First the basics: We are 277 miles from San Diego. If you draw a line from San Diego to Nuka Hiva, we are pretty much on it. At U2308 UTC we are at position 28-29.07N by 119-39.03W. Speed 5.5 knots with engine running at 1450 rpm at course 207 degrees true. Wind W knots relative speed and direction of D degrees, wind waves 1 foot, swells about 5 feet at 12 seconds. Barometric pressure is B and steady for last H hours. Depth is crazy deep, don’t ask. We traveled 130 miles yesterday. We measured 1.8 gallons per hour fuel burn, can calculated about 3.8 miles per gallon. These are great numbers which mean we have a range of about 4600 miles at current conditions. We are only going 2900 this first passage. We are increasing rpm to 1500.

We are on day three. All is calm and quiet. We have things to keep us occupied at sea. We have lots of books and various watch duty activities, which is what mariners have had for ages. Buy hey, this is 2007. We have a Wii plugged into a 26 inch LCD TV in the saloon. Also we have 720p TV projector with a 50 inch by 30 inch screen in the mid stateroom with 5.1 surround sound. We do not plan to use these toys much when we are on land, but they are nice things to have here at sea.

We are excited that the first destinations on our journey are places totally different from what we are used to. There is tremendous abundance in San Diego, and now we are going to some of the most remote places on the planet. Did you know that 98% of the people live in 2/3 of the world? There is a 1/3 slice of the planet, mostly made up of the Pacific Ocean that is essentially empty. We are going straight through the middle of that on this trip.

We just watched a pod of about 10 dolphins at the bow the boat. It is our second dolphin sighting so far. My thought of the moment is we are so lumbering and loud in our pocket of artificial land compared to those graceful creatures.

All is well. We are resting and relaxing from all the preparations. No more trips to the store. No more worrying about what we would forget. No more running around trying to get things ready. Life in San Diego is as wrapped up as it can be.

Sure we have all the worries of being aboard a small boat heading farther and farther from civilization, but it is an amazing feeling finally making it out here. It is bliss when the boat is running smoothly and the weather is favorable, and right now it is bliss. The sea and mechanical systems aboard have given us an inviting start so far.

We are 140 miles from San Diego to the Southwest. We plan to make only very subtle course changes to make it to Nuka Hiva. It is a “straight” line. Here is our position on April 29th, 2007 at 2140 UTC: 30-33.58N 118-27.53W. Our speed is 5.6 knots running at about 1450 rpm on course 194 magnetic. We plan to speed up a bit once we get out a little farther. A note on indicating time: The blog records time in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), also known as Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) or Zulu time. It tends to be easier to report in UTC time. Local time is 1440 or 2:40pm.

We have about 5 foot seas rolling under us from our forward starboard side, aka mostly “beam” seas. The wave period is about 9-10 seconds. It is overcast and with only about 5 knots of wind from the 20 degrees to the starboard.

The radar is set to scan 8 miles out and we have seen nothing for the last 12 hours. It is quiet out here.

We are doing 4 hour watch schedules. Eric 0200-0600, Christi 0600-1000, Richard at 1000-1400, and then it repeats. So we get a nice 8 hours off between watch. We will see how this goes. Eric was a bit queasy, but he is feeling better now.

When all is said, it is nice boring update. 🙂