June 28th 8am
Hello and good day from Such Fast. It has been cloudy the past few days, which is normal, and the race for me to date has been keeping up with sail changes, navigating around a big high pressure and deciding whether to stay south or stick closer to rumb line. Same question as every race to Hawaii.
You can see from the tracker where I went and for the first night and second day, I was totally overpowered with 2 reefs in the main and the reefed J4. I guess a J5? Toe rail in the water and any course the autopilot could drive, which was south, was more than I wanted. Sailing at 30 degrees makes everything but laying in the pipe birth hard.
I’ve seen a few whales and lots of boats until the sunset June 25th, then at sunset we spread out into the dark. Nights have been the darkest black, black-black. You are in a tiny bubble of the lights from the autopilot control…and how do I turn those lights down again? Two layers of black tape I guess.
Today the boat told me to check the water tanks, and I started in the aft most tank, a hose clamp had fallen off the tank, I lost about 3 gallons but was able to put the clamp back on. I still have plenty of water onboard for the entire trip.
My getto solar panels are hanging in there. I give the two outside panels 90% chance and the center one 60% chance of making it the entire way. Extra parts are on board just in case. Always have back ups to my back ups.
My sailing plan for the first part is to keep the toe rail in the water, keeping the boat powered up, which is not hard to do. This boat is light and tippy. It requires lots of reefing and letting out of reefs and going between the J2 and J4.
For those of you wondering, I have not been seasick too much and today the patch came off, unintentionally. No idea where it went. The sea ate it.
Water has not been coming into the boat, only 2.5 gallons to date, and I found the source of about 2 of those gallons. This boat has been pretty wet in the past. I have a new under the floor pump system version 3 for those who know what I’m talking about. It has been sending water from the port underworld overboard and that seems to be keeping the boat dry.
I’m catching up on my sleep and have been eating and drinking. The food is great, especially all the fresh food like salads, which are amazing. I still have some ice in the water bottles. That is about it for this morning.
David/Such Fast
6/30/23. Check in Such Fast
7/2 information: a repair was installed into the forestay system and it seems to be working.
7/6
Dave Garman with Such Fast POL check-in (below).
Dave has been having problems with his auto pilot so he has been hand steering. Dave said “Either the auto pilot motor is burning up, or I can smell land”.
Little sleep. Much Boat! He sounds exhausted.
The bird that landed on his boat yesterday I guess is not much of a conversationalist. He may be ready for social hour with a rum and coke in hand. :)…and sleep.