We continue to plod eastwards with less and less need for the engine which is nice. Today started with dismal weather but it has now cleared to blue seas and 50% cloud cover. The nights are colder with little moonlight and for the last three no stars as it is low visibility lots of cloud cover and the occasional shower. I am now wearing my fleecy undergarments. We are in the benign part of the trip where lots of reading gets done as well as sleeping and day dreaming. Some of the crew might actually start to enjoy it!

When you skipper these trips you are not only the person in charge of navigation, weather routing, provisioning, crew hirer but are also a phychologist and last but not least the biggest thing you are responsible for the safety or the boat and crew.

When I first started to do this the responsibility seemed to weigh on my shoulders a lot more. Maybe it is because I have come to these trips more prepared and are more aware of what can go wrong so I try to sort the problems out before they become a large issue or maybe it is because I am just more mature.

Either way I was trying to explain to Luke the other night about the sleeplessness of being skipper. When I am off watch my body is constantly alert very very rarely do I go into a deep sleep. I pretty much know what is going on around me at all times. I might be asleep but somehow my mind will register conversations going on around me and I will wake up if it is something that I need to sort out. The other night the guys on deck were reading down the compass number on the B and G and the guys down below were reading off the VHF COG and they were wondering why things were different. The heading I had given them was meant to be gaining latitude not losing it. The number on the port B and G read latitude so they should be able to figure out pretty easily if they are gaining latitude or not. It had been fine on my watch when I left deck 2 hours before so what was different. My mind decided I should get up and check to see if there was anything different stored in the aft bunk next to the gyro compass. I got out of my bunk and low and behold a tool kit had been moved when food was being accessed and it was nicely stored next to the compass. Upon removal the compass changed and the heading worked fine.

Every time the engine gets turned on or off or the rpms are changed I wake up (not fully eyes open) register this change feel the motion of the boat and decide whether I need to fully wake up or not. All this means that I need more sleep than the rest of the crew because what I am getting is not the same quality however, with the many little jobs this doesn’t happen. When I am off watch I might be downloading weather/emails, sorting out a boat job (like today resaling the main fine tune cleat so it doesn’t leak into the aft bunk), organising the food and putting out the days lunch, making dinner, bailing out the bilge, cleaning the head, participating in roll call the list goes on…

So the other night Luke turned on the engine then turned it off then called down and woke me for watch then turned on the engine then called down because I hadn’t got up. I was motified as being late on watch is the worse sin to commit on a boat and doing it as skipper shows a bad example. So I thought about why I had been late and it came down to this. I was asleep then woke when the engine was first turned on and mentally said to myself the wind has just died it is nothing to worry about. Then the engine was turned off and I felt the heel of the boat and woke and again told myself wind has got up go back to sleep then a few minutes later luke calls down I respond ok but don’t immediately sit upright (that is my mistake), I lay there for a few minutes not fully awake and then the engine goes back on and I think ‘nothing to worry about wind has died go back to sleep’ except I was meant to be on watch! Oh well I was up 8 minutes late so I got up 8 minutes early for my next one and it all works out in the end!

The sleep thing is a funny thing. The watch system we have right now of 1.5 on and 4.5 off is luxurious. The one my brother and I did round britain was 3 on 3 off. Oddly the more exhausted him and I became the more our minds started to play with us. Several times in the two last legs we would crawl into our bunks and sleep soundly for 45 minutes to an hour and then get up and start getting dressed. The person on deck would call down and say ‘what you doing up’ – ‘coming on watch’ – ‘you have another 1.5 hours off’ – ‘well why didn’t you tell me earlier’ – ‘well I thought you were using the head or something’ – ‘go back to sleep’!

Anyways we are under 700 miles to go and are at 38 10N 137 29W. See those of you in CA this time next week.

Lots of dried food stored aft..

No we aren’t drinking out here… but I always find that the day after a halfway party everyone is on a downer because they realise they have to do what they have done all over again. I have taught myself to mentally deal with it in a different way. For a start I see this trip as two seperate trips. The one from south to north and the one from west to east. If you look at it in that way then the day after the half way party you are starting a new trip which ends in getting home. The first part of the west east trip is a few days of motoring which we have now been doing for 36 hours so far. The second part is a reach home in cold wet conditions ending in the sight of the golden gate bridge.

Tonight we are jazzing up the rice a roni with a can of chicken breast and a jar of artichoke hearts. Without a refridgerator it gets hard to keep the dried starchy food interesting. Everyone starts to miss fresh veg even if they aren’t that big of a veg fan on land. I have my standard things that I crave it is always fresh sqeezed OJ, a chocolate milkshake, ice cream and a fillet mignon steak meal from Izzy’s!

Yesterday was a day of housekeeping we cleaned out the head, the cooler box and had a shower each cleaning our hair etc. I have learnt over the last 19 years of offshore how to have a complete bath using a liter of water including shaving my legs, under the arms and shampoo and conditioning of hair. I don’t do the salt water thing as I really do hate getting salt water on me. Charlie blissfully filled up several buckets with salt water and poured it over himself just like Olivier at the end of the race. Luke is being a typical student and is not having a shower and Ed is going for the fresh water in a bucket shaving his face type.

BTW Ed’s ETA is 10th at 10:12pm to be exact. So it looks like I am the pessimistic one 🙂 either that or realistic having spent many years taking our ETA and then adding 12 hours to it and invariably it works out.

Our position is 37 57N 142 26W only 20 degrees to go to the east. Still not halfway east though as Hawaii is at 157W and SF is at 122W.

So this evening we had a little party at the same time as roll call. We are over half way now and have turned to CA motoring across the high on a heading just north of the golden gate. We are slowly working our way up to 38N only another 15 miles to go. Seeing as we have enough fuel range for 715 miles there aren’t any worries about running out of fuel.

So this evening we had a little party at the
We had a tapas evening with grilled eggplant, salami, cheese, crackers, balsalmic vinegar and oil, serrano ham, pita chips, flat bread with olive tapanade. This was washed down with crystal geyser lemonade. We put the engine into idle for the hour and let it cool down as it has been going since early this morning. The evenings meal was caramalised onion with hard salami chunks, browned corn added into mac and cheese. So as you can see we went all out for the party.

We filled up the tank for our overnight motoring and everyone has put in their ETA’s for going under the golden gate bridge as we have only 1075 miles to go.

Charlie – 10th August 11am
Luke – 10th August 8pm
Ashley – 11th August 9:30am
Ed – (has an hour and 50 minutes to put it in the ballet so check the blog tomorrow to see if he is a glass half full or empty type of guy!)

We also changed our clocks to PST so it is now 10pm and I am on watch in 2 hours.

So we are at the point that you seem to come to in every Pacific delivery. Do you suck it up and keep on heading to Alaska or Russia to get up to the ‘right’ latitude or do you go east towards California which is really where you want to go? Every time I have to basically strap myself in my bunk and resist the urge for just another day and never regret the decision.

Roll call has been full of discussion with people on the SSB literally pleading for the fleets ‘blessings’ for them to start heading east. The crew as always at this point in the trip is wanting to head east as they are seeing bearings of NNW and didn’t sign up for a trip to Alaska. The way I see it is there are several options but first you need to know where I am coming from.

I want to get home the quickest way possible. I am not into hanging around out here. My mother is in SF on the 13th and it would be great to see her. Charlie’s wife’s birthday is on the 13th and he would love to get there for it (though the jury is out as to whether after how ever many years of marriage it is she wants to see him!). By the end of this trip I would have clocked up over 8000 miles since May 31st on 30 foot boats and as the guy said on the radio from the tanker – that is the smallest boat I have seen in the middle of the pacific! I also did 2500 miles on an icebreaker in the southern ocean so this year hasbeen a lot about water. Also I get paid by the trip not the day so the quicker I do it the higher the profit but then again there is the fact that my clients are my friends and I don’t want to blemish my record of returning boats with no damage in better condition than when I got them. I can’t blame the sailing for it but my boyfriend dumped me by email last week so you can see where I am coming from. Home sounds good right about now.

So that being said what is the best way to get home safely, with no damage and fast. It really comes down to a compromise. I have a lot of fuel 70g to be precise, a boat that does 5 knots in 10 knots of wind, grib files, a barometer (which although not reading the right mb shows me trends) and boats all around reporting to me daily with wind direction and speed.

From PassageWeather.com (North Pacific > California to Hawaii)

I don’t see the grib files as being all that helpful as one of the boats north and east of us said they are finding it hard to find a correlation between what they are seeing on the water and the grib files. The pressure is rising and the wind speed dropping so we are getting closer to the high and that is what roll call is also telling us.

My options are as follows:
1) Turn now and head east looking for the northerly that is being reported at 144 and hope that lifts me enough to get to 38N before I get to the compressed winds on the coast. IF it doesn’t than I will be beating into a northerly from the south on the coast causing postential damage to the baot and making life uncomfortable for the crew. The upside to this is potentially no motoring as I should be in more wind.

2) Play the shifts going onto starboard tack if we are losing latitude on port tack and work our way east in the band of pressure on the south part of the high. Motor when necessary on a heading that will get me to 38N by 144W (as that is where according to roll call everyone is seeing northerly winds)

3) Motor into 10 knots of wind on the nose and go exactly where I want to – actually I don’t see is as that much of an option on this boat but it would be on a larger one. On this one I would just be ‘pissing fuel into the wind’ and not really getting anywhere and would have a crew mutiny as it isn’t much fun motoring for days on end.

Last night at 1:30 HST we tacked onto port after almost 9 days on starboard. Although a benign 15 knots things went flying across the cabin as we have been living life on the other slant and things that were stowed fine have to be found a new home. We carried that tack until 4:30am HST this morning when we were losing latitude and so we tacked back to starboard. We will keep playing this game working our way east motoring when our speed drops below 5knots. We will motor not direct at SF but to 38N 144W and then reassess when we get roll call information.

Now to the title of the blog and what it has to do with anything out here. The options are like this:

1) Having been married for many years and at some points in the marriage you have compromised and gone in a direction you don’t want to (i.e. North and NNW) you decide that the grass is greener on the other side and you get a young mistress. So you head off east with this mistress and it is all really great you feel younger and life seems to be good. Life seems to get even better for you as you get lifted (looks like you are getting away with it and your wife hasn’t found out yet) but then eventually you get caught by your long suffering wife and divorce proceedings start (you get to the compressed air on the coast and are below SF). Your mistress now starts to become very high maintenance in fact a lot more maintenance than your ex wife to be was so combining that with the divorce proceedings you lose half you assets at least and get pretty beaten up (you end up beating up the california coast in big seas and lots of wind).

2) Having been married for many years you have learnt to compromise and at some points in your marriage it is like having a young mistress and you head off east not losing any latitude and life is really good. But every now and again you get a header (you lose to the south on port tack) but because you realise you have a great wife you tack and head back in the direction you don’t really want to go because life without her and retirement without her doesn’t look that great. Every now and again you decide between the two of you to spend some of the hard earned cash you have saved up and both go in the direction you want to go in (right at the Golden gate with the motor on full speed ahead) and life is a holiday. But remember retirement accounts are finite (only 70g fuel) and you can get too much of a good thing (get really bored by the sound of the engine!).

We are now starting to feel the chill at 37N and are starting to wear socks and sea boots but there are at least 9 days left of sailing and with the sun high in the sky it is sure to be pleasant during the day.

It is now time for me to get some sleep as the engine purrs away we are at 37 35N 146 20W heading for 38N 144W.

Yesterday the wind continued on the nose at 20 knots and last night it rose to 30 knots with a small sea that was quite confused there was a bit of banging going on! Ed is certain we are half way and keeps on asking me for coniirmation – he is not happy with the answer which is no.Ed admits to being a dinghy sailor at heart. I tell him if he thinks this is banging thank he lucky stars he isn’t going around conception!

Yesterday afternoon we heard a catcall and looked off to starboard to see the SV Jam reaching down to see us. A conversation insued on VHF as their 5 or 6 waved at us than hardened up and went on their way under full main and number 3 or 4. We continued to plod along at 5.5 knots under number 4 and a reefed main.

Hula Girl managed to transfer a battery to Deception yesterday morning doing so by hanging it off the end of their boom so now Deception has power and can join back in on the roll calls we have at 5pm everyday. We were comparing fuel useage yesterday and we have used only 6 gallons this whole trip in comparison to some peoples 30+.

We are just north of 36N which is where the winds were to calm down and they have indeed moderated this morning as has the sea state. We will continue north for another day and half before turning at 38N towards SF if the winds allow. Some of the big boats up ahead are motoring at 38 in glassy calm so we are hoping to stay just on the edge of the high in some wind instead of having to motor for days.

This mornings excitement and the reason for the title of the blog was MSC tanker hailing us and passing 1/2 mile off our stern. They wanted to know what such a small boat was doing in the middle of the ocean apparently they had never seen such a small one out here before! They re transitting from Mexico to Taiwan and we had a chat before they headed off at 20 knots telling us if we needed anything they were on 16.

So we continue our plod north at 36 03N 147 05W

Yesterday Charlie the super spotter saw a large fishing net and entangled inside of it was a sea turtle about 3.5 feet long. So this time it was Charlie’s turn to do a MOB drill and sail up to the net (I didn’t want to have our engine on and possibly end up with net entangled in our prop). I got in my harness once again and put on my neoprene gloves. Luke and Ed dropped the main and we tied a sheet through the net to hold it close to the boat. The turtle not knowing we were rescuing it was trying desperately to dive deep while I was trying to hold it at the surface to cut it out of the net. Thanks to Micheal Redmonds present of my SOG knife which is a little rusty but as sharp as ever we got the turtle lose and he dove quickly to the depths.

Next consideration was whether to leave the net in the sea or bring it aboard to take and dispose of on the mainland. We decided after some deliberation that it was just too big for the petite RB to carry it looked about 400 lbs and would have been a very very large mound on the foredeck. So with heavy hearts we set sail again and headed NE leaving the net behind hoping nothing else would get caught in it.

Last night started to turn a little nippier and with 25 knots on the nose we were beating into it so I went from being barefoot and fancy free to kitted up in seaboots. However, this morning has dawned bright and sunny so I might get away with shorts and tshirt for another day!

Position is 34 13N 148 13N it is a struggle as usual to continue on the northerly course. At about this point you always want to turn east and although it would feel great at the time we would be sure to regret it later!

Henry the turtle was as big as the ones at the aquarium in Bermuda that you take me to when I visit you!

This is my 6th crossing and I have been told about them but never seen one. Yesterday I was woken by Charlie to say there was a green fishing ball and did we want it. So with Ed on the helm I called a MOB drill and told them it was me and they had to pick it up under sail. I got in my climbing harness and Ed put me right next to the ball so I could scoop it up and handed it to Charlie. We removed the 5 mussels attached and two crabs and it is wrapped up safe and sound in the wrecked north sails spinnaker.

Yesterdays other activities was to change to the number 4 from the blast reacher as we are now going fully upwind in about 11-15 knots of wind and to patch a small tear in the main that was made by the spreaders on the race.

The full extent of the crossing seems to be dawning on the guys today as they asked me ‘surely we are a 1/3 of the way by now’. Well in some ways we are! We are almost 2/3 of the way north but we aren’t even a 1/3 of the way east to SF so the half way party won’t be for quite a few more days and as we get headed more by the NE winds it is going to take longer and longer to be 1/2 way in terms of longitude!

This morning I was woken 3 times due to the excitement of seeing two other vessels. They didn’t come within 5 miles of us and when I hailed on VHF there was no answer. The rest of the fleet are doing well with a few problems two boats have returned to Hawaii, Deception is waiting on Hula Girl to do an at sea battery transfer as they have no power to start their engine and another boat has a starting solenoid issue on their engine. Fingers crossed we currently have not problems. There will most likely be a fire sale on the diesal and jerries I have onboard as we have only used 4.2g fuel since leaving almost 7 days ago and I have 70g aboard so all my customers in the Bay please don’t buy diesal until I get there and I will fill you up then!

position is 32 37N 149 49W

It is 2:40am I am in a deep sleep but my body clock says it is time to do something. I am warm and dry, where am I, what am I meant to be doing…. Oh yeah I am on a boat – which one – Rhum Boogie… obviously on the water – where – in the middle of the pacific. Do I really need to get up? – yes – oh yeah I am the skipper and I am on watch at 3am. OK start swimming to the surface out of the deep sleep – don’t go back to sleep. Sit upright – thats a good start – wow this is going to take more than that to get out of the depths of my sleep. Sugar. Go into my personal stash next to my bunk – skittles – a handful of those in the mouth. Instant sugar rush – that will wake me up. It is nice and calm the boat is heeled slightly and it is not hard to get out of the bunk. Walk to the hatch before the kid calls down to wake me and disturbs the other off watch.

So ‘what you got? ‘ I don’t know.. (what do you mean you don’t know – patience ashley) the instruments say 30 knots of wind and 35 knots of boat speed (hmmmm – bugger – well at least they didn’t wake me up to tell me the instruments had gone down). Deep breath – ‘well what you think you have? ‘ (surely you haven’t lost your sight and feel as well it is a bright moonlit night – steady ashley – stop being a grumpy b****). ‘Seems like the wind direction and speed have been steady during my watch.’ – good answer junior. Over to the circuit panel maybe the voltage has dropped – no of course not I always look at that when I wake up there is plenty of power. Turn off the instruments and the autopilot and reboot – from deck ‘I don’t have heading’ – (steady ashley be patient…) ‘Use the binnacle compass on the deck in front of you’.

Go into the head use the head – we are on starboard – damn have to fill a bucket of water to flush as the inlet is out of the water. Go on deck fill bucket flush head. Reboot instruments. No difference. Oh well I don’t really care. Get on kit wow this is nice it is dry and I am in shorts and t-shirt with no shoes. Not a hardship it is going to be a good watch. Get on deck stopping at companionway to clip into safety tether – must remember this so that the new crew see me doing it and do likewise – need to set a good example.

Sit in the plastic garden furniture that serves as our helmsman chair tiller in hand mainsheet in another relieve on deck crew. Just about awake now… Ipod in ear – thanks Scott, Adam and Guillemette. Beautiful night moon has created a yellow brick road. Wack – damn it – another flying fish why do they insist on hitting me all the time. Nice peaceful music on shuffle. Wow – what the hell is that – Myles and his sense of humor – good thing it is a really nice watch otherwise I would lose my sense of humor with that hard core dance music blaring out of my earphones – quick change track.

Only an hour left of watch – don’t think about him – there is no need to put yourself through it all over again every time you wake up.He isn’t worth it. Think about things you want to do when you get back to land. Baseball game, diving, national parks, dinner with friends, Friday night sail… good thoughts. Time to hand over to the next watch!

This part of the trip isn’t so bad…. my kit is dry, my bunk is dry, I have no monkey butt, it is sunny out, the wind is relatively steady, the contents of the head aren’t threatening to end up in my shorts, the boat has an easy motion, we are getting north and east quickly…. all is well.

4:30am the full moon is surrounded by a halo. The sea is calm and sky is clear except for the normal ominous looking squall clouds. Winds fluctuating around the squalls from 11-20 knots shifting as much as 50 degrees. One ear bud in from my Ipod so I can hear what is going on around me and listening to an odd mix of country and western, folk music and some of my brother Myles’s music left over from Round Britain.

Tiller extension resting on my knee using the sheet and traveler to steer the boat allowing her to take the lifts and bound along at sometimes 8 knots towards the east. It is like flying the twin otter using the trim tabs to keep your height. Trav up and sheet off in the lulls, trav down and sheet on in the gusts putting a bubble in the front of the main decreasing our power. The main on this boat has a huge roach and it really drives the boat. We have been running with the jib top and main for a few days now. Only difference is whether we put a reef in or not. No need for the autopilot although junior on the boat seems most distressed about the idea of not having one but I am quite relaxed about it. If we have to motor we will just run with a few sail ties keeping the helm in the center. Saying that tomorrow I might have another go at fault 115 microprocessor not talking to drive unit however, I have a feeling it is beyond repair offshore as funnily enough we don’t carry spare microprocessors onboard!

Dinner was beef tri tip au jus with potato I have a sneaky second helping when I get off watch. As usual I haven’t been into eating with it being so hot. Getting bored of the smash base but as long as the fresh meat lasts we will eat potato then move onto more flavorful bases like rice a roni when we are using canned meats or fish. Shame with the temperature being so hot in Hawaii it is not possible to keep vegetables. Two more pineapples left before we are out of fresh fruit besides apples and oranges which keep a lot longer.

Just back from the deck had to throw in a reef and get rid of the head sail. It always happens on Charlie’s watch that the squalls come through.

Oh almost forgot the reason for the title.. I smell like one! Just as I came on watch a large flying fish thinking RB was a predator lept out of the sea hitting me squarely on the leg leaving me slimed with fish scales. It flopped around in the cockpit for a while before finding it’s way out the stern.

position 29 13N 154 03W

3:30am so bright the moon illuminates the keyboard on the computer. Poor mans auto of sail ties as the auto has a microprocessor fault. Blast reacher 6 -7 knots on course flat calm seas no spray 13 knots of wind. Bare feet, lightweight fleece, trousers, warm, dry, no leaks, no monkey butt. 1.5 hours on and 4.5 hours off! Enya on the ipod a few clouds giving us some breeze a few stars to sail by.

Yesterday did our first transect for the NOAA ocean debris project starting to see lots of plastic garbage in the ocean.

Deleted mountains of mourne off the ipod, read some David Adams Liquid Mountains, thinking of Dad having his operation today, looking forward to getting home and going camping in a national park!