It was a moderately windy day from the north at about 10-12 kts however it dropped to 6-8 kts overnight but we kept on sailing, because that’s what we do!

By noon we had to drop the kite and went to the Genoa as the wind got up to 15 kts!

So now that we have the wind, and the big question is what to do with it. We’ve been using the Predict Wind Offshore App to download and view grib files as well as getting updated weather routing info. However, it is amazing how different the various forecasts (and thus routes) Predict Wind puts out.

Predict Wind says that if the various models are relatively consistent then it is a good bet that the forecast information will be correct. We are currently getting different forecasts between the pwc and pwg files. On top of this we have to make the decision whether to keep heading SW away from Hawaii and thus stay in steadier winds vs taking the rhumb line route and keeping the distances as short as possible.

Well as of today I’ve decided to split the difference. Mainly because we dropped a little south over night with the kite up but we had  good pressure today with the Genoa to keep moving with an apparent wind angle at about 70 degrees (which this boat just loves).

We will continue to look at the weather routing and update our decisions accordingly, however it does feel good to be chomping off the miles directly to our waypoint for the time being after playing cat and mouse with the wind for the last couple of days.

Position update at 1200 local time March 28, 2016:
18 03.204 N
115 55.820W
132 nautical mile noon to noon run
2352 nautical miles to destination
7.6 Kt. SOG
291 COG

If I was a superstitious man I would have to believe that my last entry claiming to found the wind was the primary reason for us losing the wind today. Since I’m not a superstitious man I think it makes it all the worse as I pour over as much weather info I can get my hands on.

I equate this type of sailing (chasing the wind you know must be close) to driving in traffic. Right nowI feel like I just want to keep the boat moving because it feels so much better to sail than it does to motor, (or to be stuck in traffic) but you are never quite sure if your round about route will get you home any sooner.

I must say that every twelve hours or so when I get a new Predict Wind weather route I feel like I am getting conflicting data. Sometimes the routes say I should go north of the rhumbline route and sometimes I should go south. Normally it isn’t a huge deal and you can stick to a route and go, however out here the southern leg is 150 miles further which is a whole days worth of travel, but if the wind is there and you can keep the wheels turning maybe it’s worth it.

Tonight we are going to dive south and see if the winds are a little more stable.

On the upside I was setting up the spinnaker today and climbed out on the pulpit to rig the tack line when I’m eye to eye with a dolphin just chilling in our bow wave. No pomp or fuss on his part, just catchinga ride as we motor along.

Plus we had a pretty awesome sunset so it ain’t all bad!

Position update at 1200 local time March 29, 2016:
18 27.351 N
118 13.645 W
132 nautical mile noon to noon run
2186 nautical miles to destination
3.0 Kt. SOG
316 COG

We keep on motoring…. motoring….

Well most of the time anyways. Jean and I hoisted the kite this morning at a little after 9am and have had it flying on a beam reach ever since.

Sails up!

The winds have been light but good enough to keep sailing with true wind speeds from 7-9 kts for the most part this morning. With that amount of wind on the beam we can make between 4 and 5 kts over ground which is all we can hope for it we were motor sailing anyways.

Last night it was pitch black when the sun went down because the fog was so thick. It was a little bit of an adjustment because we’ve had a full moon for the last three nights.

The guys weren’t wanting dinner last night so George and Jean just had some toast and peanut butter while I ended up making two boxes of Kraft Dinner (so I’d have left overs for breakfast of course!)

The wind has been out of the NE all day so I’m tentatively hoping that it will just hang out and get a little stronger over the next couple days.

Time will tell I guess.

Position update at 1200 local time March 27, 2016:
18 09.301 N
113.40.703 W
112 nautical mile noon to noon run
2490 miles to destination
4.4 kts SOG
293 COG

Sunset #3

Not much to report today. Not much wind, not much sea life and not much of anything to do….

We are heading a little south of west in the hopes that the wind will be a little more stable around 18 degrees south and we should be out past Isla Revillagigedo sometime tomorrow, which means there won’t be any more hunks of rock until we near Hawaii.

It’s amazing how different the ocean is and the boat handles when the wind just isn’t blowing. Two days ago we put in back to back 160 mile days and now we’re are looking at three 100 mile days. I know there isn’t much we can do except stay positive and wait for the wind to fill in (which it looks like it will).

Doesn’t this ocean know I have a schedule to keep, places to be and people to meet…

Another day of sailing! We had good pressure all day and all night and were sailing pretty much 40-50 degrees off the wind to keep our boat speed up. The wind was from the NNW through the NNE so our course was up and down a bit but we made some good distance directly towards Soccoro Island and are in fact point right at the Island now and are only 50 miles away.

If we can keep our boat speed up in a West to South West direction I’m hoping we will miss a low pressure area forming around Soccoro tomorrow, by which time we just might be 100 miles further along and starting to see some true Sustained NE winds in about two days.

We had a little (or not so little) visitor last night who hung out on our dinghy for almost the entire night as we closed in on land again. not only did he get a free ride, but he also had full use of our dinghy as el bano and he didn’t even have to pay the 5 paseos as is customary in Mexico.

Last night I woke up to some swearing as Jean had experienced a minor rope burn when working with a reef in the main. All is good and we were able to get some ice on it right away and everything looks fine. Nothing like the time Kristine really worked he hands over.

Position update at 1200 local time March 25, 2016:
18 42.563 N
109 58.156 W
161 nautical mile noon to noon run
2706 miles to destination
6.5 kts SOG
274 COG

We are on our way! The forecast looks to have variable winds for the next week or so, however if we can just stay area of some of the slower wind patches I’m sure we will make excellent time.

We had a great run for the first four hours out of Neuvo Vallarta as we left the breakwater exactly at 2pm. We beat our way out of the bay until 6 pmand had a nice lift to clear Cabo Corrientes. At 6pm the wind died and we motored and motor sailed for about two hours until the wind filled in from behind and we could hoist the spinnaker just before dark.

We ran all night with the kite up in 10-17 kts of wind however the majority was at about 15kts, which forced us to continually turn the boat further south as the wind bagan to move forward. Since the wind was in the mid teens we just couldn’t carry the asymmetrical  spinnaker closer than 105-110 degrees apparent and were forced to head further south than I had wanted to.

Being our first night out it was nice to just keep sailing without waking people up to douse the kite, however at about 5:15 this morning I decided enough was enough and George and I dropped the kite began beating back up to Soccoro Island.

The wind has held between 10-14 kts for most of the day and we are making great speed. We are constantly seeing boat speeds in the 8-9 kts range and SOG numbers about a knot less due to some counter current. I even saw 11.5 kts speed through the water last night with the kite up!

We are currently at 19 15.193 N 107 19.150 W sailing at 7.5 SOG and 9.0 boat speed on a COG of 265. Since leaving NUevo Vallarta we’ve done 165 miles via GPS, 185 via the log and are 145 nautical miles straight line from our starting point. Only 2868 miles to go!