Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Deck kill! Every morning there’s dead flying fish and squids lying around the deck. At dawn, Steve and sometimes John makes a deck sweep and throws them all back into the sea. This is usually before I wake up but I do see the evidence of kill from the fish scales spluttered all about and the general stink. Not only are the flying fish on the deck but in the cockpit and even inside the boat. The other night, when I went to wake John up to take over watch, I was overwhelmed by the reek that came from around his cabin and bathroom. I thought at first he really must take more showers and clean his head better but John also noticed the smell and soon discovered a rotting flying fish near his cabin door. The fish must have flapped itself inside through the opened back door and down the steps. All we have to do now is follow our nose and scale trails to find fish that have managed to slip inside.

Every evening after dinner, we discuss strategies for the night watch. At what wind speed do we reef the main and head sails. Under what condition do we go off course and sail with the wind. When do we start or stop the regeneration. When do we switch off the cross charger. When and who do we wake up when we need help.
Recently the conditions have been pretty constant so the outlines have been an iteration of previous nights. Fortunately there’s been no incidents since the out haul snapped during Steve’s shift a few nights ago.

Watches have really become watches. We barely need to trim the sails and the auto pilot or wind vane does all the steering. We watch the instruments, we watch the sea, we watch the sky, we watch the sails. We sit there and watch the time and miles go by.

These flying fish are beginning to piss me off. I know my relationship with them took a turn for the worse when one invaded the inner sanctum of my bed but recently their activities are getting suspicious. For the first half of the trip, each morning one it was light I would inspect the deck and find any flying fish or squid which had suicided on the deck overnight. Both sets of creatures stink nastily so the exercise is usually followed by a good scrub of the fingers. The squid realized the futility of their attacks and stopped after a few days. The flying fish have taken the opposite approach and are now instigating daylight attacks. Often, the outcome for the them is the same. They end up dead. Some get away leaving only splatters of scales or the odd bloodstain to mark their attempt at boarding. They’ve even recruited their spry – tiny little flying fish that die and quickly dry up into a husk on contact. I have to pick them all up and toss them overboard.

The skies today were clearer than the past couple of days so we saw more sun than usual. The winds were light and clocked round to the east making it difficult for us to hold the rhumb line and maintain whatever boat speed we could get. I used this as an opportunity to get atop the bimini and tie in a new outhaul so we could shake out the first reef. At around 7.5S we also lost the favourable current which was giving us about an extra knot. This was corroborated by another boat on the net who lost it about the same latitude. This was good info for the boats behind us who have an opportunity to stay in the current a little longer with this information. This has resulted in the slowest day since the first two when we had winds light enough to leave hatches open (and be invaded by fish). The result of the lighter winds and loss of current has put our 24 distance made down to around 148nm rather than the 170nm-190nm range we’ve managed for the previous few days.

Around dawn we had a close encounter with a cargo ship called the Tombarra bound for Aukland. When I say close I mean 6nm which is close when you’ve seen nothing for 10 days. I hailed the watch officer on the radio to say hello. He gave an unrecognised monosyllable in response to my greeting which I took for an end of conversation.

Aboard we’re really into mid passage routine with each day blending into the next. Our watch rotation marks the time. When off watch we read, rest or sleep. On watch we take care of the boat keeping her on heading and checking for traffic. The radio nets and our emails give us contact with the nearby and extended world but the rest of the time it’s just us in our little bubble of life making our way across this vast ocean. The character of the night shifts are changing with the brightening moon. Initially they were as dark as you can get with the heavens bright with stars and the milky way. With the moon lighting the landscape we see an exaggerated almost monochrome sea scape with the accents between waves being highlighted to the extent where the troughs can sometime feel like bottomless pits.

Time is marked by the countdown of our distance to go. Once we’d passed the 2,000nm mark it the hundreds felt like a countdown from 20. 20, 19, 18, …. As I write we’re now in the 12’s. Single digits in a couple of days.

We now have a candidate itinerary for the Marquesas :

Fatu Hiva (1 stop)
Hiva Oa (1 stop)
Tahuata (2 stops)
Hiva Oa (2 more stops north side)
Ua Pou (1 stop)
Nuku Hiva (3 stops)

This will take us around 3 weeks. That will give us around 3 more weeks to reach Tahiti, including visiting the Tuamotos, in the time for the Pacific Puddle Jump rendezvous/party. So much to do, so little time.

My early morning shift I had to get rid of some stowaways, two flying fish, 1 in the kitchen and 1 on the door step leading into the kitchen.

I must admit it was a good effort to get that far, not as far as the 1 that got on to the steps from the saloon areas to my hull, but still quite impressive. They must have bounced of something and during the day light I think I see the scales and a splat where 1 of them did.

Mum and Steve saw a big cargo ship this morning. I was asleep.

After the lost of 2 lures yesterday, Steve has only put out the remaining 2 lines, firstly because we haven’t fixed the other 2 lines and secondly 4 lines is a bit much in these big seas.

Forgot to mention yesterday, but Mum broke out the last of the chocolate that Ella brought over, mum stashed it away from us, it has been shared out and we are again very thankful to Ella for bringing it over. Thank you Darling.

As we progress my early morning shift 2-5am is slowly turning into a 11pm-2am shift. We are having lunch and dinner later and later and I’m finding it very hard to sleep before this shift. Just as I do fall asleep, Mum wakes me for the shift change over.

Let the boat be still! This continuous rocking and swaying is beginning to get to me. Its fine when I’m up on the helm enjoying the ride and watching the waves, but trying to get anything done inside is almost impossible. Moving around the boat, keeping your balance is a bit like dancing. One step forward, two quick step back, one to the left, five hurtling step forward as the boat plunges down a swell. One step back, two steps to the left, cha cha chah, cha cha chaaaaaaah…
John doesn’t seem to mind the movement. It’s beginning to effect Steve a little bit though. We discussed what we would prefer. A few days of calmer, slower sailing or arriving at landfall earlier. John and Steve chose landfall early. I want both!

A big milestone today. We crossed the half way mark. Steve wanted chicken curry to help celebrate so that’s what we had for dinner. I was originally going to cook fish, thinking that if I use up the last of our fish, we might catch more! After dinner, I dug up some English chocolate which I’d kept hidden from the boys. Their faces lit up as if it was Christmas when I brought it out. Thanks Ella for the chocs.

The actual milestone occurred about 10:45 pm. Steve will probably explain how he worked out our mid point and all other facts in his blog. The important thing is that when the number of miles we ‘d done matched the number of miles we have left to do, we cracked open a bottle of bubbly. This is the first drop of alcohol we’ve had since leaving the Galapagos. After consuming our glass of wine, Steve and John went to bed and I started my night shift. Passing the half way mark was a real mental boost and I felt quite high and happy. I think the glass of wine helped too.

Not much to report apart from that we’re half way there….. depending on how you look at it.

We are half way from the distance we have traveled to the distance we foresee to travel.

We broke out the fizzy wine at about 22:30 had a glass and a bit then back to the usual routines of shifts, sleeping and eating.

Earlier two of the lines got tangled, Steve and I spent a while untangling them, we lost a lure due to that. In the evening while bring in the remaining lines another lure was missing. Something big maybe?

On the ride front, it’s been a low to medium setting on the mechanical bull scale.

Feeling much better, but the symptoms of the cold still remain.