{"id":144,"date":"2025-06-09T08:43:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T08:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/?p=144"},"modified":"2025-06-09T08:43:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T08:43:59","slug":"passing-oland-island-from-east-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/09\/passing-oland-island-from-east-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing \u00d6land island from east side"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well now, I finally got around to hoisting the mainsail and<\/em> that frilly bit of canvas called the gennaker, which I\u2019m convinced was invented purely to make a man feel clever \u2014 or foolish, depending on how the wind catches it. As luck (or the barometer) would have it, the wind took to shoving me from the starboard side like a stern aunt nudging you toward church. With that, I set my heading due south \u2014 174 degrees to be precise, because nothing says confidence like adding numbers to your direction \u2014 and we\u2019re slipping along at a proud 8.4 knots, which, in land terms, is \u201cfaster than a mule on payday.\u201d<\/p>\n

They say the wind will hold till 11 o\u2019clock tonight, which suits me fine \u2014 gives me time to ponder the meaning of life or at least the meaning of that creaking sound in the bulkhead.<\/p>\n

Now, at 5 o\u2019clock, I\u2019ve set an alarm, not for tea but for trouble \u2014 the wind\u2019s due to puff itself up from 13 to 15 knots. That\u2019s the kind of increase that makes a sailboat lean like a suspicious man at a poker table. I\u2019m expecting to reach the edge of \u00d6land Island by about 9 PM, assuming Poseidon and the navigation gods don\u2019t get bored and start playing dice.<\/p>\n

So far, I haven\u2019t spied any place to anchor that doesn\u2019t look like it came straight out of a sea serpent\u2019s retirement home \u2014 rocks, shallows, and all manner of inhospitable nonsense.<\/p>\n

While I was poking about the marine traffic charts (a magical map that shows you what other fools are out at sea), I discovered that I might cross paths with a mechanical wonder: the SD 2031<\/strong>, a U.S. marine research drone, uncrewed and apparently unbothered, sailing along at 2.7 knots on a bearing of 9 degrees north. A ghost ship, if ghosts came with barcodes and government funding. Left Oakland, California \u2014 no crew, no engine, no sense. Just drifting like an old bottle with a note that says, \u201cTrust me, I know what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I pulled up its last log. It was updated six hours ago, which means it could be anywhere between here and some unsuspecting fishing net. So I\u2019ll be keeping my eyes peeled, my glasses wiped, and my collision insurance updated.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 15 degrees outside \u2014 not cold, not warm, just the kind of weather that makes you question your choices. Light rain falling, the sort of drizzle that doesn\u2019t bother to get serious but will still soak your collar. Might retreat inside, fire up the laptop, and get some work done while keeping one eye on the sea \u2014 and the other on that wandering robot ship.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the state of things. Me, the wind, a ghost drone, and no place to stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well now, I finally got around to hoisting the mainsail and that frilly bit of canvas called the gennaker, which I\u2019m convinced was invented purely to make a man feel clever \u2014 or foolish, depending on how the wind catches it. As luck (or the barometer) would have it, the wind took to shoving me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Passing \u00d6land island from east side - Havsvind Chronicles: Sailing Stories and Seafaring Adventures","description":"Well now, I finally got around to hoisting the mainsail and that frilly bit of canvas called the gennaker, which I\u2019m convinced was invented purely to make a man"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-passage-logs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/havsvind.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}