Today's Report
June 10/11 0800 JST
Position: 21°51'N, 178°21'E
Remaining to Yokohama finish: 2,219 nm / 8.2% (ETA: 25 - 29 days)
The prospects of a better day of progress borne on much improved sailing winds visited NBSDIII after midnight. A 185° heading put her deeper into the wind zone, where she started seeing steady winds at 9-12 kts out of the ESE. The skipper later turned her in the direction to Yokohama, on a more direct 220°, and so should now finally start reducing the miles toward home.
At the time of his call he was tired from a largely sleepless night, but enthused that after nearly a week of jibing and eking out small tacking gains was back to sailing under steady winds.
NBSDIII gained just 3 nm DMG toward Yokohama as she moved 42 nm on a mostly southerly track since yesterday's call.
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This image taken from ClearPoint Weather shows the mixed wind and weather conditions, and the steadier air he has now entered.
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Mystery radar object
Around noon JST yesterday Saito-san called in to report that he could see a "large object, not moving" on the radar about 6 nm distant to his NW. A bit later it did move, proceeding north, and was then 9 miles away on the radar. He was mystified, saying that it did not seem to be a ship, being at first dead in the water and in his binoculars showing no exhaust smoke, but that he could not tell what the radar target was. Not an island, not a whale. We agreed that there was no chance that any of the tsunami "gomi" (debris) had yet drifted this far from Japan. The object was probably just a ship, although its behavior was unusual enough for Saito-san to make two calls about it in less than half an hour's time. Was it a ship? "I don't know, I don't know" he said, still perplexed as he rang off.
***
Distance in last 24 hours: 42 nm DOG
Total distance completed: 25,711 nm
To Yokohama: 2,219 nm (measured)
Average daily DMG over last 4 days of sailing: 30 nm (measured)
ETA: 26 days (if sailing @ 3.5 kts)
Heading: 220
Reported boat speed: 3.5 kts
Average boat speed: 1.8 kts
Weather: Overcast; thundershowers; warm
Temperature: 26.5° C
Barometer: 1013 hPa
Wind (from): 9-12 kt ESE
Waves: 1.0 m
Sails: Genoa 90%, staysail 0%, mainsail 3pt reef
Engine: 0 hrs
Generator: 10 hrs
[Weather and wind forecasts are from ClearPoint Weather, a Saito 8 contributing sponsor.]
