Position: 25 degrees, 59 minutes north; 159 degrees, 29 minutes west 125 nm day
We’d be going farther each day by at least 20 miles, but the unsettled wind has us furling the jib constantly to ride out the squalls. Not big rain squalls, just windy areas where for an hour or two, the wind will over power the jib.
Just one of these after another...
We’ll furl and all will be fine until the wind drops. Then we wait an hour or two or longer if I’m off watch and sleeping, running just the stays’l and our speed drops to 4 knots. Oh well, it’s more comfortable that way. We’re not racing, right? 😉 (uh, huh)
So, today was the same as yesterday. Let’s see, there’s blue sky, then clouds. A little rain, wind, blue water, then everything turns gray for a while. The ride’s not terrible, but it grates on you, constantly heeled over to one side, but with the waves rolling under the boat and some coming from in front, it’s a constant rock and roll and you can’t let go of a handhold for even a second or you get thrown around. As we’ve noted before, sitting becomes an exercise where to splay both legs, at least one arm and then a butt, or hip or something and wedge yourself in. The “free” arm is what you have left for eating, drinking or reading.
Yesterday the wind was solid mid-twenties gusting higher. Today, most of the day was in the high teens gusting low twenty and we had the jib up most of the day (although this evening the wind is up again and jib’s down). Tomorrow is supposed to be lighter, so we have that to look forward to.
It’s still blazing hot in the daytime. The deck gets so hot you can’t sit on it without a cushion or you’ll get a burn. But nights are cooling. I’m wearing a thermal long sleeve tee shirt but still shorts and flip flops, Ann is going to a long sleeve shirt, capri-pants and tonight a towel or maybe a blanket around her legs.
OK, not much else to say yet. We’re still getting our sea legs although I’m glad to report that both of us had good sleep last night and today and are feeling much more refreshed – other than my “slight” explosion when I couldn’t get the damn dinner out of the fridge with all the rocking and rolling and a sealed meal of some unknown food product mysteriously flew across the cabin and slammed into the bulkhead. Oh, and some swearing was heard too. The fridge is very full of good stuff to eat but getting to a specific meal is like playing Tetris.
Sounds a bit on the challenging side — wedging in, holding on, and trying not to burn your seat in the hot sun. Hope the winds become more favorable and that this journey becomes a smoother sail. (I have stong memories of the “wedging” factor when sailing in the Bay. If my feet would’ve slipped off the seat they were wedged on I would have surely landed in the water. Fun for a short period of time, but not so much if you have to do it for long.) Stay safe…..and persevere.
I got just the thing for you guys. How about we helo out a couple of Recaro racing seats with 5-point harness? Bolt those suckers down someplace, climb in, and you can do slow rolls and stay tucked in.
Of course that doesn’t help with the food puzzle. Maybe I could get hold of some space station food in squeeze bottles and send it with the racing seats. Yum!
Somebody needs to figure out how to put shocks on boats. Adjustable preferably. Then you could dial in the ride; from comfort to race settings.
Stay focused, easy does it. The weather will change.
Hang on, hang on sailors….
Finally able to see where you are and glad things are going OK. We are in Bali and have been delayed leaving, due to the crew from Hokule’a stuck in Sydney.
No flights due to Ash from Volcano. Hope to leave this weekend! Have a great sail to BC. Love, Mary and Dave