Today's Report
June 14/11 0800 JST
Position: 20°49'N, 173°04'E
Remaining to Yokohama finish: 2,242 nm / 7.9% (ETA: 22 - 27 days)
It's getting a bit crowded out there.
He just passed within 6 nm of an undersea mountain, erroneously identified on Google Earth as Ewing Seamount. Whatever its actual name, it's one of thousands of seamounts – massive underwater mountains – throughout the world's oceans. This area of the Pacific is jam-packed with them, and they'd be a navigation hazard if not for the fact that they don't come near breaking the surface.
These volcanic uplifts from the seafloor are not to be confused with "guyots," the term adopted for undersea plateaus or tablemounts. NBSDIII will pass a number of them as well over the next two weeks.
As with seamounts, guyots also are well below the sea surface and both types of underwater features have only fairly recently been mapped thanks to satellites equipped with gravity, density, metal, and other highly sensitive detectors. While can't Saito-san see these underwater behemoths, surface currents may be affected. That is likely why he reported encountering an unusual and transient current several days ago.
In about 3 days he'll pass Wake Island, now 350 nm distant. Wake played a major role in WWII and despite being extremely isolated, is called home by some 1,500 inhabitants, including US military and civilian workers who maintain an emergency landing strip and a missile defense post.
Meanwhile, it was yet another good sailing day for Saito-san, as he moved in a more direct line toward home port, achieving 83 nm distance made good. He jibed again about sunset to his present 285° heading.
He reported the winds have stayed 8-10 kts from the ENE, a bit less than he likes but enough to move NBSDIII along at a bit over 4 kts.
[Click to enlarge]
***
Distance in last 24 hours: 100 nm DOG
Total distance completed: 26,072 nm
To Yokohama: 2,242 nm (measured)
Average daily DMG over last 2 days of sailing: 81 nm (measured)
ETA: 25 days
Heading: 285
Reported boat speed: 4.0 kts
Average boat speed: 4.2 kts
Weather: Overcast; no rain; warm
Temperature: 26.5° C
Barometer: 1016 hPa
Wind (from): 8-10 kt ENE
Waves: 1.0 m
Sails: Genoa 90%, staysail 0%, mainsail 3pt reef
Engine: 0 hrs
Generator: 11 hrs
[Weather and wind forecasts are from ClearPoint Weather, a Saito 8 contributing sponsor.]
