Archive for August 2014
Completed the Return and Some Final Thoughts
Saturday 8/16/2014
I can’t end this sailing blog without some closing thoughts about how this adventure affected me. Soon I will go back and read all of the postings that were made but right now I want to reach down into my soul and see what impact this experience has had. However before I get all psychological on you I would like to share the final leg of the journey.
At the end of my watch as we approached the Farralon Islands, 25 miles outside the bay, I briefed David on the conditions and course we had followed since he went down. The GPS was showing us 4.5 hours from the Islands and we had set a course a few degrees south to avoid any potential hazard. This is the time of the trip to be overly vigilant in watching out for things that go bump in the night. The weather had quickly deteriorated; it is amazing that we went for shorts and t-shirts to multiple layers and foul weather gear in just over a day. I was wearing the same gear I would wear while snow machining in the mountains of Wyoming in subzero weather. Mark Twain sure got it right.
I stripped out of my wet foulies and one of the base layers and crawled into my bunk and pulled the blanket over me hoping to get some sleep because tomorrow was going to be a very long day. I always know when I get a good sleep in when Angie has to wake me; however this time was an exception. I woke right before my shift time was to begin but thought it was earlier, I got up hit the head and went right back into my bunk. Angie promptly leaned into my nice comfy cocoon and said, “what the hell are you doing, it’s time for your watch”. My response was that I had no idea what I was doing where I was or what time it was. She politely explained that I was on a sailboat just outside San Francisco and handed me a hot mocha, what a gal.
I climbed into the cockpit, sipping on my coffee while Nico explained the multitude of lights that greeted me. The San Francisco lights in the distance were obvious but all of the others were a mystery to this sailor that a few minutes ago didn’t even realize he was a sailor. I sat down and listen in fascination as Nico pointed out each light. “You can see the light bucket light just off our starboard bow. If you look closely you can see the main channel red and green lights slightly to our starboard. We will be staying just port of the green lights so we will stay clear of all of the ship traffic. I’ve been monitoring Channel 12, vessel assist and there are 3 inbound ships and will shift over to Channel 14 as soon as we enter the channel. The difference is channel 12 is for traffic outside of the channel while 14 is inside. The boat off of our starboard, see at about 4 o’clock, is going to be taken on a pilot captain shortly so I am staying way clear of that so I have adjusted our course about 5 degrees to port. You can see the pilot boat coming there at about 2 o’clock because it has a white over red light. Now if you look off to our port after quarter you will see an inbound boat that we can ignore because it is only doing only 8 knots and is too far out to catch us at that speed. I am concerned about the articulated tug and barge that has been chasing us for a while. You can tell that it is an articulate tug rather than a barge in tow by the combination of lights.”
I was following him up to that point. I said, “what the hell is an articulated tug and how do you know that when I can’t hardly even see it.” He proceeded to explain the various combination of lights to designate the different type of vessel, this over that and position of lights on starboard and port depending on the function of the vessel or the response an oncoming vessel has to have. I was thinking I need to take a coastal navigational class and Juan was thinking that his time cruising in Mexico was a piece of cake compared to this; all he had to worry about was avoiding a few pongas that could do very little damage to his solid little sailboat and that the icebox was adequately stocked with beer!
We managed to avoid the multitude of traffic going and coming through the channel and passed under the Iconic Bridge at 3:50 A.M. It was the quintessential Golden Gate Experience without the 20 knots of wind. The fog covered the tops of the towers, the traffic moving across the bridge, the strobe off Alcatraz under the bridge, the new smells from land, both earthen and industrial, the vessel traffic, and the twinkling lights of The City all combined to provide a pleasant transition from the simple solitude of the journey to the complex realities of civilization.
The next two hours were consumed by the gentle passage through the bay. Having no waves to contend with and very little traffic this early in the morning resulted in a pleasant final leg of our journey. Once Avion was safely tied to her slip Juan found a care package left by our good friends Al and Michelle. To think they were there when we departed, they were there when we arrived in Hawaii and now they were there in spirit to greet us upon our arrival with this wonderful care package. I can understand why they weren’t physically there because Avion doesn’t know how to make landfall during the daylight hours; two trips to Monterey, one to LA, the arrival at Hawaii and now the return all were during the wee hours of the morning. The care package was perfect. It had beer, of course, but it also had stuff that Michelle knew we would have been deprived of late in the crossing. Fresh chilled fruit and vegetables, milk, non-soggy chips with fresh guacamole and salsa, and red meat! As the sun slowly lighted the sky and as live-a-boards in the marina started to wonder down the docks we received some interesting looks with all the empty beer bottles and wine bottle sitting on the dock box at 7 A.M.
So what were my most compelling thoughts of the adventure. I’m glad I did it but I probably will not do this particular trip again. The main reason for wanting to have this adventure was to learn more about sailing and about myself. Sailing so I will be better prepared for cruising and for me just for self-actualization. As I stated at the start of this blog I like to test my will and this trip definitely pushed it close to its limits.
The reason I am planning not to do this trip again wasn’t because of it being too much of a challenge, it’s just that I want to put that energy and expense into preparing my boat and myself for cruising. This was the reason for the trip and one of the reasons I asked Lindi to marry me. After the four year adventure with my late wife I have always wanted to go back. The primary problem was that I never had a desire to do it by myself, so I have been searching high and low for that special person that will both put up with me and who has the same objective of wanting to go cruising. Lindi has always had that desire and she also loves the Wyoming Mountains where we plan to stay when we are not cruising. The strangest thing about that is that she is willing to put up with me, and for that matter Juan!
When I was cruising I was successful not necessarily because I had a great skill set but I knew my limitations, which were great. Lindi and I want to go North up into Canada and possibly Alaska and that experience will require having much less limitations. The only way to gain the necessary knowledge is to expose yourself to the elements which require you to become more proficient. The racing aspect makes you push the envelope and find out stuff like it is okay to broach; the question isn’t if you broach, it is how effectively you handle the boat in the recovery of the broach. Going both ways, to and from Hawaii, required a full set of skills. The downwind focus on headsail changes and steering techniques to gain the best performance possible verses the upwind strategy of keeping the boat comfortable but making good way without always in the need of the engine. The biggest issue is anticipating what can go wrong and have contingencies and skills ready to solve them. Of course you can’t anticipate everything that can happen but there is a lot that you can.
The knowledge obtained about the mental and physical aspects of endurance sailing was enlightening. I have always maintained a fairly healthy lifestyle with my biking and sailing. I have done endurance type of events that I think I was better prepared for than this event. I knew I had to work on my upper body but didn’t do as much as I should have. I found the race to be easier physically that the return. The boat was flatter so moving around was easier and the times that required strength and cardio were few and far between. The difficulty physical on the return was constantly supporting yourself do to the listing. This was comparable to doing short sets of pushups all the time while moving about the boat. Another lesson learned was the understanding for the need for flexibility. Moving through the obstacles like mainsail traveler and constant clipping and unclipping harnesses were difficult at times and required twisting and turning that a yoga instructor would be impressed. I am not flexible to say the least so this was a constant challenge and coupled with too much body weight made for a difficult journey.
As for the mental aspect I didn’t have much issue with the race, I knew what to expect and had mentally prepared myself for it. The return trip was a different story. It started out rough, the listing, the swells and the nausea all took their toll. After the first few days I was a little concerned about what I had gotten myself into. Lindi on the other hand seemed always in good spirits and gave me the impression that she was having a wonderful time. This along with the great attitude of the other crew members gave me the courage to fight through the period of adjustment my body was requiring. After 4 days I was well adjusted and was able to handle the routine without a problem. However about 3 days from the completion of the return, after the winds picked back up and Avion was back in her 20 degree list I told Nico at the beginning of one of my shifts that I was ready for this to be over. After talking to him a few days later he said my comment both surprised him and concerned him. He said he talked it over with David to see if there was anything that they could do to make the trip easier for me. A while later when David approached me asking if there was any shift changes that I may want I told him I was fine and didn’t need anything changed. It turned out to be a short term minor adjustment to my will and all was soon back on track.
I now have another fabulous life experience to add to my collection. This will be an adventure that will always be with me and I am so happy I was able to have this experience. I would like to close by thanking both of my skippers; Tom for the race and David for the return, you kept me safe, and happy for 4,140 miles. Thanks to my race team, Nico, John and Kent, and to our return crew Lindi and Angie. Avion was amazing; she safely took us to Hawaii and back without incident. Thank you for all of the positive feedback from those friends and family that followed us on Yellow Brick and the log; this made the trip even more special. Mostly I want to say how happy I am for the experience and the fact that I now have a strong loving mate in Lindi to help me realize my next adventure. You will be hearing more from us as we go out the Gate and turn Right.
Thanks,
Jon
SDolphins Come Play
Return Day 16 8/14/2014 9:30 (120 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
GPS shows only 18 Hours to go at our current rate 7.5 knots. Last evening at the beginning of my watch around 7:00 the wind started to weaken so I fired up the diesel and we have been running it ever since. We must all have our homing instincts in full gear.
Halfway through my morning watch we had a pod of dolphins come play in our wake. It always amazes and thrills me when I experience this. What compels these playful creature to dash around the boat like some carnival ride. They play for a while and then seem to get bored and as quickly as they came they vanish into the grey sea in search of either another adventure or food. Shortly after the first set left another pod came by for a visit. It could have been the same but I doubt it because I was able to watch them arrive off of our starboard bow and they were definitely in a rush to arrive making me think that they were looking for a a new adventure. At the front end of a wave, no further than 50 yards off our starboard beam 7 dolphins simultaneously shot out of the back end of a wave and gracefully entered the water like a choreographed show at SeaWorld. It was well worth the price of admission.
That is all for now, it is extremely difficult to write while trying to balance against the nav station at a 20 degree list while falling off 6 foot waves. This is SeaWorld and Six Flags all rolled into one!
Synoptic Winds
Return Day 14 8/12/2014 14:00 (250 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
Shortly after my last post yesterday after 5:00 P.M. they turned the engine off and it has been off ever since. We have had sustained winds of 15 with occasional gusts to 20 plus. The seas are about the same but shorter in duration so more frequent resulting in a bumpier ride. Just at the end of my shift thee winds clocked about 40 degrees and increased in intensity to sustained over 20. Juan wonders why do all of these changes in conditions seem to happen right at shift changes. We got Nico up and David, Nico and I depowered the boat as best we could without changing sails This is done by flatting the sails which requires all the lines other than the sheets to be tightened.
This increase of wind is a result of the strengthening synoptic winds as we get closer to the coast. I am no weather expert but I have made an asserted effort to learn as much as I can, not just for this adventure but more importantly for when Lindi and I are going cruising. My understanding is that the synoptic winds, that we are currently in, are the result of the compression effect of the easterly winds coming off the north edge of the Pacific High. As they circle clockwise to the south, they are compressed by the mountains along the Mendocino coast north of San Francisco. Without the land mass the winds clocking out of the north would spread out just as they do on for the points of the compass around the High which we have been experiencing as fairly light. Since the winds are being compressed there is a ventura effect just like when you restrict the flow of water there a spray nozzle at the end of a hose, it speeds up. The most resent downloaded weather files shows the wind building slightly for the next 120 miles, so over the next 24 hours, then easing off. Looks like we will have an E-Ticket ride for the next day then the winds should abate some resulting in an easy sail into San Francisco Bay. At least that is Juan’s guess and he is sticking with it.
Everything is still good aboard Avion. We should have a new distance record at the end of the day, my guess is 164 miles which will put us close to 200 NM from Golden Gate. Time to get some sleep, I think I will need it for the wild ride tonight.
Well the wind is back and the motor is finally off!! With 15-20 knots of we don’t need the extra push of the engine and the sailing is fun so we are back to hand steering. At this point we are only a couple of days out and things are starting to look like home. The wind is up, the water is cold and grey and the sky is overcast most of the time with a bit of mist mixed in to the spray to make sure our foulies are still waterproof. Oh yeah we are all wearing our foulies on deck because it wouldn’t feel like home without covering every square inch of my body before going on deck. While to most people all those things sound pretty miserable, I love it. To me it just feels like home and means we are getting close. A bitter sweet feeling of knowing this adventure is coming to a close which and excitement to get back to dry stable land and my friends and family. Already planing the next adventure in my head. Until then keeping warm and dry and moving fast are the priorities
Nico
Finalment le vent est revenu et on a couper le motor!! On a 15-20 knoeuds de vent et on n’as plus besoin de l’aide du motor, on a etaint l’autopilot comme on s’amuse a barrer. La on est a plus que quelques jours de San Francisco et je commence a reconnaitre. Le vent est monter, l’eau est froid, le ciel est gris et et la brume et les eclabouse nous rassurre que nos cires sont bien etanche. Bein sur le plus on se raproach de notre destanation on se rapell que on doit se couvrir entirement avant de monter sur le pont. Pour la plus part des gens ce semblerais miserable mais moi j’adore ca. Pour moi ca me rapelle chez moi et ca veut dire que on s’approche. C’est un sentiment confilt comme ca veut dire que cette aventure se termine mais je vais retrouver le terre sec et solid et ma famille et mes amis. Je pense deja au procain aventure. mais jusque a la les priorites sont de garder chaud rester sec et d’avancer.
Nico
A few old friends who followed this blog during the race have called to tell me they read every word, and found it fascinating. During the week before the race, Jon and I coordinated to set up this blog on WordPress. We both wanted to write about the experience of the race. I knew Jon was a good writer, as he can tell a good story, and that talent contributes to his writing. I expected I would write more than I did, but the 3 postings I did make during the race were from the heart.
The role of skipper was very demanding. I focused on the needs of the boat, including the following: make regular entries into the ship’s log, monitor the batteries, fuel and water, download GRIB files (weather prediction files) for navigation purposes over the satellite phone, and then analyze those GRIB files in our routing program, Expedition with my co-navigator, John. In addition, I occasionally got hungry and prepared a meal for the crew, or if it was dark and cold at night, I made tea or coco for everyone before going up on deck. The conditions during the day were more relaxing, and I found I would start to think about a blog posting. But at night, it was more of a challenge to get up, dress and get up on deck. After driving for an hour like a bat out of hell on a wavy surface, I was drained. Sleep came easily; the goal was to get ready to go do it again. My point is that my blog postings came from an insight, an observation, a desire to share, and they flowed easily, but I did not have the as much time to write as I expected. Knowing that everyone was contributing to be blog took the pressure off me. And once we started getting feedback that people were following it, it took on another dimension.
One old friend commented how curious it was that we were in a race a thousand miles offshore, and asked how did we make regular postings to a blog? We made the blog posting using email. Our primary connection to the Internet was the Iridium satellite phone, which provided voice, SMS text messaging and data transfer capacity. I have an account with Sailmail, which is an email service for sailors and cruisers, that compresses and encrypts emails and strips off attachments, so the email does not waste precious sat-phone minutes. I configured the blog up to receive emails with special tags, to indicate who wrote it, the date and topic, and to force publish it immediately. The resulting process of writing a blog was pretty easy; just sit down and write an email that tells a story, and send it to the secret address.
Now that Avion is less than 400 miles away from San Francisco, I must clarify to everyone that I am the owner, but not currently the skipper. I am back on land, and providing daily support, but the return delivery skipper is David. He has 4 other crew with him, Nico, Jon/Juan, Lindi, and Angie. David did a great job preparing Avion for the delivery while the boat was in Kaneohe Bay, and also during the delivery in his role as skipper. Avion is about to return safe and sound, with extra fuel and water. I am really proud of everyone involved for the extra effort of making the complete round trip.
This blog has been a rich experience. We have had almost 4,000 site visits since starting it. I might keep this blog going to provide a forum for ongoing discussion, analysis of the race, and a place to post pictures. It can also be a place to follow Avion’s new adventures in the coming years. For now, I just want to thank the readers, our families and friends. Thanks for your interest, and stay tuned for more. Tom
We Have Wind
Return Day 13 8/12/2014 17:00 (401 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
We have punched through the Pacific High and are now on its eastern edge. With the clockwise movement of wind around the High we are getting its north/northwest vector resulting in a port tack with 15 knots of wind. Since we have plenty of fuel we are motor sailing doing 8 knots which means we are probably gaining about 1 extra knot with the motor. That doesn’t sound like much but when you factor 70 hours into the equation we should be able to gain an extra 35 miles; equivalent to 6 or more hours of sailing. Besides the increased speed, the motor allows us to run the autopilot without concerns of draining the batteries. The seas are 5 to 6 foot wide swells out of the north/northwest with 1 foot wind chop across our beam. Though not a terribly comfortable ride it is much better than the close hauled course we were running the first week of the return. My arms are not nearly as tired and my fatigue factor is minimal.
We are all doing well and having a grand time. The full moon the last couple of nights has been spectacular allowing for enough light to actually watch out for nets during the night. There has been enough interesting cloud cover to allow the sunrises, sunsets, moon rises and moon sets to be fabulous photo opportunities.
At our current rate of speed the GPS puts us home sometime Friday morning but there are lots of variables that can change that so we will keep you posted. The irony here is that if we arrive before 2:30 P.M. on Friday we would have made the return trip faster than the race! Juan isn’t concerned about that, he just can’t wait for a cold beer out of Antigua’s fridge upon arrival and to see the surprise Lindi says she has for us when we see Antigua’s interior. I guess she made a lot of improvements while I was racing.
Jon
Net Magnet
Return Day 11 8/10/2014 15:00 (716 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
Yes we are still motor sailing and probably will be for a few more days. The engine is doing well with the modification of removing the innards of the thermostat. We are motoring along at just over 6 knots and on occasion when the wind decides to come out to play we can get her all the way up to 6.5 knots but typically not sustained. We are still on track for a Saturday arrival which should make the delivery in less than 17 full days.
Right now we are in what looks like a very big lake on a very calm day. It is flat, blue and calm, very nice conditions for a motorboat ride, too bad we are in a sailboat.
Just as I was preparing to end my shift this morning just before 5 a.m., I was thinking about going below to wake David. However the engine decided to beat me to it by waking David when it stopped immediately. I reached back and turned off the key as David put on his life vest and came up to the cockpit to join Lindi and I. Naturally it was raining! He said he wasn’t going to dive on it in the dark so we raised all of the sails and drifted at maybe 1 knot close to the direction of San Diego with something creating considerable drag below the hull. Since there was nothing for me to do I went to bed because I’m thinking that come daylight there may be some work to be done and it would be good to get some rest, Juan completely agreed.
At 8:00 a.m this morning I heard the engine start, I sighed a bit of a relief, then when I heard it go into gear without shaking the boat apart Juan sighed a huge relief. I climbed out of my bunk and was greeted with hot pancakes by Lindi while David and Nico were in the cockpit drying off. They just finished diving on the prop and cutting away what they described as a huge fishing net with a very large bolt rope that was the reason for the immediate stoppage of the engine. Everything seems to be working properly and we were back on the rhumb line to the Golden Gate Bridge planning to arrive 3 hours later than we had thought yesterday. Juan was strategically planning how he was going to shanghai David and Nico when he goes cruising with Lindi so they can dive on Antigua instead of him if she has similar issues!
Just now as I was preparing to go below right after David came up to relieve me I saw a large net less than 10 feet off our port side and Lindi said that was small compared to the one we hit this morning. It’s good to be vigilant on our watches when we can because Avion is obvious a magnet for large fishing nets. Unfortunately they do not have Japanese glass balls attached.
We did score yesterday on those glass balls. Late afternoon, before sunset, Lindi saw a large green glass ball, about 16 inches in diameter, and hollered to Juan to alter course to fetch it. Great here is an opportunity to prove that Juan can indeed capture the ball as gracefully as Nico. After his third pass with no results Nico came up out of bed and instructed Juan what to do at the helm and was able to scoop it up with his long arms on his first attempt. Juan was right; given enough time and help he could in fact retrieve a ball! Within an hour Angie saw a very small glass ball the size of a baseball that Nico retrieved with no effort, on his first pass no less, Juan was just a little humbled. It is amazing to find something that small in this vastness we call the Pacific Ocean. Jon
Back under way
Well we are off again after diving on the prop and clearing a sizeable net and line off of the prop. Those darn nets are hard to see at night.
On est Reparti
Apres avoir emeler un fillet de pech dan l’helice hier soir on a du attendre le lever du soleil pour plonger sous le bateaux pour couper et demeler. on viens de finir et on est reparti.
Hove to for a bit
Return Day 10
In case anyone is doing an early morning tracker status check, we are hove to at the moment, waiting for dawn to dive on the prop again. We picked up some net and line about 0451 and that stopped the engine. We have a bit of wind, so the boat motion is easy, no swell to speak of, the sky is beautiful, and soon we’ll go for a swim, cut the line away, and move on. Very unlikely there is any issue. I’ll write an update as soon as we have one, with in two hours or so I expect. It may take longer for the email to get through to the blog though, that can take all day sometimes, so look at progress on the tracker in the meantime. – David
Problem Solving
Return Day 9 8/82014 13:00 (979 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
When you plan a delivery such as this you have many options to thin k about. For example; should you follow the rotation of the high so you are constantly in wind or should you cut out a few hundred miles and motor through the high? We gave this extensive consideration weighing the increased distance to the dependency on the engine. We felt that even with motor sailing we could only gain about 2 knots advantage by following the wind not nearly enough advantage to justify the added distance. The downside of this decision is once in the center of the high and the engine has issues we could be stuck for a while waiting for wind or have to alter course to the southeast making a detoured to San Diego. Though I love my brother and sister in law that live there I’m not sure the extra few weeks of sailing would be worth it. I am one that typically hedges on the downside risk; what is the worst that can happen and make decisions that minimizes that from happening. So in this scenario that would typically be take the extra few hundred miles so that we could always sail towards San Francisco if we have any major mechanical failures. We choose the opposite approach because we have had very little issues with the engine, we have plenty of fuel and we were confident in our abilities to fix most of the issues that could arise with the engine and rigging.
I looked down and saw David up and about to relieve me so no need to go down and get him rousted. Lindi, my watch mate, had just gone down below to work on cleaning up the galley. As she was descending the companionway she told me to turn around and watch for nets and stuff. She had been forward on the bow keeping a close eye for more glass balls so I was trying to get confortable snuggled into my favorite spot looking aft. So I turned around and started watching the surface of the water in front of the boat for any obstacles. You would think that being 1000 miles off shore this wouldn’t be necessary, unfortunately we were in the middle of a huge debris where literally within a 100 yard radius of the boat you could always see something. Mostly it was small floating pieces of Styrofoam and plastic with an occasional line or plastic float and rarely a glass ball with webbing! I’m not seeing anything so I relax and enjoy the scenery of the rolling swells that remind me of small rolling hills back in Wyoming. All of a sudden we hear a loud bang and the engine drops considerable RPM ‘s. I look down into the companion way and see Lindi looking up at me with eyes that must have looked as large and concerned as mine. I immediately de-throttled the engine to neutral and looked around to assess the damage. Since David was getting ready to come up there was little delay in his entrance into the cockpit. I turned off the engine and he went below to check and see if the shaft would turn. He reported that it did so he suggested that I start the engine put it into gear and see what happens. I looked aft and saw a big net float below the surface about prop depth. We now knew what we had hit. So we shut off the engine and David got on his snorkel gear and dove on the prop, came up asked for the cockpit knife, went back down and came up with a big handful of netting. He reported everything was clear and no visual damage to the prop. Great news, however we had another issue to be concerned about.
In the early going on the return we discovered a strange behavior of the engine. Once we stopped the engine and turned it off we found that if we immediately restarted the engine the heat alarm would sound and there was no way for us to get it to stop buzzing without waiting for the engine to cool. While I was cruising in Mexico on Alocus I had the same engine as Avion and I explained to the crew that I had a similar issue but had installed a thermometer in line with the heat sensor so when this happened I could monitor the engine temperature to determine if the alarm was an issue and eventually the alarm would stop once the fresh water flow cooled the engine. We would wait to see if the alarm would go off and not knowing the temperature we felt uncomfortable waiting with the engine running so we would just let the engine sit for a while (typically we were motor sailing at the time so we were still making good way without it) and every time it would correct itself by simply waiting. This time there was no wind so instead of motor sailing everyone decided to go swimming except for Juan who like to be on the water not in it.
After swimming, bathing and general frolicking for about an hour we decided we should get back underway. We fired up the diesel and the engine heat alarm continued to blare. We thought for sure that after an hour the engine would have been cooled down enough to behave like we had experienced earlier. We decided to perform a more detailed analysis of the issue by tracking the water flow through the engine. We discovered plenty of water coming out of the pump, a good sign, but not so much coming out of the thermostat. We had replaced the thermostat before leaving Alameda so we were confident that it hadn’t fail. When we pulled it we saw that it was properly open so we decided to run the engine without a thermostat to see if we could get the alarm to stop. Sure enough it stopped so now we figured we are back in the same scenario as before but just had to hurry it along the cooling of the engine without the thermostat. We put the thermostat back in, fired up the engine with no alarm, put it in gear and bingo, the alarm came on; damn. Our thoughts now lead to a restricted orifice in the thermostat, so why not make it bigger? Since we had a spare we thought we should try making the hole in the thermostat slightly larger. This rational came from me based on my cruising experience; there had been lots of discussions about overheating issues involving boats that had sailed down to Mexico from Northern California, Oregon and Washington from cool water to warm water. We thought we could have a cool water thermostat and a warm water thermostat. Unfortunately the symptom persisted with the drilled out hole. Now the question was, what is the downside of running without a thermostat in warm water? Hopefully we will not find out because after 3 1/3 hours of trouble shooting this was the only way we could motor without the heat sensor sending an alarm.
Return Day 10 8/9/2014 10:00 A.M. (868 NM from Golden Gate Bridge)
After nearly 20 hours everything seems to be fine. We have a call into the owner to see if he can find out if there is any downside to what we are doing. We feel comfortable with our decision. Motoring through the Pacific High still seems like the right decision. Only time will tell!
Our shifts of 4 hours on and 6 hours off are working out very well. The days are actually 20 hours long consisting of two full rotations; one typically during daylight hours and one during the night time. Since every day the shifts change by 4 hours we never have one watch the same time of day within a week (which for us is 6 days). Every few days the schedules line up perfectly where you can experience both a sunset and a sunrise within a 14 hour period of two on-watches and one off-watch. Last night I was able to first see a beautiful sunset followed by a glowing near full moon; then after my off-watch, I saw a the moon drop over the horizon that rivaled any harvest moon I’ve seen immediately followed by a gorgeous red sunrise. It just doesn’t get any better than this; well maybe the sunset over the Tetons back home but my schedule there doesn’t typically allow for the follow up sunrise over the Absaroka Mountains.
avionbianca 