Marshalls to Alaska Day 14 - Riding a Conveyor Belt in the Fog

This screenshot from Predictwind Offshore showing us entering the 2+ kt conveyor belt north.  Nice to get current data while offshore through the Iridium Go.

Greetings,

Today was a day for the record books - on top of fast boat speeds, we had a push of 2.8 kts of current. Our Predictwind current chart looks like a brightly coloured conveyor belt, and we spent the day riding it towards Dutch Harbor :)

Approx 2.9 kts of current pushing us towards the Aleutians.

[Aside - there was a period today when there was an issue with the Predictwind server, and it showed us off the coast of Africa at [lat 0,long 0]. This issue was quickly fixed by their IT team.]

Our faster speeds have boosted us up the latitudes, and are now approaching San Francisco on the California coast. Special greetings to our cruising friends in San Diego, which we passed yesterday :)

I woke this morning to the delightful sound of kids' laughter in the cockpit - Victoria, Benjamin, and Johnathan had the watch. Every few minutes their beeper would go off, and I would hear Victoria directing the others to check for squalls and traffic on their side of the boat. We were in 17 kts of wind on a broad reach, and the sea state was so comfortable I thought we had somehow stopped moving. Benjamin was exclaiming over the fog which had surrounded us - he had never seen it before.

A bit of fog. Not up to Nova Scotia standards but a change from tropical blue.

The winds were unusually steady all day long - they eased a little, but we never saw less than 13 kts, and the sea state remained comfortable. Boat speed and speed over ground stayed in the morale-boosting 6-8 kt range. We'll have milestone chips tomorrow as we flew by 1500 nm to go last night; we are half-way to Alaska by mileage.

With a forecast for the winds to veer until we are close-reaching again by tomorrow, today was a good day to tackle some of the small maintenance jobs that had built up. While I slept away the afternoon off-watch, Max got the kids to sew a dyneema chafe sleeve to our staysail halyard and to re-tie and re-seize the knot to the snap-shackle. He emptied part of the lazerette and re-secured our header tank hoses for the diesel furnace. Accessing the lazerette allowed him to do a mid-passage check of the autopilot (all good) and to re-mount a smoke detector which had begun chirping every time some lines brushed against it (now good). He was also able to do a thorough check of the engine and rig beyond what he does on a daily basis (all good). I was tired just hearing the list when I woke up to cook supper!

Speaking of supper, we have eaten through the meat in our freezer, and are now enjoying the fruits of our canning labour - before we left Majuro, I prepared a number of bottles of canned beef and chicken, which can make preparing dinners much faster on passage. The basis for tonight's meal was a jar of beef, followed by Canada Day cake for dessert. Given that they are not commercially labeled, these jars will all need to be consumed before we arrive in Dutch Harbor, so the 'what's for dinner' question has become a quick mix & match of beef/chicken, rice/pasta, and some combination of corn, tomatoes, and kidney or pinto beans, usually with enough left over to answer the 'what's for lunch' question the following day. Everyone is still getting their daily ration of mung bean sprouts, and our little two-jar farm is working out quite nicely; the jars nestle next to the dish drainer, and benefit from engine heat wafting up from below when we motor. Sunset has shifted closer to 8pm, so Victoria has been off the hook to cook for the last few nights as I have had time to cook after my off-watch.

The morning's fog stayed with us all day, leading to a conversation around why fog forms and why the various types of it come and go (a.k.a home school science). It has given everything in the cockpit a damp sheen, and the chilliness has meant more layers have come out of the cupboard. Our new Woolx hats have become the on-board fashion statement. Even with the upwind side of the rain enclosure lowered, it remained damp and cold in the evening, so by the time I was on night watch I was wearing a wool top, fleece sweater, down jacket, a light shell and a wool hat. Even in the fog, it was nice to be comfortable!

We are hoping to continue to ride this ocean current for another day. The wind is expected to remain steady and plentiful for a couple of days before we get into our next light (motoring) phase. All is well on board and spirits are cheerful.

Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 2019-07-01 2:45 AM (utc) SV Fluenta's position was 37°59.60'N 170°15.46'E

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