0920 PDT 7/21/24
For a long time now, winds have been oscillating from TWD 045*-075* and TWS 11-17 knots. Boatspeed is in the 7-11 knot range. Pressing the boat deep enough downwind into a strategic imaginary intermediate waypoint is tough when the wind is anything right of the left extreme of its oscillation cycle. If we go too low we lose too much speed, so we're cheating a bit right of that waypoint in reality. Going right at hotter angles yields better boatspeed, so there is a positive element in the tradeoff when we cut right of the waypoint, which in reality is still serving as a reminder to stay as low as we can without too much speed loss. We're doing well on our Polar/VMG targets.
Awareness from feel as well as routine equipment inspections surfaced a couple of items before they became issues: - steering cable was loose, maybe 1/8". tightened. - hub of starboard steering wheel was loose. tightened. - mast-track for spinnaker pole was showing stress from the lateral load created when the pole was far outboard/aft. repositioned pole vertically to be more towards center of track and swung pole foreward, so compression would be more aligned with the centerline of the boat and less aligned laterally.
The sky last night had still had a thin stratocumulus cloud layer at about 95% coverage. When the moon pierced through the holes, at times you could make out shafts of moonlight, which shone bright on the sea surface in spots. In the distance, it gave great contrast on the horizon. When it hit us, colors of the spinnaker came alive and it was bright enough to read by.
I'm just awake and am about to relieve Tracy to stand watch with Eric for a bit and then later Craig. David is asleep. I have not heard a recent competitive position report, but last word was favorable. The sleep last off-watch was good, as were last night's chicken tika masala dinner and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
All good.
-- Jeremy --