Sailing Jolly Roger

My Stars - Day 5

5/2/2010 - Day 5
by Stan
N 18°19', W 110°00'

At night, with nothing but the stars, the moon, and the sea, I understand why over the course of human existence, we've assigned personalities and stories to the stars. When you slow down and take it all in and aren't in a hurry to get to sleep so you can get up in the morning and make it to work in time or thinking about tomorrow's meeting, you can really start to see things differently. Out here, we have only a few simple goals and tasks - to stay safe and continue moving toward Hawaii. That involves eating, sleeping, and caring for the boat so that she makes it through to the other side. Check the sails, check the standing and running rigging, watch the battery bank, make water if there's enough sun in the solar panels, etc.

I've been having calm and clear nights with stars to guide me. There's a specific formation that lines up with the rigging for the perfect course to Hilo, directly to our west. When they're out, there's no need to look at the compass. I tried looking up the stars on a chart and I couldn't pick out their names, so I'll probably end up spending some extra time back on land doing some research.

Here's a sketch of how I see them from our position.

Over the last day or two the wind has shifted from NW to the N, so that we're finally able to make some true west progress instead of getting pushed south. Our daily progress towards Hilo continues to increase and it feels good to not be beating constantly.

Still limping along without the headsail so our progress isn't too great, but hand-sewing the tack back onto a sail is hard work.

The calm nights in the swell mean an awful rolling motion with accompanying banging as the boom goes side to side with no wind to fill the sail, so we have been turning on the motor to make progress and to prevent the worst of the noise so we can sleep. I seem to get the best sleep with the weirdest dreams at night with the motor. Perhaps it's the traces of carbon monoxide or the vibrations or a combination of both that make for the funky dream state.