Tuesday, November 8, 2011

I'm off!

I got off the dock in Wilmington yesterday and headed to sea, sailing
straight south to pass the east ends of Catalina and San Clemente
Islands. The wind was light, but I've been continually impressed by
Odyssey's light air performance - we were making 4-5 knots pretty easily
all afternoon, and I had high hopes for making some miles. One of my
big hopes with leaving yesterday was to be able to get out and away from
the land breeze and not spend the day drifting around in the shipping
lanes, but alas, it was not to be. After having to motor briefly
through the lee of Catalina, I ended up spending the night drifting at
anywhere from 0 to 0.5 knots slowly towards San Clemente Island - there
was no traffic but a few Carnival cruise ships, and it actually ended up
being kind of nice since I could get some sleep not worrying too much
about hitting anything since there was no wind. Finally the morning the
breeze is back and I'm back up to drifting at warpspeed of 3 or 4 knots,
and I should be getting clear of San Clemente in just a few minutes.

3 comments:

  1. Best of luck, Eric! I'm very impressed: this is one of the most mammoth undertakings any of my friends has begun, but I'm certain that you're equal to the task. Thanks for maintaining this blog. I look forward to hearing about your adventures, and I'll break out my copy of Joshua Slocum's memoir of *his* solo circumnavigation in your honor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eric, you do not know me but I am a fencing mom and good friends with you mom. I wish you the best of luck and a safe journey, looking forward to reading about your adventures.
    Jan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just wanted to wish you the best of luck. What an adventure.

    ReplyDelete