We are getting close: only 970 miles to go until we sail under the Golden Gate Bridge. We seem to have sailed over the top of the Pacific High (although we may have some light and frustrating winds in the next day or so), and we are well on our way towards the “Northerlies”, which are the typical winds along the coast. As we approach the coast we will be entering the “squash zone”, where the northerlies strengthen and the swells increase. The forecasts at this point don’t show anything out of the ordinary. It is starting to look like our original estimate of a three-week passage will end up being pretty close.
If you look at the attached Google Earth trackfile, you will see that during the evening yesterday and early this morning our course gradually swung more and more south, as the wind shifted to the north. Around 4:00AM we decided to jibe, which involved swinging the asymmetrical spinnaker and the main from the port to the starboard side. Once this was accomplished we were back on course to San Francisco. Since then, the wind has shifted back to be more from the West and we are sailing about 60 degrees true, which is north of our goal (but not so far that jibing again would be a help). We do want to approach San Francisco from the north, which will let us run more downwind and be more comfortable than if we attempt to approach from the south, so we are happy to sail as we are for now.
We sighted a ship just before midnight, and tracked it on radar (just for practice). We didn’t attempt to call on the VHF.
Around noon today we dropped the spinnaker, since the 20-knot winds and swells were making it hard to keep on course. Instead, we put up the genoa, and this smaller sail helps us keep things under control. We are sailing a bit slower, but our average speed is about 7 knots which is just fine.
Dinner last night was spaghetti with sausages in the sauce, a good meal in this cooling weather. This morning Phil made pancakes and bacon, which was a great feat given the rolling of the boat while we were flying the spinnaker. He managed to get the food to our bowls and keep it off the floor — thank you!
We currently have patchy clouds, and occasional drizzle between the periods of sunshine.
Our position is latitude 39deg 45min N, longitude 143deg 08min W. We are sailing 060deg true at 6.8 knots. Winds are 18 knots from the west.
Regards,
VALIS

valis-aug07.kmz