Coyote's Log

We continue to fetch SF, winds continue to be in the low 20’s, so today we changed down to our #3 jib„,should have done this a few days ago. Everyone, even those off watch jumped in, and we had the 135% folded and the #3 up and running is short order. Expedition, our software which uses Grib files to do routing for us, continues to calculate a different course than we are on. It wants us to fall off 25 degrees off our present course to SF. This is a bit confusing. We have 3 software packages, and they all give slightly different info. We completed our day 3 “check-in” at 2000 (8:30pm) this evening, then I asked Jim Quanci of Green Buffalo about our course questions. Should we continue to head directly for SF, or crack off a bit, and follow Expedition. His answer was a very good one, crack off some, not as much as Expedition indicates, and then analyze the winds and waves before deciding how to approach the California coast. This makes great sense to us. By cracking off 10 degrees or so, our over the bottom speed increased from 5.5 knots to ~7.25, the boat is much easier to steer and we are going thru the water between 8 - 8.5 knots, just tearing along on our new course. We now have 1650 miles to go… Started having issues with our charging system, so we tried what David Hodges does, rev up the engine until charging starts “excite” the charging system, and it worked! So we are able to charge, and this is a great relief, as we need the radio and electronics to communicate and navigate! There are just so many “moving parts” to a trip like this…. Sky is black tonight, and clear, so the stars are out! So far no squalls to block our vision. The day today was clear and warm and very sunny! We continue to believe something was caught in our prop, so we did the only sensible thing, sent in Julia to dive on the prop and keel and rudder to cut away the debris……turns out, nothing was there. Julia volunteered to do this for us, I wondered why, and found out. Once she was all wet and on the back of the boat, she washed her hair, and got a fresh water rinse, so now we have one clean (and smart) person on the boat! Actually, Julia, (and everyone else) volunteers for everything from reefing the sails to cooking to diving on the boat! What a great team. Food continues to be fantastic, tomorrow morning we are having apple pie for breakfast, a few days ago we had short cake with peaches and whip cream„,can’t wait for tomorrow’s dinner. Just broke open ice box #1 today, and packed the frozen food into our freezer. Still so warm we can wear sandals, shorts and T-shirts 24 hours a day, but now we are wearing gear over them to stay dry. Coyote