Today's Report
June 5/11 0800 JST
Position: 23°30'N, 179°48'W
Remaining to Yokohama finish: 2,263 nm / 8.3% (ETA: 26 - 30 days)
"It was like a waterfall," Saito-san described, as he gave the results of his engine test yesterday. "There was lots of smoke and when it cleared I found two or three new holes," he said, in addition to the one in the exhaust hose that had caused him to shut down the engine three days ago. Applications of glue and duct tape made little difference.
So he will continue sailing along a route that will let him take advantage of the (usually) steady east trades that will take him another 600 to 1,000 nm before he turns more northward toward Yokohama.
For the last 12 hours an area of weaker winds has developed at his position, so he has been trying to change his heading to more southerly (from 240° to 220°) to join steadier trades at about 22° north latitude. Poor wind direction from the SW this morning frustrated his ability to go lower without having to tack, he said. "I can't tack easily and the wind [direction] is changing too much," adding that he will probably try to wait for better wind conditions as the weak area moves east of him. He's now on a 260° heading.
In about 3-4 hours he will pass the International Dateline at 180° longitude, gaining a day on his calendar and putting him 3 hours ahead of Tokyo's time zone. (Thus finally ending our "Good morning, good evening!" satellite phone salutation that eventually stopped being funny about three years ago…)
Despite the decreasing boat speed he made relatively good progress under sail during the period, almost matching his previous day's 76 nm over ground, and narrowing the Yokohama distance to 2,263 nm at 0800 this morning. On both of the last two nights NBSDIII's speed dropped to 2.5 kts due to weak easterly winds, moving to out of the SW at the time of the morning call.
[Click to enlarge]
Distance in last 24 hours: 74 nm DOG
Total distance completed: 25,457 nm
To Yokohama: 2,263 nm (measured)
Average daily DMG over last 3 days: 65 nm (measured)
ETA: 28 days (if sailing @ 3.3 kts)
Heading: 260°
Reported boat speed: 3.5 kts (sailing)
Average boat speed: 3.1 kts
Weather: Mostly overcast; warm
Temperature: 26° C
Barometer: 1018 hPa
Wind (from): 8-10 kts SW
Waves: 1.0 m
Sails: Genoa 90%, staysail 0%, mainsail 3pt reef
Engine: 0 hrs
Generator: 12 hrs
[Weather and wind forecasts are from ClearPoint Weather, a Saito 8 contributing sponsor.]
