The last four days have gone by in a blur. We have lost much of the speed we had on the first leg of this trip, but the seas have laid down and thus the motion of the boat is more comfortable.
Day 8: We reached the halfway mark!!!! I dropped the ball and didn't do anything special for it with the kids. The excitement for the day, the bat car, which is the piece that holds the sail in the track on the mast allowing you to slide it up and down, at the head of the main sail sheered off. The broken bits were stuck in the mast track, sixty six feet up. In order for O to fix the sail he was going to have to go up the mast and retrieve the broken bits in hopes of reassembling them. We had no other choice if we wanted to continue sailing with the mainsail. The issue was the eight ft swell accompanied by 15 kts of wind. The rolling associated with the seas creates a pendulum effect at the top of the mast, as the boat rolls from side to side or front to back. The first time O went up he lost his grip about half way up which caused him to swing wildly, banging into the mast and the shrouds several times before I could get him back down. He was a bit battered and bruised but not deterred. We had a little regroup session and decided to bring the boat stern to the wind in hopes of mitigating the swell action. This time O went back up, hanging on for dear life, as the mast swung wildly trying to throw him into the rigging. In the end, he was able to retrieve the errant parts from the top of the mast.
In order to fix the broken part we had to take the entire mainsail off the mast. It all went quite smoothly and within a few hours we were up and sailing again. I am never a big fan of putting O up the mast, even on a calm day in a quiet anchorage, let alone when we are underway in the middle of nowhere, with the closest boat 300 miles away!!! The day after the event Otis had bruises all over his arms, back and inner thighs from holding on so tight.
Day 9:
This was a day for the books...... It all started with waking up to "Jenny get out here I need you now!' I had pulled the dog watch, so I was sound asleep down below when O yelled. I ran out and saw that the asymmetrical spinnaker had wrapped around the forestay....not just once but about 10 times in different places! According to Otis, he had set the spinnaker at first light that morning and we were making great time until we surfed down a huge wave and exceeded the wind speed, which made all hell break loose! The back draft caused the asym. to luff wildly, when the wind filled back in, it wrapped around the forestay in some form of macramé. It was nearly impossible to get undone. We ended up motoring in circles to get most of the wraps off, but the boot of the sock(top) aloft had wrapped around the roller furling(of the Genny..our forward sail) unit was not coming down! This whole episode played out over 3 hours...the whole time the wind is escalating gusting up to 20+/-kts every time we tried to move the boat to unwrap the asym would fill with wind, putting huge stress on the rigging. You do not realize the power of these sails until you are in the situation of trying to douse a sail that won't douse. In the end we had to cut it down, but not before it had shredded itself. This was actually a godsend because it stopped filling once it had the tear in it. At one point O was trying to pull the sock down and it lifted him about 10 feet off the deck. It was starting to look like O was going to have to go back up the mast It all seems like a blur, but I can assure you we tried everything moving the boat in circles, untying tack and clew lines, everything. It was exhausting and to be honest, I still do not know what we did to get it down but we finally did. Needless to say we cannot use it for the rest of the trip, which I am grateful for but O is in mourning. O will make this his first priority fix in the Marquesas, if possible. Great, I can't wait!!!
Day 10/11:
These last few days have been calm which I love, granted we do not have the boat speed we initially did but it is much more comfortable. O and I are starting to get tired. The night watches and entertaining kids during the day is starting to take its toll.
The kids are holding up well. I would be lying if I said that they were not getting a little restless. However, considering the fact that they have been cooped up for 11 days I think they are doing remarkably well. Ben has even been catching up on school!!! I am proud of the way they are handling themselves.
O has been a trouper. He manages to keep himself busy with various projects around the boat. He has been doing quite a bit of cooking! In the Galapagos we bought a whole stalk of bananas and they are all ripening at the same time. O has taken it upon himself to use all the bananas that we bought before they go off. He has made banana bread, chocolate banana bread, banana muffins, banana cinnamon muffins, peanut and banana muffins, banana crepes, jelly and banana sandwiches, peanut butter and banana sandwiches and banana smoothies and has frozen a batch of bananas for later use. It kills him to see food go to waste. He has also whipped up some incredible batches of fish ceviche with our fresh catch du jour. We continue to catch fish on a daily "as needed" basis, so far it has been mostly Mahi Mahi and Wahoo, although we did hook a giant tuna yesterday (80 lbs) but it broke the line lifting it onto the boat. We need a larger gaff hook for this is the 3rd large fish we have not been able to land due to its weight when trying to get it up over the side. I am starting to get antsy. I just want the boat back to normal. I want to do laundry, give everything a good scrub and most of all, I want to get a full uninterrupted nights sleep!
Most of the other boats we have been in contact with go to bed around 10:00pm for the night. They put alarms on the autopilot/radar and crash out. I am envious of them but know that neither O nor I would sleep(well, maybe I could). I can;t see us ever doing that but I am surprised how many people do!!!They put a lot of trust in their instruments! While most night watches are uneventful, it's reassuring to have someone always up should something happen. Example: the other night I was on watch we were hit by a large wave which disengaged the autopilot, the boat turned very quickly and almost gibed.
Every morning we check into a SSB radio 'net' where we relay our position and weather conditions. At first we(O) was hesitant about it but it has been quite fun actually. We sometimes all chat about weather or little things that are happening onboard. There are around six boats that check in and we have them plotted on our electronic charts. The closest one to us is three hundred miles away. It has been a bonding experience and I look forward to seeing all of them down the line.
It seems our nice weather will not be holding, very much to my dismay. We have a large low pressure system approaching bringing higher winds (20/25) but also larger waves 12-15 ft. I keep watching it on the grib files we receive hoping that it will dissipate before it reaches us but that is not likely. It is still two/three days out so I am keeping my fingers crossed. The problem with such a long passage is that you are at the mercy of Neptune. There are no predictions this far out. I am not a sailor that delights in bad weather because it tests my resolve..No, I am a wimp, I like, calm no drama weather and have no need to spin bad weather yarns at the bar....I am too busy yelling at the kids. Tomorrow the kids and I will make some presents for Neptune and give him another little shot of rum (this time the thirty year old rum)....can't hurt.
As I write this we only have 1, 070 miles to go!!!! Sadly we did not get to the piñata at half way, it was too rolly. We will have to do it in the Marquesas.
Did I mention that I am looking forward to a FULL night of uninterrupted sleep?
We are hoping to arrive in Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas in six days....weather permitting.
If the weather is bad we will fall off for Nuka Hiva instead.
That's it for now..it is 5:32am ....my watch is almost over!!!!!1
FYI: We have not adjusted our watches, they are still on Galapagos time and as a result the sun does not rise until 8:00am. I wonder what time it really is....
I apologize if this is disjointed, repetitive and rambling but it is late and I am exhausted.
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06/30/2009 | fred cox (fcfredco att gmail dott com)
SO WHY DO WE DO IT ?? sometimes for sure you must say,, I HAVE NO CLUE !! WHAT AM I DOING HERE ??AM I CRAZY OR WHAT ?? but I know for sure the call of the sea, the fredom,the full sail ,the chalange,the determanation ,and all the rest, will get you back on track again.. Fred (not that you ever left ) OH! lets not forget the courage it takes alot of courage to do what you guys are doing.
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The hot news of the day is that Ben lost his other top front tooth!!! So now he has a toothless smile!!!! Adorable. He is worried that the tooth fairy won't come. He is not concerned she won't make the trip out here to the middle of the Pacific, his trepidation is either O or I are always awake doing watches and he worries she won't want to be seen! O assured him she has the ability to make herself invisible, but he doesn't think Ben bought into that idea. We have decided to leave the forward hatch open above his bed and see what happens. (hopefully the seas stay settled or he will be really surprised, not so much by the tooth fairy, but the torrents of salt water that will come pouring in on him!)
We are officially one third of the way there. Five days, one thousand miles..not bad.
Yesterday was a nice day. O had the dog watch, 5:30 am the wind died and as a result, the seas were the calmest they have been since the trip began. I was able to scrub bathrooms, vacuum, the kids took baths, O caught a mahi mahi which we ate for lunch and we had a festive craft session.
Granted, we were not getting the speeds we had been before, but it was a nice reprieve. We flew the spinnaker most of the day which gently pushed us along at a nice eight kt clip. I swear the spinnaker is like that nursery rhyme about the little girl that had a little curl....when it is good it is very, very good and when it is bad it is horrid!!!The sail can be great, but it can also be a bear to get down or put up. I had visions of torching it for a while yesterday and then once it was up and set...I had thought it was the best invention ever.
Last night around sunset, the winds picked up again and we were off! We hauled, averaging around ten kts, which helped make up for the slack in the winds during the day. O was happy because we finished just four miles shy of another two hundred mile day. It was a good day.
Let's see...Oh yeah, yesterday afternoon O caught a 60 lb blue marlin, which I had never seen before. What a beautiful fish!!! They are narrower than I thought, and the hues of blue are stunning, the high dorsal fin running down her back made her look majestic, like the King/Queen of the sea. While O was holding her by the leader and pulling her onboard, she spit the lure and was off. We had no plans on keeping her anyway, as they are not that good eating, so she did us a favor. We were all in awe of her beauty. Wow.
Today it was lumpy, not too bad but just enough to throw you off a bit. As I write this we have 8/9kts of wind out of the SE and an 8ft swell. All is well. According to our grib files we should pick up some wind in fifty miles or so.
I had the dog watch last night and made the mistake of watching Rachel Getting Married...great film but heavy and depressing...
The kids are well. Ben did school this morning, while Sammy practiced his alphabet to Sesame Street. They have been playing Legos and Lincoln logs, building forts in the main salon, helping their Dad clean fish and fighting with each other..in no particular order.
Today's fish report: One mahi mahi and one wahoo...glad we went back for the rod & reel.
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Overcast skies, 8 ft swell off the port quarter, winds SE 12-15 kts boat speed 9.50 kts, (we saw 11.7 kts last night).
We have been humming along very nicely the last twenty four hours. Our speed has been around 9-10kts. Indy is performing like a pro. I am very proud of her. There is also a bit of a favorable current which helps her along.
Everyone onboard is doing well. I would like the swell to calm a little bit but considering the size it is not too bad, however it is just enough that you can't move about as freely as usual and I don't feel totally 100%.
Last night I had the dog watch and I was a little freaked out. Indy was humming along at about 10/10.5 kts and the swell was starting to kick in, the moon wasn't up yet and I could not see a damn thing. It was fine, and probably better that I didn't see the swell. I was relieved when the moon finally came up and even more relieved at 6:00 am to wake O for his watch. I am a chicken and sometimes a little intimidated by the power of Indy...crazy after two years, I know but I am. Ben has been doing school each morning and it appears to be going well, the schedule is just starting to set in.
Yesterday, true to his word, O made a tasty five spice calamari...It was actually very good and incredibly tender, Ben & Sam joined in and were practically licking the plate clean...It was better than any restaurant calamari. So I guess I do eat deck squid. O commented that he knew I would come around..."after all it is fried".
I have decided that having a craft and a present a day for the kids is too much, so we are alternating. The kids don't know the difference. I just felt that doing both each day, they were not really appreciating either one fully as there were always looking to move on to the next. Tonight's entertainment will be the first season of Gilligan's Island(which is going to be a surprise) and popcorn.
If we keep up this speed we will be there in 11-13 more days! Although I hate to get my hopes up. We are all very excited for the Marquesas!!!
Don't be afraid to drop us a line. If you don't have the sailmail address leave your email in the comment section and I will email you.
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06/19/2009 | highfivers (svhighfive att gmail dott com)
Glad to read you have started your next passage we hope it is a smooth one. Janine and the boys.
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06/20/2009 | Fred Cox (fcfredco att gmail dott com)
Why do we do it ?You said it all in your last entry.What a wonderfull sail your having,I can feel it from here ! Fred,Michael and Karter
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