baby, it's cold outside!

On watch last night, saw my breath. I should end this entry on that note. Course then I couldn't tell you about Jugurtha turning into a fishing machine.
We are currently motoring, again with the motor, but at least we are more or less headed right for Cape Flattery. 838 miles to go till Seattle.
This leg of the trip home has been so much different from the Mexico to Hawaii leg. As it should be. It has been fun for sure but not the easy going , soaking in the sun, never start the motor fun like we had going to Honolulu. This has been wet, foggy (no sun for 6 days now), and cold. Even without the weather, the course we have had to run is almost as variable as the weather. We have had so many course corrections due to the wind that our mileage doesn't go down all the time. It can go up. The saying on the boat now is "only 10 more days". I am afraid to run the heater because I am not sure how much more motoring we are going to have to do.
Morale is good though and we are going to have hot water for showers today. Everything is kinda damp and will stay that way until we either get into Seattle or the sun comes out. My bet is Seattle.
Jugurtha caught three Big Eyed Tunas (I think they are Big Eyed) yesterday. Freezer is stuffed like a sausage with fresh tuna. he wants to try and get some home and feed his friends. He was very excited about the fish and did a masterful job filleting them. We figure we now have 15 pounds of tuna. Last night Jeremy seared some of the tuna and we had that on a bed of Quinoa. Unreal. I made fresh bread and I think I got my recipe down. Nothing like hot bread and a hint of melted butter. Well, maybe more than a hint.
Had a good sail for the past couple of days and been motoring since 2000 yesterday. Saw some whales yesterday (grays) and a pod of dolphins also. At night I went to start the motor and noticed as I increased the throttle the tachometer didn't move. This usually indicates a slipping belt on the alternator. Shut down the motor and tighten belt. Except it wasn't just a loose belt. The bolt that the alternator hinges on had spun off and was almost out of it's hole. Came really close to having the belt come off and then get entangled in the water maker belt which could have caused some problems. Lucky break right there. The bolt that came out was pretty beat up. The threads were flattened and the nut (after we found one that fit) was having problems getting on the bolt. After cleaning the threads, we got everything to spin together. I put some locktite on the nut and tightened. So far so good. Makes me wonder how long that bolt has been loose.
Other problems include the remote control for the autopilot dying and the button that allows me to put the engine in neutral also got stuck. Fixed all but the unneeded remote.
All in all it is going OK. Could be worse. Sea Otter (left Honolulu 3 days after we did) has had a fire (starter caught fire after grounding itself out), freezer died (lost a ton of frozen meat), toilet died (bucket now in use), and wind vane problems (fixed). In comparison, we are doing well.
Wind is slowly building and maybe we can sail. At some point we are just going to HAVE to sail as the fuel is finite. I think we have 45 gallons left. Not a lot really. Jeremy has to be back on the 29th of July (actually the 28th) and I am wondering if we can make that. We really only need to get to Neah Bay and can refuel there. There will be a timing issue with that also. It is not a 24 hour gas station.
Our text address is appa@inreach.delorme.com if you want to write us. Thanks to all of you who have written.




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