Report from VALIS – Sept 6

At 5:30 PM, Saturday, Sept 6, VALIS is at latitude 39 deg 26 min north, longitude 133 min 26 min north. We are sailing due east at a speed of 6.6 knots over the ground. The wind is from the north west at 16 knots, and the seas are relatively calm. We are about 520 nautical miles from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Since yesterday we have had the wind shift that we were waiting for, and as it swung from the southwest to the northwest there were many periods of light and confused winds. We spent much of the night motorsailing, because the constant slatting of the sails in the light airs and 3-foot swells was an invitation to gear chafe and failure. Still, there has been a lot of sail furling and unfurling and adjustment. At least our batteries are now fully charged! At this point have enough fuel to just motor home, but we much prefer sailing — it’s faster (when we have wind), quieter, and more fun.

Yesterday and today a cold front has been passing us from the north east, and we have had many showers and a few downpours. It’s nice to get the boat rinsed off with fresh water. We have finally brought the foul weather gear out of mothballs, and it is keeping us fairly warm and dry. We are also starting to wear shoes again — some of us have been barefoot since we left Kauai. We have had many sunny moments too, and the weather continues to be beautiful.

Dinner last night was spaghetti with sausages added to the sauce. After dinner we watched the first half of “Longitude”, the A&E production starring Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon. Last night we shifted our three-hour watches to start at 8:00 PM, which better suits the local sunrise and sunset. As always, the person on first watch only gets to see the evening movie in bits and pieces.

We have finally used up our fresh food, and are eating from cans. Jim has this to say about that:
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We’ve run out of fresh food except for grapes, and a few apples and oranges. So, our current bill of faire come from packages or cans. At first I thought I had over provisioned for this trip but it may be pretty close. Not that I think we will miss any meals. Far from it as we still have our pupus (Hawaiian for snacks) and drinks in the afternoons. Although some of us may have overdosed on canned chicken by the time we arrive in SF as it seems to be disguised in every dinner entree, chicken stew, chicken curry, chicken tacos, chicken chili con carne and beans, chicken spaghetti, etc.
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Today we solved a problem with our radio email. We have been able to send, but for three days we hadn’t received any mail, including some weather information that should have been arriving daily. It turns out that the “SailMail” station in Palo Alto, which we have been using lately, wasn’t sending us our incoming mail. When we switched over to another station (San Luis Obispo), we suddenly received three days worth of email.

Best wishes from the crew of the VALIS –
Dan, Jim, Paul, Paul

Report from VALIS – Sept 5

As of 2:00 PM PDT, VALIS was at latitude 39deg 47min north, longitude 137deg 02min west, and sailing due east at a speed of 8.2 knots (over the ground). Winds are from the southwest at 21 knots. We are sailing under reefed main, full jib and stays’l.

The weather has been generally overcast since yesterday (Thursday), with some light rain throughout the night. This morning we had a few hours of clear skies overhead, but now we have 100% cloud cover. The temperature is comfortable, but is definitely getting cooler.

Aside from minor adjustments to our sail trim and Monitor windvane as the wind rises and falls, there hasn’t been much to do over the past couple of days. We read and nap, and the major events of the day are:
* Morning boat inspection
* Morning email call
* Breakfast (Daniel made pancakes this morning)
* Lunch or snacks
* Dinner (Last night Jim made a tasty chicken stew that stuck to out ribs — and to the plates, and pots, and anything else it touched).
* 8:30 PM Pacific Seafarer’s Net (keeping track of the other boats in our area, and trying to impress everybody with our boatspeed)
* Evening Video Presentation (we’ve recently watched, in reverse order: Mad Max, Ghostbusters, Reservoir Dogs.)

We haven’t seen any ships for a few days, but we keep looking. The night watches are still starting at 9:00 PM, but we will be shifting to 8:00 PM tonight or tomorrow, to keep in synch with local sunset. Every watch has it’s own characteristic, but the general opinion is that the first (9-12 midnight) and last (6-9 AM) are the favorites. Here are some comments from Jim about the last watch:
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I’m currently on one of my favorite watches, sunrise watch 6am to 9am PDT. Although there is 100% cloud cover this morning, it is still wonderful watching the sky brighten and come alive. Off to the east is about 1 inch of pinkish-grey light peering out under the dark grey overcast clouds. Now, its 2 inches and a golden pink. Grey overcast on the rest of the horizon with light blues appearing in spots as the entire sky slowly lightens and lightens until it eventually completely brightens. At sea, every sunrise and for that matter every sunset is new experience of seeing different ways nature arranges the colors and lighting for each show.
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Best wishes from the crew of the VALIS
Daniel, Jim, Paul, Paul

Report from VALIS – Sept 3/4

As of Noon today (Sept 4), VALIS was at latitude 39deg 47min N, Lon 141deg 04min W, sailing due east at a speed of 7.2 knots over the ground. Winds are from the southwest at 17 knots, seas are from the southwest at 3 feet.

We have had two days of just great sailing. Having reached 40 degrees latitude, we are now sailing due east and heading for home. We are aiming a bit north of San Francisco to be able to take advantage of the typical weather patterns as we approach the coast. The days and nights are getting cooler, and we now wear our fleece coats or windbreakers when on night watch.

After several days of being the only boat in sight, at about 11:00 PM last night we saw a freighter, steaming from Japan to San Diego. We had a brief VHF radio conversation, to ensure that they saw us, but as it turned out they passed well to one side of us, with neither of us having to alter course. We continue to see small birds, and the occasional albatross. Two nights ago, the small birds were flying back and forth over the cockpit, and chirping — they seemed more like bats than birds.

Dinner Tuesday night was tuna surprise (the surprise was how good it tasted), and last night we had chicken curry over curry rice. This morning Daniel made us breakfast of scrambled eggs, country-style potatoes, and sausages. During breakfast we went over the things on board that have been working well, and things that need to be fixed. We’ve got a nice work list to take care of when we get home, but nothing that won’t keep for a few weeks.

Today looks like it will be a great day, with the sun shining between the clouds, and the wind continuing to blow us home.

Best wishes from Dan, Jim, Paul, Paul

Report from VALIS – Sept 1/2 (our last report was Aug 30/31)

As of Sept 2, 6:30 PM PDT, our position was latitude 39 deg 44 min north, longitude 147 deg 24 min west. Our course is north east, and our speed is about 7 knots. The wind is from the south west, at about 13 knots, and we are running with our spinnaker and main.

We are approaching 40 degrees latitude, where we will turn due east to head for home (at least as close to due east as we can comfortably sail). The weather is good, and the reports indicate that we will have favorable winds for quite a while. It continues to get cooler, but it is still much warmer than it would be on the California coast (we are almost to the latitude of Cape Mendocino now), since the winds and currents are coming from the south. As we get closer to the coast, we will be sailing into much colder weather.

Yesterday we put up the spinnaker for the first time since leaving Kauai. The winds have been steady and favorable, and the spinnaker gives us a faster and more comfortable ride. We have seen more albatrosses, and other smaller birds, and yesterday we saw a very large school of dolphins herding their dinner. These dolphins never got as close to us as did the previous school, but it was still a thrill to watch the two dozen or more of them leap out of the water again and again.

After yesterday’s Pacific Seafarer’s Net, we spoke with the sailboat “Trig”, who left Hanelei Bay two days before us, heading for Portland. We are about 60 miles behind them — too far to use the VHF radio, so we used our single-sideband radio. It was nice to share experiences and strategy with them.

Last night as it was getting dark, it seemed that the wind was picking up, so we doused the spinnaker to be safe. Of course, the wind promptly calmed down for the rest of the night. This morning we hoisted the spinnaker again, and we have been flying it since then.

Dinner last night was blackened mahi-mahi with wild rice, and for lunch today we had cheese and chicken quesedillas (sp?). Dinner tonight is anybody’s guess.

Once we raised the spinnaker this morning, it has been a very peaceful day spent reading books, listening to music, and napping. Pretty nice!

Best wishes from the crew of the VALIS,
Daniel, Jim, Paul, Paul

Report from VALIS – Aug 30/31

Greetings from VALIS and its happy crew. As of 10:00 PM we are at latitude 38 deg 23 min north, longitude 152 deg 22 min west. We are sailing northeast at about seven knots. Winds are from the southeast at 18 knots, and seas are from the southeast at 3 ft.

Last night we had steady winds, but as the sky lightened the winds began to fall a bit. Once the sun was up we poled out the jib to keep it full as we rolled in the swells. Later on today the wind picked up again and we are making good time, although the ride is somewhat rolling.

Today we read, rested, and practiced tying fancy knots. Tonight’s dinner was spaghetti with sausage added to the sauce. Tonight’s movie will be “Farenheit 451″ (last knight we watched “Donnie Darko”, and the night before we watched “Barton Fink”). We don’t watch movies *every* night, though.

Since the skies are overcasr and drizzling tonight, in addition to our regular man on watch, we are running the radar in “timed tracsmit, watch circle” mode. This means that every ten minutes the radar makes a few scans and starts beeping if it sees anything in a ten-mile radius. We are well out of the shipping lanes now, but we want to be careful.

Best wishes,
Daniel, Jim, Paul, Paul.

Report from VALIS – Aug 29/30

As of 9:00 PM, PDT, VALIS is at lat 36deg 09min, lon 153deg 53min, sailing due north at 6 knots. Winds are from the southeast at 13 knots. Seas are from the southeast at 2 feet.

As the sun set last night, we were sailing very slowly towards the northwest, trying to get north into some more wind. The high pressure system to our east has been creeping towards us and giving us extremely light winds. After midnight, the wind died to the point where we decided to start the engine and head north under power, running at a low speed to maximize fuel efficiency. We motored most of the day, until, almost as if a switch had been pulled, the wind piped up from the southeast at 12 knots. Not wanting to tempt fate, we waited a few minutes, but finally set all sails and continued heading north, but under sail at 6+ knots. The conditions have been steady since then.

In spite of the light winds, yesterday was a beautiful day. Daniel had his best kite-flying episode yet, during a brief period of wind, with the kite flying high for about fifteen minutes. It was retrieved successfully without hitting the water. More about the dolphins we saw yesterday: Paul G. spotted about fifteen of them coming from several hundred yards off, and as they leapt from the water, it looked like they were going to accompany our boat for a while. But as soon as they came alongside, they veered off behind us and kept leaping from the water. It soon became apparent they they were actively herding a school of small fish, which they must have been eating. The dolphins were swimming in circles, and it appeared that they were working in perfect coordination as they splashed and turned. Quite a sight that we chanced to sail into!

As we watched the sun set over a mirror-smooth sea, we saw a double “green flash” when the swells lifted our boat into perfect position twice. The waxing crescent Moon set soon after the Sun, and then Mars dominated the evening sky, casting its reflection in the smooth water.

Breakfast today was a scrambled egg concoction, making use of last night’s leftover curry chicken. An unusual taste sensation, we all agreed. For dinner tonight we had salmon, salad, and rice, with chilled Zinfandel.

Until tomorrow (or the next day),
Best Wishes from the crew of the VALIS

Report from VALIS – Aug 28/29

As of Friday, Aug 29, 12:00 Noon PDT, VALIS was as lat 34deg 34min north, lon 154deg 24min west. We are sailing on northeasterly course at a speed of about 5 knots. The wind is from the north at about 10 kts, and the seas are about 2 ft high.

We have seen several more ships — two yesterday, and one this morning. We talked with all but the most recent on the VHF radio, and had limited, but pleasant, conversations. One ship, bound for Long Beach from Tokyo, wanted to make sure that we were all doing OK and asked if we needed anything.

Early Thursday morning, Daniel saw a dolphin leaping through the waves alongside our boat. This is the first large fish (OK, an aquatic mammal) sighting since we left Kauai. We are beginning to see the small floating “by the wind sailors” jellyfish (or whatever they are) that were so common during the first week of our trip down from San Francisco. Closer to Hawaii, we did not see any of these at all.

However, just this afternoon we saw a school of dolphins and Paul G. got a picture (we think)of one leaping out of the water.

We are expecting the wind to start to come from the south west later today or tomorrow. Once (if) this happens, we will be able to sail more north, and curl around the top of the high pressure system that usually sits offshore of northern California. Until then we are content to sail mostly east, and towards the north when we can, and enjoy the cooling, pleasant, weather.

Best wishes to all,
the crew of the VALIS

Report from VALIS – Aug 27 (and the morning of Aug 28)

As of Thursday, Aug 28, 9:30 AM PDT, VALIS was as lat 34deg 25min north, lon 156deg 51min west. We are sailing on northeasterly course at a speed of about 4 knots. As was predicted, the wind has shifted to come from the west, and is light. The seas are fairly flat.

Dinner Tuesday night was spaghetti. So was lunch Wednesday. We spent Wednesday chasing the wind, with periods of good wind and great sailing, but much of the day we had light and variable winds (and still great sailing, even if we weren’t going anywhere). We are continuing to head towards the USA/Canada border, with the expectation that we will be swinging due east once we are well north of San Francisco. Right now, we are a little bit north, and about 1800 nautical miles west of Santa Barbara.

The big excitement yesterday was when Jim spotted a freighter on the horizon. It had a huge white boxy superstructure, and at first it looked like a cruise ship. We raised her on the VHF radio, and learned that they were on their regular run, bound from Brazil to Korea with a cargo of trucks. As it got closer, we could see a dark hull and the loading ramps of a vehicle carrier. This was our first ship sighting since we left Kauai.

We continue to have visiting Tropicbirds, and yesterday we saw our first Albatross. It was flying within a few feet of the waves at times, and circled us several times before heading north. This dark bird had a very large wingspan.

Paul Grossman made some tasty Chicken Picante, with potatoes and onions, for dinner, and we opened a bottle of Merlot which was enjoyed by all. We made contact with the Pacific Seafarer’s Net, gave our report, and heard the reports from the other boats, which were pretty encouraging. Our three-hour evening watches began at 10:00 PM (the sun is just beginning to set here at that time), with Paul E. first, than Paul G, Daniel, and Jim.

Jim wanted to share some thoughts about his last watch:
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I’d like to talk about my watch last night which was from 7 to 10 AM PDT. This is one of my favorite watch times as there is the greatest variety of conditions and things to see. Starting with the stars, moon and Mars, then first light or as mariners call it twilight, after is the golden red color of sunrise, finishing with the full exposure of daylight and the waves and sky around. Tonight without the light pollution of the city lights the night stars of the Milky Way are so brilliant it seems like I could reach out and touch them. The planet Mars was the brightest body in the sky until a sliver of a new moon appeared the sky. Twilight begins as the stars begin to fade as the eastern sky starts to lighten and displays first the individual outlines and then the groups of clouds themselves.
Before the sun actually sunrises it does a exquisite job of back lighting the clouds beneath it radiating bright golden red colors from the upper edges of those clouds.
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Best wishes to all,
the crew of the VALIS

As of Aug 26, 9:00 PM PDT, we are at lat 32deg 47min north, lon 159deg 54min west, and are sailing slightly north of east at 5 kts. Winds are about 10 kts from the north, and seas are 2 ft. Skys are partly cloudy. We are sailing with full jib, staysail and main.

After looking at the weather predictions, we decided to turn east as soon as the wind would let us. We were expecting the wind to swing from the north west to from the north, and it seems that this is starting to happen. We still need to travel further north, but it looks like we will have favorable winds in the next few days. The Pacific High is still well north and east of us, but we are many days from that, and will adjust our strategy once we get closer.

Yesterday, after the Pacific Seafarer’s Net, we had a nice ham radio conversation with Richard Bowen, a friend of Jim and Paul, who was on his boat in Sausalito.

Other than the course change (we went from a starboard tack to a port tack), today was pretty relaxed. We read books, and Daniel tried to fly another kite. He managed to not lose this one, but the kite required quite a bit of aerodynamic fine-tuning. He is still working on it.

Dinner was spaghetti with Caesar salad and wine, during which we discussed the appropriate course to take and decisions to make to get us home. We also discussed the social pecking order on board, with each of us reaching different conclusions.

Spirits are high, and we have been enjoying some beautiful sailing and scenery. You might think that it would all start to look the same, but we continue to marvel at the ever-changing interplay between the wind and the sea. No two waves, or clouds, or the many continuously varying colors of the sunsets/sunrises are ever the same. Sometimes the sunset can be the a 360 degree color movie we watch from the cockpit after dinner each evening.

Best Wishes,
Dan, Jim, Paul, and Paul.

As of Aug 25, 7:00 PM PDT, we are at lat 30deg 46min north, lon 160deg 01min west, and are sailing north west at 5.5 kts. Winds are about 10 kts from the north east, and seas are 3 ft. Skys are partly cloudy. We are sailing with full jib and main.

Yesterday, Daniel flew another kite, for a while (about 45 seconds). It met the same fate as all of the others. Bad luck? Slow learner? You be the judge. Last night we all enjoyed a spectacular sunset, and we had a beautiful night sail, with Mars rising around sunset and the waning Moon rising just before sunrise. Through the night the wind was falling, and at one time we switched from the Monitor windvane to the B&G autopilot as the winds became too light for the Monitor to operate. The winds fluctuated until just after sunrise, when they dropped to about 2 kts, at which point we started up the diesel engine.

We motored and charged our batteries for several hours until the winds finally began to pick up and we set the sails again. Throughout the day the seas have been very calm, although we are now getting some swells from the north.

The day was spent in searching for wind, consulting the weather charts to work out our strategy, and discussing philosophy (no kidding!). We had better luck with the wind than with the philosophy.

Our fresh fruit continues to spoil faster than we can eat it, but we are working on it vigorously. This evening we had wine and crackers with cheese, anchovies and smoked oysters, and we plan to have chicken curry (for Andrew, that’s “Madras Your Ass”) over rice for dinner. In about an hour we will be participating in the ham radio Pacific Seafarer’s Net, and we are very eager to hear what weather is being reported in front of us.

Best Wishes,
Dan, Jim, Paul, and Paul.