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