(My last blog said day 1 but it should have read day 0 – to be edited later)
My day 1 began with my 3 hour shift from midnight to 3am. It passed pretty uneventfully although during the shift the wind picked up enough so that we required hardly any push from the motors to maintain 4 knots. At 3am I woke John who’s shift follows mine.
I woke shortly after 6am, my normal time, not feeling as though I’d had enough sleep. Going upstairs I quickly agreed with Helen that we should hoist the Code Zero to make the best of the wind which was now a little behind us. Due to the previous days errors when dousing the sail the sail was not furled properly and hence had problems opening. In all it took us 90 minutes to sort the sail out and get it flying. In the process we caught it on the spreader causing a slight tear. I only noticed the tear while trying to establish contact on the mornings SSB Pacific net and immediately focused on that as a small tear could easily turn into something larger. Having woken John for the sail raising we again woke him to get it down again and patch the hole we’d made.
Once the sail was properly up it was now my 9am shift. The winds were up and for a while we were making 5.5 to 6 knots but this didn’t last. A lot of the day the winds were 6-8 knots and we were consequently making 3-4 knots under sail. Later in the day the wind shifted putting us 30 degrees off our ideal course. Around dusk we dropped the Code Zero and raised the head sail and motor sailed. Soon the winds had died down so much that the head sail was in the way and that was furled.
We had the lines out all day but had no luck. That’s about it for the sailing. I’m back on my midnight watch. We’re motoring doing our 4 knot trick running on batteries for 2/3 of the time. Just now the wind picked up a little (3 knots) from abeam – enough to warrant unfurling the head sail. Perhaps the winds will pick up some more.
The whole issue with the sail irritated me as it was one of those chain of events issues starting with mishandling the boat while we were trying to furl it on day 0 when the wind suddenly strengthened. The effectiveness of the crew ultimately is my responsibility so I spent today, probably annoying the hell out of Helen, by randomly asking her to tell me which way to steer to head up or fall off so that instructions will be less easily misinterpreted in the future. We’ll see.
It’s worth noting that we’re making a point of not reading each others blogs as make this crossing. The main idea is to ensure we maintain personal viewpoints and not be influenced by what others write. I’m looking forward to reading the results when we arrive in the Galapagos.
Also at the Galapagos may well be our friends on Jackster and Bristol Rose. The latter have resolved their mechanical issues resulting from running over a line at sea. They were on the World ARC but I think are now about a month or so behind schedule. Maybe this will mean they can take their time. Hopefully we will see them with the iguanas, tortoises and sea lions.
Helen seems to be enjoying the solitude of ocean sailing. I’m getting into the groove. John has had headaches for the last couple of days – perhaps due to dehydration from the sweatbox that was Puntarenas. We’ll soon see if ocean passage making brings him peace or insane boredom.
I’ll go and enjoy the night. The moon is high and bright so the stars are not as clear as they could be. The sea is pretty calm; small ripples over a slight swell. There’s lightning off in the distance somewhere – perhaps over southern Costa Rica – but nothing near. Peaceful.
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