One theme for our passage has to be “What’s our VMG?” which stands for Velocity made Good on course- or speed towards our destination as opposed to SOG, Speed over Ground, which is how fast we are going (anywhere, not necessarily our destination)
May 11th. We have crazy, variable and super light winds. Since rounding the cape the winds have been mostly NNWish until finally the middle of last night when they veered to the North. They have been anywhere from 2-10 knots , mostly under 8k. We have been sailing to windward the whole way. The closest Tomten can sail to the wind is 45*. In super light winds the apparent wind angle moves forward and the best we can do is often 55*.
Add to that the winds jumping all over the place for speed and direction and we end up having to hand steer a lot of the time just to keep forward momentum. Our autopilot can’t handle low winds as our boat speed is often under 2-3 k. We have been able to use the autopilot on wind/sail setting for winds in the 4-8k range. It is hard work and a bit scary thinking about being out here so much longer than we wanted, and having more exposure than we wanted. The good news may be that hopefully fingers crossed the quarantine period in HI which runs to May 31 st right now may not be extended? If it is we are in for weeks and weeks on board.
We seem to be always tackling one problem or another that is just out of reach. Currently we are trying to work out how to use our generator to recharge our batteries as the days have been a bit cloudy and our electronics and a few household needs use a bit more than solar can put in. You would think it would be straightforward. It isn’t. We have to plug in a neutral ground to the generator to fool our inverter into thinking it is getting power from a safe source. Then we have to dial down the inverter from 30a shore power input to 10a and play lots of other games to put a birt of charge in the batteries without firing up Miranda
Paul and I end up reading technical manuals when we should be sleeping and my brain feels like a pretzel.
Once we settle in and accept this wind thing we can appreciate the wide open beauty.
Being open to the elements is a big reason we came. Now we have to accept it and enjoy it😊
Sailing Tomten 