Traveler Baja Bash Update
June 24, 2010
Traveler Baja Bash Update
377 miles south of San Diego
The good news is we are making way. The wind has eased to 14 knots, and the waves are down to 3 to 4 feet. Smooth sailing with just 377 miles to go to San Diego–it seems like such a short distance to us now. We are all healthy. Plenty of food and enough water. I just set the ship’s clock ahead to Pacific Time, having now crossed all 24 of the world’s time zones!
The bad news is we are having new electrical problems. This is on top of the engine problem (won’t start) we developed two days ago. The autopilot is acting up. It has worked flawlessly since we bought it in Singapore (Jan. ‘08). But now it won’t hold course. So we are hand steering the rest of the way, headed nonstop for San Diego. We expect to arrive
San Diego sometime around Sunday afternoon.
Hand steering means a watch schedule of two crew on watch for four hours, with the other crew off watch for two hours. Four hours on, two off. Crew fatigue will be a growing problem, and hand steering at night is more difficult–and we are a bit out of practice. It has been a long time since the Transpac Race, where we hand steered for 18 days.
Hasta luego,
Michael
with Barbara and Brian