this stuff.
And that’s it for now, Paul / VALIS