Leg Four - Hawaii - America

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Alpha Crucis Has Arrived in San Diego!!
Arrived NZST 10:00 am Sunday 05/02/06
Date: 04/02/06
Days from Hawaii: 20
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Date: 02/02/06
Days from Hawaii: 18
Distance to San Diego: 210
Latitude: 33 39 N
Longitude: 121 15 W
Wind Speed (knots): 28
Wind Direction: 355
Weather: Overcast
Sea State: Rough
Comments:MPS up all day yesterday until 2100. A bit difficult getting it down but did so by dropping it on deck into 25/30 kts wind. Wind was too strong to use the launching sock. Ran under headsail and mizzen all night and until 1500 today. Now running on No 2 Headsail only at about 7 kts. Looks like we should arrive San Diego Saturday morning or before.
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Date: 31/01/06
Days from Hawaii: 16
Distance to San Diego: 457
Latitude: 34 25 N
Longitude: 126 09 W
Wind Speed (knots): 10
Wind Direction: 317
Weather: Fine
Sea State: Calm
Comments:Changed reporting time to circa 1500 local time to fit good propagation and weather fax schedules. Currently GMT-9. Will change to GMT-8 (US Pacific Time) tomorrow morning. We are having our picnic in gorgeous conditions. Outside temp is 21 Celsius in the shade but feels cool to us. Clearly we have become tropicalised. Love Terry and Lois
Also from Lois: It's a fab day today and we are gliding along with the MPS up at around 4.5knts - wind speed 10knts. It looks amazing - we wish we could someone to take a photo of AC with it up! You would love to be on board today Lesley - it's very pleasant and I am reading the great book Maureen from Kaneohe Bay gave us called 'Forever' by Peter Hamill. We had lunch sitting on the deck today for a change. A bit chilly - Terry said about 22 deg plus wind chill factor - it seemed colder but it was so pleasant! We are now 473 miles to San Diego so that's definitely where we will make landfall! Still sitting in this 'Pacific High' which seems to be stationery. The 'Captain' says more of the same ahead!
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Date: 29/01/06
Days from Hawaii: 14
Distance to San Diego: 709
Latitude: 35 00 N
Longitude: 131 12 W
Wind Speed (knots): 20
Wind Direction: 260
Weather: Overcast
Sea State: Moderate
Comments: Seas rough in and after squalls. Hope you have had a great anniversary weekend!! Today is Sunday here. We try (weather permitting) to have a long lunch on Sundays to remind us of all our absent friends. Today has been interrupted by squalls and reducing sail but we will make up for it after this report. We are hoping the next one will be at the San Diego Yacht Club!!! Yesterday had light following seas so launched the MPS late morning. Great until the leeward sheet came adrift. Nearly two hours later we had it down undamaged. Since then far too windy. Love Terry and Lois
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Date: 27/01/06
Days from Hawaii: 12
Distance to San Diego: 940
Latitude: 34 52 N
Longitude: 135 45 W
Wind Speed (knots): 08
Wind Direction: 270
Weather: Fine
Sea State: Calm
Comments:Creeping a little north 075T and the High is supposed to move slightly S of E. But our relative position stays just about the same. As you can probably see the high has spread from 180E/W to the Mainland. Still motoring but can only afford to do that for another 24 hrs... Chimera would love it out here. Hope the huntin & fishin is going well. Love Terry and Lois
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Date: 25/01/06
Days from Hawaii: 10
Distance to San Diego: 1210
Latitude: 34 22 N
Longitude: 141 19 W
Wind Speed (knots): 05
Wind Direction: 025
Weather: Overcast
Sea State: Moderate
Comments:Seas rough in and after squalls. Hope you have had a great anniversary weekend!! Today is Sunday here. We try (weather permitting) to have a long lunch on Sundays to remind us of all our absent friends. Today has been interrupted by squalls and reducing sail but we will make up for it after this report. We are hoping the next one will be at the San Diego Yacht Club!!! Yesterday had light following seas so launched the MPS late morning. Great until the leeward sheet came adrift. Nearly two hours later we had it down undamaged. Since then far too windy. Love Terry and Lois
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Date: 23/01/06
Days from Hawaii: 08
Distance from Hawaii: 944
Latitude: 34 14 N
Longitude: 147 01 W
Wind Speed (knots): 30
Wind Direction: 000
Weather: Gale
Sea State: Rough
Comments: 1 1/2 hrs ago were cruising along 7 knots on course when Lois called out re extensive big bank of black stuff heading our way out of nowhere. I had just showered in preparation for cocktails and reporting. We got the main down just in time. Rolled in most of headsail but didn't get the Mizzen down until 30 mins ago. All hell broke loose. Wind sheared 180 degrees in 10 mins and got up to 50 knots with associated rain and sea. All secure now and we are back on course on the other tack, wind from north albeit at 30 knots.
Your forecast was spot on but think the inter gap easterlies disappeared in the black stuff. Our last W'fax showed adjacent high/low which is what this must have been. Hard to tell because the W'fax is very Macro. Please keep your forecasts coming.
We think the difference between log and GPS is probably the log being clogged. Pilot charts do show a slight northerly drift but nothing that would account for that disparity. Well observed Murray! There has been a consistent difference in speed of 1 1/2- 2 knots.
Receiving sailmail has been painfully slow hence the reason for exceeding our quota. Advice received from sailmail people was to turn everything else electrical off. That seems to work! We are now reaching 2800 /bytes per minute (before we were only getting 200 or 100 bytes/min on Rx. Tx was OK). Agree we should remove sail mail address from the blog site until we get a better feel for things.
Thanks for all your help as always.
From Lois -
Lesley you would appreciate this especially - and Murray why does everything turn to shit at cocktail hour? Well you would be both proud that we continue to maintain standards even out in the wide blue ocean all by ourselves - in the chaos that unfolded very quickly, the candle continued to burn and the music played! Murray if we had a phone I wanted to ring you around 3 this am to tell you the wind had changed and we were finally heading east for the first time since we left NZ! Bet you're glad we didn't have a phone ah!!!!
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Date: 21/01/06
Days from Hawaii: 06
Distance from Hawaii: 765
Latitude: 32 53 N
Longitude: 151 35 W
Wind Speed (knots): 20
Wind Direction: 150
Weather: Sunny
Sea State: Moderate
Comments: xceded sailmail daily msg quota hence Isat. AOK.
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Date: 19/01/06
Days from Hawaii: 04
Latitude: 29 32 N
Longitude: 154 58 W
Wind Speed (knots): 18
Wind Direction: 190
Weather: Overcast
Sea State: Moderate
Comments: At last have significant easterly course component. Course 072T and under full sail for the first time for months. Outlook is very good at this stage. Will creep up to about 32N by which time the winds could be SW. Here's hoping. We have our sea legs back. Even I needed the old bucket a couple of times... The 3rd time in my life! Chief Cook Lois was relieved of duty for a couple of days because of difficulty in accessing "makeup" ingredients. Now purring along at 7+ knots. Long may it last.
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Date: 17/01/06
Days from Hawaii: 02
Latitude: 26 23 N
Longitude: 157 33 W
Wind Speed (knots): 28
Wind Direction: 135
Weather: Rain
Sea State: Rough
Comments: Motor sailed first 18 hours in moderate NE conditions. Since then wind has been veering slightly and become rough. Have been able to make northerly heading overall. Now making 025 T degrees. Objective is to get up to 30 degrees and see what the options are. We are on the Western end of a High at the moment. Received good quality Wfax and Grib maps today. Yesterday was hopeless. It is strange to be at sea again but no doubt will settle in over the next few days. Lois sighted one ship first night otherwise we have the place to ourselves.