Tuesday, August 03, 2010 | Author: Jacob
We seem to have found the edge of the high. The big talk on the evening HF radio net last night was when to tack. Essentially you can either go North, or East. You need to go East to get to SF, however, you don't want to have to go North once you get close to the coast, as the conditions can build in that zone. So, last night at 3AM when we had a big wind shift (meaning we were sailing towards Tokyo) Julia and I tacked the boat. Very strange. everything that was high is now low, our left legs feel funny from bearing all our weight while at the helm for the last week, and we have to find a whole new set of brace points and handholds below.

Since last night the winds have been light and fluky, we've motored a bit, tacked back, changed up to the 135% sail, and now we are motoring slowly again. Roughly NE in direction. Unlike some boats we are not super loaded up with fuel, so we are trying to be slow and conserve what we have until we reach the coastal winds. Hopefully we will reach them within a day or so.

It's strange to look at our chart and see that we are essentially in the middle of the ocean, as our little patch of sea that is visible looks pretty much exactly the same as any other patch of sea. There could be a spot of land just over the horizon, but instead we are in one of the most remote parts of the planet.

We have been seeing some Albatross, and lots of rainbows. Squalls persist, but they are losing their punch.

In other exciting news, we ought to reach our halfway point tomorrow if everything continues at this pace.

Lat 36 24.314' N, Long 146 22.508' W
Wind: 8 kts ESE
Seas: 1 meter E
Speed: 5 kts
Dist to go: 1142 NM

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