171 Mile Day

I consider anything over 165 miles/day as hot. (For Cirrus at least.)

Our Monday, 16 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 24N18, 128W48. Course 240M, speed 8. True wind from 060 at 14 knots. Light overcast and a little bit bumpy, 1-2 feet high from NNE. I makes Donna happy. She says that an ocean without waves seems unnatural.

Fixed a couple noises recently. There was a thumping sound that seemed to somehow be connected to the steering but hard to really locate. The more anxious among us were asking questions like: "Do we have an emergency procedure plan for when the rudder falls off, etc." It turned out to be a previously unnoticed (As an aside let me make the observation that a lot of bumps, thumps, scratches and dings go unnoticed until the next louder one gets fixed.) almost microscopic amount of play in the fit of the rudder post into the uppermost bearing directly under the driver's seat. So, not only was there a noise but also a bump in the butt. For now the fix is a paper thin shim of high tech Teflon from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where I used to work. It was a little piece of scrap from a project to develop ultra thin flexible printed circuit boards. Knew it would come in handy sooner or later.

This morning's noise was a little more bothersome. After a hard roundup the other day we started hearing a popping grinding sound. A little like tearing metal. Turned out to be the radar mounting pole. This pole gets torqued back and forth as the radar swings from side to side. It has held up pretty good for standard marine hardware. (I.e. meant for day sailing on small ponds.) For now it is probably a good idea to stop the toque. This has been accomplished with a RRB. (For the non-sailors among you that's a Radar Running Back - see photograph above.)

Bill

Oh yea! Just in passing. Cirrus was first in class as of this morning's roll call. The hitch south and pushing hard for two days is starting to pay off. We were 55th in the fleet. At approximately 70 boats overall, that puts 15 of them behind us. Guess I get to be navigator for at least another day.

Joel will be pleased to hear that we are finally seeing "Cirrus' Whiskers".