15-oct-2019, 24° 39.75N 135° 28.78W — We’re about halfway there. In ten days we should arrive in Hilo. Stronger winds of the trades will push us wing and wing across the last one thousand miles and there.
The Predict Wind software we have been using for routing takes us on a dog leg keeping us on a broad reach, while our friend and guardian, Ray Penson has lobbied for the typical run- before- the-tradewinds route. Jennifer wants to try that, so we are changing our course southward to join the trades in the next three days or so.
Jennifer and I have been talking about whether we’d ever do this again. I’d put together a ten- year plan to sail through the canal and up into the great lakes before jumping over into Europe.
Do I still want to do that?
Probably not.
This type of travel takes so long that I don’t think I want to dedicate this type of time. (This trip may also not be a good representative because we are using an electric autopilot, which is ungodly loud and uses tons of power. Using a wind vane as planned, we’d have tons of excess power and the boat would be quiet. We hand steer all day rather than suffer through the noise of the autopilot. )
I also admit to continuing fear of the weather and the challenges it presents.
This morning I was the most at peace I have been in the trip. I can’t explain why. Yesterday we’d discovered our automatic bilge pump had stopped working and that we have a propeller shaft leak. The leak explains the occasional bilge pump runs I had seen and pointed out my failure to install a counter to track how often the bilge pump ran. (The counter is onboard but not installed.)
Today the sea has been calm and the long ocean rollers are old friends.
Caro Babbo has turned into that machine that carries us unrelentingly forward. I am still surprised to think that this boat, Jennifer and I have been moving without stop since the moment we left the fuel dock in San Diego.
I also can’t emphasize enough the destructive influence of the autopilot. Jennifer and I agree we both might feel differently without it.
One upside for me is getting this much time alone with Jennifer. Meeting when young somehow provides time for being alone. Meeting as adults all time is filled with responsibilities or things to be done and accomplished. That intimate one-on- one time that fuses relationships in the young becomes so much more difficult to find later in life. We do so much more, accomplish so much more that doing nothing together is a to-do item that needs to be put on the list and feels wrong to put on a list. Sailing halfway across the Pacific seems to tick two boxes.
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