Voyage of Traveler / Blog

Traveler’s Position Report
August 5 at 1100 PDT
31-34 N, 154-54 W
Wind and Seas easing, 9 knots from ESE
Course: 020
Speed: 5.2

That is great news about Hurricane Eugene losing strength and being downgraded to a tropical storm, as it moves into cooler water. Also, it is so far away that is of little consequence to us directly. That is a big relief, especially to my crew, some of whom were quite concerned about being at sea with (as of yesterday) a hurricane four days away and headed toward us. We can expect some big swells from it, but that will not be a problem for us.

The Pacific High is near, and we are considering starting the engine and motor sailing with the jib furled and getting maybe another half knot or so of speed out of the main. With the engine running, we have power to make water with our watermaker, about 13 gals. per hour, and the engine heats the water, so we can enjoy taking a nice deck shower every day.

Our speed just dropped, as I am writing this, to 4 knots. Between our main tank (117 gallons) and the ten 5-gal. jerry jugs of diesel tied down to the deck, we have enough fuel to motor over 900 miles, so we might as well fire up the Yanmar. Under power, we will cruise at 8 knots.

Erik is no longer sea sick. He thinks he lost three or four pounds, but will likely gain it back over the next week. Natalie is so ready to get off the boat and onto dry land. This is only her second time on a boat, the first being a day sail out of Newport on Traveler in pleasant conditions. For the past 6 days we have been beating to windward, heeled way over, and pounding in 4 to 6 foot seas, into 15 to 20 knots of wind, with reefed sails and waves washing back over the deck and all the hatches closed tightly causing it to be unbearably hot and humid below. So the calmer conditions are welcomed.

The speed just now dropped down further to 3.6 knots. I opened the hatches in the salon and immediately it is a pleasant temperature with a much-welcomed light breeze down below.

We just spotted another sailboat about 4 miles behind us, and they answered when I called them on Ch 16. Their boat is named “Klondike” and they are headed from Hanalei Bay to Santa Cruz (mutual friend Skip Allen).

“Brian, start the engine, please. Let’s furl the jib. Set the autopilot for a new course of 055.”

This marks the beginning of the second of three legs of our delivery of Traveler back home to Newport Beach. The first leg was beating from Niihau north then northeast up toward the Pacific High for about 650 miles. This leg we are on now will be motoring across the southern edge of the High for about 850 miles over five days, to about 35 N, 155 W. The third and final leg will be sailing from there, hopefully with a good breeze just aft of the beam, for the final 1000 miles. Total distance, about 2500 nautical miles, which is slightly more than 1/10th of the way around the world at the equator.

We are still a long way out, so subject to change, our arrival date looks like August 18.

Living the Dream,
Michael