06/10/2012
Quiet night last night, John says, which is a good thing! They're still angling south, and hoping for a bit warmer air (he says it was too chilly to wear shorts yesterday).
They're still sailing under just the jib, but once everyone is up and has had breakfast, they hoist the main and see if they can increase their speed some without stressing Oscar (who, by the way, is performing marvelously now).
John was kind of excited to see they've passed 26'N. They've passed through 22 lines of Lat since entering the ocean (Neah Bay is 48'N) and have just 7 to go (Hilo is at 19'N). Still lots of ocean to travel westward, but the trades are favorable and they're doing well.
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Comments [0]
06/09/2012
From John:
Well like I said the storm kicked our butts (and Oscar's). The vice grips I used as a clamp just snapped. It's a good thing we had lines tied to everything or we might have lost something important and had ourselves a very long sail to Hilo.
I did get a nap this morning. Justin was at the helm. After I got up I went to work on Oscar.
I hung out over the stern with pieces and parts in my teeth (and a string ties to each on in case of butterfingers) The swells were only 10 to14' and I got him back together and on the payroll again!
Now sailing downwind in the trades.
Gonna go take a nap.
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06/09/2012
Rough night for the Gallivant - while they've been looking for/waiting for some stronger winds, the gusts that blew in briefly last night about 20:30 caught the man on watch a little off guard, and Oscar sustained some (repairable) damage that will require daylight for repairs. Without Oscar, a two-man watch was necessary, so Justin manned the helm while John manned the sails until they were both too tired to continue, at which point they hove-to for a few hours to catch some sleep.
After daybreak, they'll launch a kayak so they can access Ocsar and make repairs.
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06/08/2012
(Jenni's note: Looks like the guys have had an eventful day all around -- here's John's latest email, which was followed up by a SAT phone call from Justin wondering if I'd packed them any tartar sauce...even across the Pacific, mom's responsible for the food stores! ha!)
TUNA! Well looks like Ol Captain John caught the first tuna! It was a bit of a touchy go. I took the hook from his mouth with just 2 fingers when we got him aboard. It's about 2' long.
It's been quite a day. We were in wind so light the spinnaker wouldn't even fill. so I just decided to motor for a couple hours (and fish). We lost the first one, but this one is ours! And not 10 minutes after it was landed the wind is up again and we are sailing at a reasonable clip again.
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What memories you will all bring back from this adventure ! Happy sailing......See you all soon..........love Ya!................Mama
06/08/2012
Winds are still pretty light, so the guys put the spinnaker back up (only added about 1mph to their speed, ugh!). Still angling south the pick up the trade winds, but they're all well rested, relaxed, and doing great.
Justin found himself an amazing souvenir that he might not have seen if they'd been scooting along any faster -- here's John's story:
The Green Glass Ball:
Things had gotten just a bit, well,,,,,,boring out here. The same view of the same fabulous blue color of the Pacific.
Eleven more days of nothing but the same??? Ok we can get through this.
We were all up and the wind wasn't. So we get the spinnaker out to get some forward momentum. After it was up and set and a good muggy sweat was on.....(had to deploy twice cuz it was twisted), we gained about a mile an hour.
Well that would be 24 more miles in a day right? So its up and we are really charging along at 6 instead of 5 miles an hour and Justin shouts out "GLASS BALL!!" ( ya think he might want to go try to get it???) We all did of course.
Dad kept an eye on it as we passed like an MOB (man overboard). I dashed up on deck and doused the spinnaker in record time. (it should be a rodeo event)
Justin was at the helm started the engine and the chase was on! Now its a good thing that the winds were light. There wasn't time to bring down the main (after all there was treasure to be had)!
After half a dozen attempts of trying to just grab it I finally found the net in one of the lazeretts then two passes latter we had our prize!
It is about 14" in diameter and had not only a bunch of goose neck barnacles but a few crabs to boot. Actually, once we (Justin) got to cleaning it up he found that the larger crabs had propagated quite well thank you and had quite the little colony on that piece of ocean trash.......treasure.
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06/07/2012
Winds died down last night - the Gallivant motored a bit south to catch up with the trade winds, and is under sail again.
Sounds like they guys have settled into their watches and a routine of sail-fix&repair-eat-sleep-sail again. under 1700 miles to Hilo now!
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