41 32.5N / 150 05.1W
Week 3 of our passage from Hawaii to Alaska was another disappointing mileage week. We sailed 687 miles which maybe isn't too bad but made only 330 miles good to our destination as the winds just weren't from the right direction. This grand total even included 100 miles of motoring when the wind went to zero for a few days in the middle of the week. At least we are now past the 1/2 way point, but, with 946 miles still to go we are another week to ten days away from arrival.
We started the week hove-to just taking that glancing blow from the low pressure system I wrote about last week and ended it hove-to again, for two days, to deal with a second low which came in right behind it. This time it wasn't just a glancing blow though as, unfortunately, we had F8 (gale) to F9 (strong gale) conditions, gusting up to 50 knots, with 5 metre seas. We hove-to to avoid getting further north nearer the centre of the low which had 60 knot winds. Luckily, we didn't see those.
It looked like it might be ok for a departure this morning, it had dropped to 25-30 knots and the seas were down quite a bit. So, at first light (0400 in these parts) we set off. We're now hard on the wind sailing close-hauled at around 6 knots, almost on course. There's a fair amount of spray over the decks as we are banging into the still high seas. At least the sun is shining and we're moving, mostly in the right direction. It sure beats the past two days spent laying in our sea berths, watching the wind anemometer, wondering how bad will it get, should we have deployed the drogue, should we have done, or, not done this/that etc...
Between the two low pressure systems, we had no wind to speak of. The sea was a flat, oily, mirror calm. We motored for a while and happened upon another small sailboat, just twelve miles away from us. We spoke on the VHF and Richard informed us he was 35 days out from Hawaii. At that point, we were only on day 17, so, that made us feel better. He actually has further to go than us too as he was heading just north of Dixon Entrance, another 300 miles or so further than our due north landfall. We wish him fair winds.
The winds are looking good for the next week, both in direction and velocity. There is one more low pressure system that we may encounter about a week from now, but, that forecast could easily change. Right now it doesn't look as strong as the one we just got through, so, fingers crossed we miss it and/or it won't be anything to worry about.
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Fingers crossed safe journeys XO
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