Dispatch 17 sent 7/25/09:
clouds
They’re really in the home stretch now: less than 1,000 nm from Cape Flattery! Paul thinks they will arrive in Port Townsend on 8/2. More on their arrival date at the end of this dispatch.
Sam caught a couple of tunas a few days out of Kaua’i, so he has maintained his reputation as a real fisherman! Haven’t heard about any more fish, though as I’ve said before, there are plenty of other provisions on the boat.
Right now they are in a storm system that came from the Aleutians. Wind is not as high as had been predicted (just 20 knots, not the 25+ that had been predicted earlier) and they’re really zooming along: 7 knots at yesterday morning’s report, 7.3 last night, and a whopping 7.5 this morning.
rainbow after the storm
All good things must come to an end, and they’ll be in very light winds in a day or two. Another system from the Aleutians appears to be forming about the same time, this system much tighter and smaller than the earlier one, so they may miss all but the light winds to the east of it. Exactly what the weather will be in any one location at a particular time is an estimate at best, an art rather than a science. Thanks to the “UGRIB” site, it seems deceptively easy to get, but I’ve noticed that it can change substantially from one 12 hour period to the next, so other than general weather trends, a forecast beyond 24 hours out really isn’t terribly helpful.
The crew of “Indigo” logged 169 miles from 0800 7/23 through 0800 7/24, with a similar run the day before. Paul thinks that they will get to Pt Townsend on 8/2. I believe that’s a little optimistic (more like 8/4, in my opinion). Paul knows “Indigo’s” and Sam’s and Paul B’s capabilities; I have a better sense of the weather patterns (and that there may be maddeningly light winds for a couple of days).
Fair winds to all!