miércoles, 9 de julio de 2008

Land Near; Not Quite Here

Dawn continues to reveal plenty of signs of land, though home is still over a day away. Clumps of kelp have been drifting by for the second straight day and this morning sea gulls have been flying awkwardly by, a poor imitation of the graceful sea birds we've seen the past weeks. One thing hasn't changed: it's freezing! If this is a San Diego summer I want out. Skies have been a San Francisco thick overcast for four straight days, and the temperatures are reminiscent of Seattle. And the water? A toasty 59! And to think, not a month ago I was surfing a fun south swell at Ala Moana Bowls in 78 degree water with sunny skies and gentle trades. I only hope things warm up as we close with the coast, and we find our way into the inshore eddy where the water temperature heats up.
The good news is we've had wind off-and-on for the past day. We're sailing now, and have been since 2300 last night, with a light WNW breeze. Jib is poled out to port and we're making a slow 4 knots, but just a couple hours ago we were cruising along at close to 7. Fickle conditions. Before this batch of wind we had been motoring for six hours, but before that there was another five hour stretch of sailing. After this bout I'm much more confident that we have the fuel to make it home; and it looks like we should be arriving sometime in the early afternoon tomorrow. 150 miles to go.

July 9-0640
33.01N by 120.06W

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