Day 15: Shipspotting

Today was another day with multiple shower storms passing by. The trades also died. Well, not completely, but less than 10 knots of wind makes it hard to sail straight down wind. Especially, when the waves are kicking your boat around making it impossible for the sails to fill. It was a good day to look at the broken furler. Found the problem, thought I had fixed it and rolled the sail half way up, then problem wasn't quite fixed, so I had to finish wrapping the sail around manually. Either way, jib is rolled up and isn't coming back out.

I considered using the spinnaker, but decided to wait until tomorrow. Good call, since most of today has been very low winds. So, instead it's motoring time. I spent a large amount of fuel getting out of San Francisco, so I suppose it's only proper that I spend the rest getting into Honolulu. I've got less than 300 nautical miles left and assuming my gauges aren't misleading me, I should have enough to motor all the way.

I generally prefer sailing instead of motoring (why else have a sailboat), but when the weather is calm and water not quite so rough, motoring is a nice change. The steady noise of the engine makes it easier to sleep and I won't be woken up to make sail changes. I'm also getting extra power, which means filling up the water tank, taking a hot shower and watching movies on the big screen. Well, 26" is better than the iPad 10".

Then, for the first time since night of day 1, I spotted a ship. I've actually seen a couple already, but all by instruments never close enough to physically see it. This one was close enough to be visible and marks the first contact in 14 days. Also a reminder that I'm gonna have to start looking out for more, now that I'm so close to Honolulu.

Captain Petter on S/V Bella Marina