Pacific Crossing Day 14: Feeling Frustrated

Last night began with billions of stars twinkling overhead, only to be masked by a fiery red moonrise. We were still waiting for wind. We motored through the night with our main up, periodically using the jib when conditions allowed. 

Ray brought the code zero out at sunrise, giving us a slight .5-1kn boost in speed as we continued motoring. We tapped into the diesel jerrycans for the first time today, putting 40 gallons into our tanks, keeping 10 in reserve. 

We currently have 115 gallons on board and are running one engine at a time low and slow, burning ~0.66 gallons/hr. As is, we could motor for about eight more days, leaving us empty. Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that. Tomorrow we’ll be halfway to the Marquesas Islands.

We took advantage of the sunshine and calm seas, doing a load of laundry and hanging it out to dry. We dropped the sails just before lunch, as the speed we were gaining from having them up wasn’t worth the distance we were going off course to keep them happy. If we’re burning diesel, every mile counts! 

We noticed a new vibration while running our starboard engine. We blasted it into reverse to clear any seaweed from the prop and rudder. The vibrations continued. I popped my GoPro into its waterproof case, laid belly-to-teak on the sugar scoop, and stuck my arm in. Everything looked fine! 

Out of an abundance of caution, we switched over to our port engine while we brainstormed the potential cause. We heard the same vibration. We’re assuming it was just a result of some funky current. It went away a few hours later, but we’ll pay attention if it returns.

We were able to sail for a bit this afternoon. Using our main and code zero, our SOG was ~7kn. We savored the peace and quiet: Ahhhh, the absence of engine noise. 

I uploaded our latest YouTube video, and Ray did his daily stroll around the boat, inspecting our equipment. He added a safety line to the boom, where he noticed some chafe, before turning the engine back on around 5pm. 

As I’m posting this, we have our main on the third reef, our code zero out, and our port engine on. We’re feeling a bit frustrated. Lagoon has specifically instructed 42 owners not to sail with headsail only, and we can’t help but wonder if we’d be sailing right now if we weren’t blanketing half our headsail, never mind how rough it is on the main to have it up in these conditions…