The Chilly Northern Pacific 22 May 2012 01:19 44N40 174W35

Brrr, I’m not sure if it’s the little lows rolling through or the latitude gained, but it’s colder. The water temp, as measured on the steel surface of the inside of the bilge, was 45F yesterday. We’ve been playing with our infrared temp reader measuring the temp of everything, from the tips of our noses to the cabin sole (currently 58F and 49.5F respectively). Gotta keep yourself entertained. Good thing our electronic weather station broke down, we never would have dug around for the IR thermometer.

We had some wind today, even saw the sun before the fog dropped in again. It’s back to light wind now, with light winds on the nose forecast for the next 72 hours. I’m not complaining though, the light winds give me better sleep, the heavy winds move us foreward, an even mix of the two keep captain and crew happy. Still at our current light wind speed the 430 miles left (as the crow flies) could take another week to accomplish. I’m starting to be very ready for a hike in the hills.

I love AIS (device that sends and receives position and direction data between ships via VHF radio signal). I wish the units were required equipment on all boats. We’ve seen lots of cargos the past few days (“seen” on the computer, visibility has not always been good enough to see with the naked eye). I think we’re crossing the mainline of consumer goods between Asia and the U.S.A. When I’m driving on the freeway, I wonder where all those people are going, so many family, friends, colleagues, appointments, get-togethers, and outings we all have. Watching these tankers go by I wonder where’s all that stuff going, thousands of cars, rubber duckies and iPads sailing the seas with us. As they pass us, those cargo captains have to be wondering, “Where the hell are they going?!” Good question.

xoxomo