LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 10:
February 5, 2000
0541 Sunrise. The boat encounters a rain shower. A shift in the wind brings her
heading more southerly to about 140 T. This may be nothing more than a localized
change in the wind direction associated with rain showers. In any case to have
the bow pointed more in the desired direction is certainly an uplifting
experience.
0600 The sky is overcast with scattered showers in the area. Air temperature is
72; seawater temperature is 75. The wind is currently out of the SSE 14-16G19.
The boat is still close-hauled on starboard tack with the mainsail full up and
the dual jib pulled to its fullest extent off of the headstay. The barometer, at
30.15", shows the occurrence of a minor dip in pressure some 3 hours
previously.
0750 The Tropical Analysis and Forecast Center with its transmitter site in
Louisiana is once again providing (via weather fax) the wind and wave charts for
the Caribbean including Gulf and South Atlantic waters to about 32N. For the
last 36 hours a statement has been provided, "chart not available".
No accompanying reason was given. One wonders why these charts were unavailable
and worries a little (given the drastic cuts in funding for our uniformed
services over the last several years) that this may be a sign of austerity in
the funding for the existing weather forecasting services - with the resultant
probability of future "outages". The concern is not without some basis
in fact - since virtually all of the Navy's weather fax transmission sites on
the east coast of the US were shut down approximately a year ago - an action
that reduced the number of such site available in this region by about half.
0815 The "lift" that I have enjoyed for the last few hours has
vanished and the boat is back on a generally easterly course making about 3 kts
with the wind now less than 10 kts. Choosing this as the time to charge
batteries I start the engine, turn the boat to a heading of 180 T, which is the
heading for waypoint 7, and I stow the sails. Under power, the boat is making
about 4 kts with the wind and seas dead on the nose. I will maintain this
heading at least until the batteries are charged.
0900 Position: 24-34N 060-09W.
1020 I transfer about 10 more gallons of diesel fuel from the diesel jugs into
the main tank. This appears to top off the main tank, as diesel fuel squirts
back at me in the cockpit from the fill pipe and the vent. But the fuel quantity
needle on top of the tank itself bounces anywhere from the full peg to almost
the three quarters mark. I secure from transferring fuel and clean up the mess
in the cockpit. My best guess at this point is that I have consumed 24 gallons
of diesel fuel since topping off at the Salt Ponds Marina in Hampton VA during
the mid afternoon of January 26th. Having been underway for 10 days now, I
calculate that I have experienced an average consumption of 2.4 gallons of
diesel fuel per day. While the primary use of the fuel has been to restore the
charge in the batteries, some has been used to move the boat, a portion was
consumed for heat in the first days after departure, and some of it was lost in
the bilge as aresult of a fuel leak, which has since been repaired. Nominally
there are 38 gallons in the main tank - the last portion of which cannot be
considered useful, since from a practicable standpoint it really is not possible
to draw it out of the tank without sucking up some air. The moment that a
significant air bubble reaches the diesel engine it is going to be out of
action. To be on the safe side (given the way the boat moves around at sea), I
am going to assume that anything less than 8 gallons in the main tank is a
minimum fuel situation; accordingly, that leaves 30 gallons of useful fuel in
the main tank. In addition to that, I carry 36 gallons in deck jugs - all of
which may be considered useful - for a total of 66 gallons of useful fuel. Since
I have used 24 of the 66 useable gallons, 42 remain. If I hold back 10 gallons
as a reserve for contingencies, that leaves
32 gallons available to be expended between now and my arrival at Barbados. The
current distance to Barbados is 682 NM. At 4 kts or about 100 NM per day (a
conservative figure with cooperative winds), It should take about 7 days to get
there. A consumption of 2.4 gallons per day for 7 days equates to 16.8 gallons.
Subtracting that from the 32 available leaves 15.2 for discretionary purposes
such as driving the boat straight into the wind under power. At 2100 RPM (normal
cruise power for the engine), she burns about 1 gallon per hour and under
ordinary circumstances she makes about 4.5 - 5 kts. In the current seas, she is
doing about 4.
1130 If I should decide to continue driving the boat into the wind until the
15.2 gallons is consumed, I could continue to run until 0300 tomorrow morning,
at which point I would have gained about 60 NM to the south and I would want to
secure the engine and sail from then on except for the daily battery charging
sessions, holding heading during sail changes, etc.
1140 A review of the weather forecasts indicates that there is another front
expected to push through by tomorrow and that when that occurs a favorable NW
wind followed by NE and then E should be the result. The forecast indicates that
this should occur S of 23 N. From my present position, that is 82 NM to the S. I
can not get there under power using only the 15.2 gallons of fuel. Even if I
used that and all the reserve, I would just barely be in the region. And what if
the forecast wind does not materialize? Then I have used up all my discretionary
fuel and I still haven't reached the area of favorable winds.
1200 The wind has freshened some out of the south 11-13 kts. I shall sail and
save the fuel.
1240 The main is full up and the jib is fully extended with Lord's Prayer on a
port tack heading about 228T but when one accounts for the leeway (sideways
slippage) she is actually making about 233T. The bearing to waypoint 7 is 183T.
Progress against the wind is frustratingly slow and taking the correct tack to
catch a favorable wind shift can make a tremendous difference. It is easy to
understand why in the days of sail the most efficient routes were the ones that
allowed the sailing vessels to travel with the wind. That in fact is what made
the Caribbean a place of great strategic importance in the days when the new
world was being discovered. The preferred route from Europe was south in the
eastern Atlantic to pick up the trade winds (in the latitudes of approximately
10 - 20 N), which almost always blow from east to west and these winds brought
the sailing ships across the Atlantic right into the Caribbean. From the
Caribbean, the prevailing winds would take the sailing vessels up the east coast
where the new colonies were first established, on to Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland, and then across the Atlantic again to Europe to turn south and
close the big wind circle. That, of course is an over simplification; there were
lots of places along the way where it didn't quite work according to plan and
one might get hung up somewhere as I am at the moment, but if one wanted to sail
across the Atlantic and do it efficiently, that was the general concept one
would use to lay out his route. Nobody knew this in the beginning, of course,
but it didn't take sailors long to figured it out. In time all sailing vessels
were asked to report the wind strength and direction, their position and the
date for each day at sea whenever they crossed the Atlantic. Eventually a
database was compiled and the information from it was transcribed onto a set of
charts - one for each month of the year. These charts today are known as the
pilot charts and they are used by sailing vessels such as Lord's Prayer to plan
a route from one location to another all over the globe. At the present time a
strong high-pressure area is influencing the prevailing or normal situation in
this piece of the ocean. It is located well to the east and somewhat north of
Lord's Prayer. It is the wind circulating in a clockwise direction around that
high that is causing the wind to be blowing from the SSE at Lord's Prayer's
location. Until pushed east by another weather system, it is likely to continue
frustrating my efforts to sail further south.
1649 Sunset.
1700 Due to a slight veering of the wind (clockwise), I have come around onto
the starboard tack. 1845 Position: 24-09N 060-19W. The heading is about 135T.
With leeway, the boat is actually tracking about 130T at approximately 4.5 kts.
The wind, now at 14-17 kts, has freshened some over the last hour.
END OF LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 10
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