Our return trip from Hawaii will likely total about 2600 nautical miles. Madrone carries enough fuel to motor about 600 of those. When the wind gets light or shuts down completely, we only have 2 options – run the engine, or drift.
In a normal year, the Pacific High is more or less stationary and it is possible to either sail around it or motor across it in one fell swoop. This year, however, the High has been pushed into our path by storms three times. Our 600 miles of fuel is more than enough to get across once, but not three times.
So we have been our rationing our use of the diesel. Some ocean sailors advocate a 1/3-1/3-1/3 strategy. 1/3 of the fuel can be used in the first half of the trip, 1/3 in the second half, and 1/3 in reserve. Since the end of our trip crosses “Gale Alley”, we chose to keep 2 days of full speed motoring in reserve. We really didn’t want to be becalmed a couple hundred miles from home with no fuel and a gale bearing down on us.
We used about half of our reserve motoring across the high for the third time last night. Luckily for us we are now close to the SF Bay and the forecast is for good wind for most of the rest of the way, and no gales!
Day eighteen: 163nm
Position: 38 21N 125 57W
