Below are Tor’s satellite texts from the last two days…

We are trying to head as far south as we can now so that when the wind goes more north easterly we still have an angle for Hawaii rather than straight downwind. In the end it will be straight down anyway, or port tack even.

Basically going around the High [pressure] at 50° to the wind. Hey we beat our path on Yo-Lyla today! 179.5 miles run. Probably even better tomorrow. Wind looks good.

Thanks for the [crust] recipe! Yes we have olive oil a shit ton of butter (yep Costco). And coconut milk which sounds good.

No fish yet tho. Poor Quinndo. Hooked a nice little tuna 🍣 but she flipped off the hook. Quinn cried.

Imagine you can’t sail straight down wind, but Hawaii is straight down wind. If you have a wind angle that gets you closer to your goal, you take it.

CRAIG: The center of the North Pacific high is slowly moving west. Very favorable sailing conditions. Winds will be a bit lighter on the 24th

Thanks for the weather from our pilot. I now have a set phrase “looks like an on time arrival into Honolulu…”

[It’s] Midnight but we set clocks back so [it’s] 11. Tracy having hard time keeping the boat balanced. While I was saying let’s bring her downwind, My camera went flying. Looks like it cracked the lens guard only but we will see.

KYOKO: Btw did the tuna flip off the hook in the water or after pulling it in?

Well, fish do flip off the line. Quinn was pretty excited and may have hauled it in a bit fast, but not his fault. As for the cracked lens hood… I should have stowed it, and Tracy should be able to trim the boat. But we are human.

KYOKO: Is Tracy recovering?

Yes Tracy is back up and watching. Cough sounds better but not gone.

A few rain squalls. Recently realized the boat is wired wrong and the domestic or house batteries are connected with the start battery. Meaning we couldn’t start the engine if we run the house batteries low (autopilot, plotters, fridge and freezer). Now I isolate the start battery so that doesn’t happen most boats of course have an independent start battery.

CRAIG: They have made amazing progress today! I like Tor’s plan. Humans have solid judgment and decision making. Algorithm’s don’t;-). Way to go guys!!! No threat of a low pressure system until the 31st. Still showing solid gradients through the 24th…weakening a bit on the 25th. Looks like they’ll be arriving on the 28th around 16:30. Yes…the trades are keeping their boat speed up. Asymmetrical Spinnaker so they won’t be going straight downwind with it. More like 160 degrees so could add time. Tor won’t go straight downwind. Too dangerous of a wind angle.

KYOKO: So maybe a 29th arrival? And he said yes.

CRAIG: Tonight will be their largest sea state with seas at 8.2 feet

Craig is right all around. Pretty lumpy last night. I took a melatonin because I was determined to get some sleep. Worked despite the bouncing. 1/2 way party!!

We are going to roast a whole chicken. Rowan is baking a berry pie. Like getting out of prison never easy doing a crossing. We’ve been forced to run west to keep an angle on the wind. Rough seas mean we need more angle to stabilize the boat. See why I headed south now? 😉