How This Crossing Will Proceed
Day 6, odometer 167M, distance from start 133M
I was extremely pleased to leave Cape Mendocino behind. I cleared it on the 26th by 18M to spare and soon my pace picked up. The California Current and the winds both accelerate around that cape, often making it especially testy with the wrong combination of swells and winds.
Once south of the cape, with a building NNW wind, my boat soon reached an average speed of over two knots. It was time for me to rest. I quickly took care of issues that I had put off since my launch Tuesday evening, then got inside the cabin to monitor my progress. By then I was averaging three knots, skating along while I could take some rest. It has been full days with little sleep for a solid week. In the following 24 hours, my rowboat would cover 47M.
As the coastline retreats due SSE from Cape Mendocino, simply by keeping a southerly course, I will build distance. Eventually I will be free of all coastal effects to find trade winds.
A good reason for me to launch as far north as Crescent City was the strong onshore winds this time of the year that Sacramento Valley generates further south. Such winds are hard to escape for a solo rower. Just recently a fellow ocean rower who had launched from Monterey Bay for Hawaii had to call it off, and was expecting a tow to Ensenada on Baja peninsula.
As if to prove that point, the last 36 hours brought steady winds from the westerly quarter of the compass. Once again, I had to stay on the oars to not lose any westing I had gained. Eventually I had to stop at 2am for a 4-hour nap. This morning, the wind is down with hardly any, and starting tomorrow, the forecast calls for northerly winds through the weekend. That will be my break away from the grip of land.
The upwelling water along these shores brings cold water full of nutrients from the deep, hence the abundant fisheries which are also the feeding grounds for whales. This cold water generates the spectacular fog over the Golden Gate and rushes cold air toward shore as the hot inland air rises. My gauges indicate a surface temperature of 54-55 degrees Fahrenheit, absolutely not survivable for long.
To attempt a nonstop row I had to be patient waiting for June. While this increased my chance of hurricanes from south of Mexico around the time that I will near Hawaii, it also decreased that for typhoons in the western Pacific. They are the same beast, just as worrisome. I hope to pace myself in order to not reach the longitude of the Marianas until January. Let’s all collectively cross our fingers that a rare retrograde mid ocean hurricane west of Hawaii does not take aim at me from my south in the fall.
Erden.