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The Ocean Cruising Club is an association of offshore sailors to which I was introduced by Randall Reeves, a large figure in (very) long distance solo sailing. They have a minimum distance passage requirement for membership, which my solo race to Hawaii qualified me for. Of interest to this cash strapped aspiring solo circumavigator, they have a grant program. At Randall’s suggestion I applied, and became the recepient of a challenge grant, for which I am ever grateful. This purse of money was invested into a new spinnaker, a sail that was designed to help me build confidence in flying spinnakers on Changabang, and be our trade winds workhorse sail. If you’ve followed this blog from when we launched, you know it: half of this mission was accomplished! As we were just getting into the Southern Hemisphere trade winds I trusted a sailbag. And Neptune mischievously taught me my trust was misplaced. The sailbag was ripped off his hanging hanks, and the sail bode farewell to CaB, his oh so distraught skipper, and went on to err, a ghost in the waters of the Pacific. I will have to come clean to the Ocean Cruising Club’s grant committee, belabor a mea culpa, and retreat bowing, hoping for better days. Alright, enough drama, I suppose, but it’s all true.
This post was powered by a box of red vines. Yeah, a whole box, gulped in a flash.

I think I can say that health wise things are mostly good, except for very dry hands. All good otherwise.

I’d say a boat was wrecked near by if I didn’t know about the garbage in oceans situation. As much as on the way down I didn’t see garbage in the water, on the way back, I can’t stop seeing some, all sorts. You know the story. I’m attaching pictures that will likely look very blurry. To compensate I’ll include a rainbow, a sun lane and a nasty cloud!

I woke up feeling that CaB was a little slow today. So I adjusted the sails to see if that was the problem. Still slow. I picked up the GoPro to check the keel and rudders for debris. Sure enough, CaB was dragging a big net on her port rudder. In fact, there was no need for the GoPro, it was readily visible, trailing 6 feet behind us. I’m not sure how I missed that! To clear the rudder, I was going to stop Changabang, and let the net drop off. As I went to disengage the B&G autopilot, I found out that the ram was locked, just like it was for the NKE a couple weeks ago. I first thought it was the NKE drive that was locked, but after disconnecting it from the shaft, I still couldn’t get the tiller to move. So I disconnected the B&G, and was able to gain control over the tiller again. I proceeded to clear the rudder, re-connect the drive, and on our merry way again we are. I wonder if the B&G will go belly up just the same as the NKE. I do have a third autopilot, just in case. There’s one shared component between the two systems, so my guess is that’s the troublemaker: it’s a toggle switch that connects/disconnects the wires to the clutch of each drive. Picture attached. On other news, I collected a flying fish and a small squid this morning. The port hydrogenerator has sported a leak so I’m using the engine to charge until we switch to port tack, and then I’ll try to take it out (I have a spare generator). That’s fuel that won’t be available to motor through the wind hole waiting for us. Sailing and weather wise, I’m still northing, possibly up until Thursday morning, up to 40N. After that it looks as of now that I’ll be bobbing in a wind hole, as shown in the picture, or not. It’s certainly not going to be easy to punch through the last thousand miles. I’m still looking for a marina. Changabang may end up on a mooring ball in Pillar Point Harbor, which would be cheap but impractical! I may also do a one day stop in the Redwood City marina to offload all the food, gear, water, etc. Otherwise we’re still sailing upwind, banging in the waves a couple times every couple minutes or so, i.e. alive and well in the shaker. Wind has dropped so it’s slightly more comfortable, and slower! Spirits are bouncing up, a little. But seeing that every day San Francisco is still 10 days away dampens my excitement a bit.

I found out today that three more donations came in! Thank you very much Dennis, Chris & Lisa, and Lee. Keep ’em coming 😉 Raising funds is a common problem in the sport of sailing. What I lack in La Vagabonde assets, I try to make up for with boldness and a bit of writing. If you’re part of an association and think your group could benefit from a presentation on my project, success, failures, and all, let me know, and maybe we can add to the cruising kitty like that too. In person or Zoom and all that. I’m at pjam@myiridium.net for the next two weeks. Found the candies on CaB so pardon the sugar rush!

This must have been the longest I’ve spent sailing non stop in the same conditions, healing constantly and being battered by the waves. I suppose at some time you get used to it, reluctantly. And that big boom, that loud crack, this startling double bang, well, they become part of the ambient sound. Still, I must retain an attentive ear for new noises, a small tick tick, a faint ding ding, as they all could be telling the story of misfortunes in the making. That’s why I don’t wear ear plugs, to stay in tune with Changabang, sonically, if you will. A boat speaks, and he who listens is “much the better off”. The only place were all this is somewhat bearable is in one of the bunks. So I vary things up by staying in the starboard bunk at night and the port bunk during the day. These are the safest places when the shaker is ON. As I spend 99% of my time inside the cabin, there hasn’t been many pictures opportunity. Things will calm down in a day or two, and the photographer may come out of his early in the season hibernation. I did snatch a few things as I went out to disengage the hydrogenerator. Referring to one picture in particular, I had high hopes for that little boy, and taking pictures of him in distant places. Things turned out differently so here you go, a nude for you. He also stands proudly atop the ship’s bell (a tiny one that is).

Weather

The good forecast of a week or so ago, which led me to skip Hawaii, is holding half of his promise of a quick return trip home. We should continue to see sailing conditions conducive to good progress, albeit uncomfortable, until Tuesday. Starting then forecast models disagree, but mostly there will be large if temporary patches of very light wind, zephyrs as Bruce reminded me. For the most part my future is set, as there’s only so much I can alter course anyways, and since it’s not clear yet where the best wind will be, I’m sticking with the current plan. The last PredictWind routing still shows home 10 days away … As it is it’s too early to say when I’ll be making landfall in earnest. I’m also not sure where that will be either as I’m still figuring out a temporary marina for CaB. I had hoped for South Beach Harbor but, mmmh, they want $930/month! Twice what I was paying at Pillar Point Harbor.

An attitude of gratitude

Joëlle sent me a copy of the latest blog comments, and I wanted to say a quick thank you in passing for your encouragements and support. They go straight to the “stay strong” bank, and yield benefits for a long time coming.

The day continued as it had started. Changabang is getting spanked regularly on the bow and the stern. There’s not much to do in these circumstances. The most activity is seen when I move about to refill my water bottle, cook a meal, check things outside. There’s not much predictability to CaB’s movements in this large, somewhat confused sea. So every movement is slow and calculated to avoid being sent sideways. To illustrate I’m joining a graph off the accelerometer in my phone, during a queter session. The accelerations are not great but they’re always present, pointing in a continuously changing direction. My tether hangs off the companionway, and I have my harness on most of the time (I take it off when it’s night time and I’m trying to sleep); as I get out the cabin it’s an easy clip on habit now, making sure I’m always hooked to the boat. As the night approached there were a couple systems that caused the wind to back 20-30 degrers and to drop a bit. I ate my last bag of chips and I’m now munching through a Toblerone bar, which would have been a surprise sometime later in the challenge. But I guess the challenge is over, and I’m left with the clean up! I’ve started reading a little, of all things, a book about surmounting obstacles! I hear you’ve all started to think about Halloween. I wonder if I’ll still be at sea by then. Most likely so, approaching SF from a few hundred miles.

I ended yesterday’s post asking what tomorrow would bring. And I had my answer round midnight: the wind picked up! We’re down to third reef and genoa. My instruments showed 23-26 kts at a true wind angle of just shy of 90°. So the sea state has been building accordingly. We’re going up and down, getting spalshed a good amount. Delightfully, we’re not banging as the sea is mostly to our starboard beam, but it’s still a wild ride, and sleep didn’t come. As of late morning, the wind dropped a few knots. However, forecasts tell me that this will carry on for a few days. The obvious side benefit is that we’re making good progress! It’s unclear what things will look like in a week or so: we may find ourselves in a large wind hole … From feast to famine, as is often the case. The trio split up during the night, leaving me with a hitchhiker! And when he departed this morning, he left his characteristic two tone signature on the deck! I tried a picture of the night sky. Yeah that’s the moon, it didn’t come out too great. All good aboard as I lie down in the shaker.