Hello Friends,
I hope you are all doing well. Today, I want to share an adventurous tale that will give you some insight into the unpredictable nature of sailing and the challenges we faced on our recent journey.
Forecasts can often be inaccurate, especially in regions around 52 degrees north. We had just left Kiska Island and were due to arrive at Adak Island within 24 hours. With a beam reach (the wind at 90 degrees), our boat should have made it there in about 18 hours.
Well, that didn’t happen. We were only flying the spinnaker, cruising at 3-4 knots. The wind picked up to 30 knots, so we put up the regular sails and reefed them. But then, in a matter of hours, we had no wind at all. The reason we were so picky with the weather was that we had no diesel. We managed to get some from some friendly sailors, but only 100 litres.
For us, diesel is everything. We need it to warm up the boat, for propulsion, and for electricity. Although we rarely run out of power due to our abundant solar panels and lithium batteries, this was the first time we ran so low on diesel that one of the diesel heaters stopped working. When we installed it, we didn’t want it to pick up diesel from the bottom of the tank to avoid picking up dirty diesel and destroying the heater, even with the filter.
After 48 hours, we decided to head to a nearby island and wait for the wind. We saw some wind coming on the forecast, so we stayed one night on this small island. Luckily, we found a protected bay so we wouldn’t be rocking too much. As we approached the island, the fog thickened so much that I couldn’t even take photos.
After a good night’s rest, we headed for Adak, with only 100 nautical miles (200 km) to go. It should have been easy with the wind. But as soon as we left, we had no wind again. This time, we couldn’t start the motor, so we waited, moving very slowly at 1-2 knots, with the sails flapping but still moving. We had never really encountered this problem before, but we knew it was going to happen since our diesel tank wasn’t large, and we underestimated the diesel heaters' usage.
As we got closer to land, we sailed through the Southern Pass and were treated to 50 knots of wind. That’s a lot of wind! But it wasn’t constant; it jumped from 10 knots to 50 knots in seconds, making everything shake. We quickly took down the sails and motored slowly into port.
We arrived with thick fog that only cleared once we got close to land. What a trip, I said to myself—time to warm up and get back to a normal sleep schedule.
I hope you enjoyed this little blog. If you did, feel free to check out my profile.
Paul