Today we saw sea, sky, clouds, sun and flying fish. That being said, we didn’t see much sun as it was mostly cloudy and the seas were big – in the 10-12 foot range – as a result of winds in the low to mid 20s for most of the day.
So, the outhaul story. Shortly after taking over from John at 5am I heard a bit of a thunk. That in of itself is not too unusual as in the conditions we were experiencing the odd hull slap or sail flap can occur. I checked around and soon found the clew of the main sail (bottom rear) flapping as a result of the new outhaul chaffing through. This was all my fault. The outhaul is supposed to control the tension in the foot of the sail. I had let it out quite a way to change the shape of the main considerably to improve our down wind handling. However, the pulley at the rear of the boom is not shaped for this angle and the line must have rubbed the metal surround.
I immediately called John back up for assistance – fortunately he was still awake wondering if I’d be need help reefing as the winds were really picking up. By point the boat more into wind and letting the boom right out we were able to relieve enough pressure on the main to put a tight first reef in. Without tension at the base of the main, the bottom few feet were flapping madly in the wind. I did not want to go up onto the bimini in the dark without being able to see what the sea was doing so I went forward and raised the lazy bag on the downwind side to collect up the loose sail. This seemed to work although it was not ideal. John was able to head back to sleep and I awaited dawn. When Helen awoke I was able to repeat the previous days maneuver heading up a little to put pressure on the main to minimise movement. This time I gave Helen specific instructions not to do anything while I was up there which she nearly followed. I was able to collect up the loose end of the sail and tie it down to the boom which stabalized the sail better than before. Given the rough conditions I was not prepared to try and fish the old outhaul out of the boom nor retie a fixed outhaul. That can wait for calmer conditions.
For most of yesterday we flew. We were often doing 12 knots as we flew down the big waves and averages over 9 knots were not uncommon. Around 11 knots the props seem to cavitate so we would slow the boat down by regenerating. We eventually had to stop as we were putting more into the drive batteries than we could consume and were running into an over voltage situation. I would occasionally look at the distance made in the last 24 hours by checking our track and at one point I saw 192nm – not bad when we’re getting our power for free. We haven’t been diligent looking at the distance log on the GPS which would probably show a slightly higher value as a result of the weaving of the boat through the waves.
I’d forgotten to mention that on day 8 I had started insisting we all practice steering by hand. If we lost the autopilot we would be plunged into it and that is not the time to be learning as chances are any failure would occur in extreme conditions. We all fared differently and some (perhaps a lot) of practice is required. The day 9 conditions were not conducive to practice so I didn’t insist.
Unless the winds die right down we expect to pass the midway point late today or early tomorrow. A few days I did a quick bit of trigonometry. Imagine a straight line from the Galapagos to the Marquesas. If you’re imagining properly this straight line goes right through the earth. The path we have to travel follows the arc of a circle rising over the straight line like a well rounded hill. The height of this hill turns out to just over 300nm. So we’ve just about sailed up this 300nm hill (45 times the height of Everest) and are about to sail down the other side.
We put a bottle of bubbly in the fridge for celebration – our one and only alcoholic concession for the trip. This celebration may have to wait till tomorrow as our midway point will probably occur at night.
No fish on the lines for the past three days.
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