S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 19

Date: 18 May 2009 1715 UTC (0815 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 189 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 2055 nm
Latitude: 13 55.386 N
Longitude: 119 57.418 W
COG: 268M
SOG: 9 kts under sail
Wind: 12 kts NNE
Seas: 3 ft N swell, 3 ft wind waves
Weather: 100% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1008.5, steady
Sea Temperature: 82F

First, please note that in anticipation of crossing longitude 120 W this morning, Samadhi Time is now -0800. This is the same as Pacific Standard Time or one hour earlier than Pacific Daylight Time.

Yesterday, the day dawned gray once more. The ocean which looks so charmingly blue when it's sunny, appears malevolent and uninviting when the skies are gray. It's surprisingly cool now, with temperatures in the high 70s at night. The overcast cleared up in the afternoon, and for the first part of the evening we had clear skies to watch the stars.

Steady winds continue, and the seas have been building on our beam. We continue to sail on a beam reach in 15 to 20 knots of wind. Most of the day was spent under a single reefed main, reefed genoa, and full staysail. We have found that it pays to use our high cut genoa along with the staysail in beam reaching conditions, even if we have to reef it. Our speeds have been consistently fast, with our W-H autopilot earning its keep in the close-spaced seas. As the day progressed, the seas grew larger and farther apart. We prefer the larger, farther apart waves over the short and steep, close-spaced variety. We wouldn't mind if the seas moved around behind Samadhi, instead of hitting her sideways. Waves from behind mean surfing for Samadhi, and faster speeds with less effort!

As Phillip's meatloaf was roasting in the oven for dinner, a large tanker appeared directly astern of Samadhi. We were surprised to see a ship out here, and it appeared almost as a hallucination at first. (The horizon was a bit hazy.) This was the perfect opportunity to test our AIS receiver! Since we still need to solder one more connector (in the lazarette no less), Phillip made a temporary antenna out of wire. The AIS receiver worked flawlessly, integrating with our Garmin chartplotter/radar and displaying the ship's information and location. We have access to all sorts of information via AIS, the name of the ship (very useful for calling them on the radio!), their course, speed, position, closest point of approach (CPA), destination, cargo. It goes on and on. This is one more safety tool for us to use.

Even better, the officer on watch was a native of Queens, New York, and we all got to chat with him on the radio. He confirmed for us that Samadhi gives a very clear radar return at over 12 miles, a very good thing to know. They are on the same email schedule that we are, checking over satellite connection about twice a day. It's funny to think that we have some of the same facilities as a huge tanker like the Stolt Effort!

In the later evening we reached a milestone for Samadhi: 100 miles in less than 12 hours (meaning an average speed of more than 8.4 kts). The wind eased quite a bit during the night, but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm. We are ecstatic that even in these square seas, we're able to keep such a pace. Here's hoping that we can continue at a good clip for the remainder of our passage.