A Good Day

Current Position (as of 7:43pm PT):
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=30.201,-122.4651&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Position link sent via Spot.

I didn't get much sleep last night because there wasn't enough wind to steer the boat with the windvane and the tiller pilot doesn't work well with the motion of the boat on the swells. I had another big green mile wide blob show up on the radar this morning with the accompanying big black cloud but nothing came of it. The wind came and went but mostly went. It is an unbelievable amount of work to continually tweak lines (ropes) on the boat and vane with this flukey wind. I'll just get everything set and the wind changes.
The swells flattened out some during the day. The calmer conditions allowed me to get some jobs done today. I cleaned up the whole boat and did some more reorganizing. I was totally psyched to find my bag of socks! I haven't been able to find them since I left and my feet were always cold. I have also fine-tuned the radar alarms so that I have a better balance between the 4 mile RayMarine alarm and the 50 mile AIS alarm. One doesn't give enough notice if on a collision course and the other was keeping me up all night letting me know every ship within 50 miles. I have set it up so that the AIS warns me at 50 miles out after which I hit a 'snooze' type button that tells the AIS not to tell me again until the ship is 10 miles out. Then for backup the RayMarine radar alarm sounds when the ship is 4 miles out.
I was able to check email and eat some good food but the highlight of the day was getting up on deck clinging to the boom in the swells with one hand (and yes I was harnessed and tethered mom) and jerking and whacking the main halyard with other. After about 45 minutes I was able to free the line from the mast step! This was the highlight of my day because I was not looking forward to going up the mast in these swells!
I became pretty good at being hauled up the mast when we replaced Intrepid's rigging. Whenever there was an issue at the top of the mast, I was called upon to take care of it. Nobody likes the job but I actually got pretty comfortable up there after awhile.
The forecast predicts that by this time tomorrow I will be cruising along with winds between 12 and 19 knots. I can't wait. I actually made good about 50 miles today which is a miracle in itself! Is it Friday night? I wonder what my friends are doing? I'll be glad to get some sleep and am crashing at 7:30!

Questions:
Where is your first stop, how long will it take you to get there and how long will you stay?

Check out my new Route page. It has a proposed itineary which means that it may change. For now, my first stop will be in the Marshall Islands in Micronesia. They are about 4,500 miles away. If I average 1,000 miles a week, I should be there in 4 1/2 weeks. My dad is flying out to meet me there to help with any boat work needed and help me reprovision. Because I left later than expected, I won't have a lot of time there. I hope to stay at least a week or two to rest and reprovision and see the sites. I need to make my way west in order to make my weather window in the Indian Ocean.

From Hazel Stange (8 years old): How long have you been planning to go around the world?

Because my family have always been sailors, we read a lot of sailing books. My favorite one was called The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone. It is the story of Robin Graham who sailed a similiar trip to mine a long time ago. (1966?) It made me want to go where he had gone. I was probably 7 or 8 when my mom read that to me. That is when I started thinking about a big sailing trip.
Caution: If your children read this book they will want to sail around the world!

Cheers,
Zac