Today's Report
July 14/10 0800 JST
Position: 21°39'N, 162°54'W
Remaining distance to Yokohama finish: 12.3%
Nicole BMW Shuten-dohji III's engine woes have returned, this time in the form of a seawater leak in the engine cooling circuit. Saito-san has been able to determine the source of the leak, in the vicinity of the oil cooler, but there does not seem to be a ready way to plug it. He will spend today trying to determine how heavy the leak is while the engine is running. If it's too much to control by pumping out the bilge, he'll either use the engine only during brief tacking maneuvers -- or not at all.
He called later to say that he has begun to motor at low cruising speed and that the leak is "about 8 buckets in 6 or 8 hours" and "manageable." At that rate, he said, he can control it with occasional pumping using the bilge pump (of which there are both installed manual and electrically powered types, with at least one spare manual pump). All pumps were serviced while he was in Hawaii.
The winds continued to be weak yesterday, thus boat speed slowed and was made even worse by a 0.5 knot counter-current. He made just 94 nm DOG (88 nm DMG) toward the next waypoint. In two days the current will swing around in his favor at about half a knot.
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Today was his 650th day since leaving Yokohama, and the 160th since finally departing Cape Horn.
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Distance in last 24 hours: 94 nm over ground / 88 nm DMG
Total distance completed: 24,791 nm
To Yokohama: 3,501 nm
To Mid WP1: 1,398 nm (halfway point from Hawaii to Yokohama)
Heading: 240°
Reported boat speed: 3.0 kts
Average boat speed: 3.9 kts
Engine: 2 hrs at 1800 rpm
Generator: 8.25 hrs
Average daily DMG over last 3 days: 96 nm
Generator: 8.25 hrs
Average daily DMG over last 3 days: 96 nm
Weather: Partly cloudy, warm
Temperature: 25.5° C
Barometer: 1015 hPa
Wind (from): 7-8 kts ESE, expected to be 7-8 kts E over next 19 hrs
Waves: 1.5 m
Current (from): 0.5 kts (unfavorable from W)
Sails: Genoa 100%, staysail 0%, mainsail 3-pt reef
Position Map
