Sequitur

At 1215 Edi started a second load of laundry for the day and half an hour later I shut down the watermaker, having made 138 litres in two hours and bringing the tank gauge to the upper part of the full mark. I then began overhauling the spinnaker, changing the tangled sheet for a spare one and replacing the parted shackle.

With the second load of laundry washed and hung-out to dry, we watched the dolphins frolic in the bow waves for a while. In the lee of the jib I un-socked the spinnaker, while Edi tended its sheet from the cockpit. At 1357 we then rolled-in the jib and main and set Hydra to steer eastward on a broad reach in the 2 to 5 knot intermittent northerly puffs. Our 1800 position showed we had made 9.77 miles at 140 degrees since noon.


For dinner I made a double batch, one half to enjoy hot and the remainder to put in a Lock-and-Lock and in the fridge as a cold pasta salad for Thursday evening. I toasted some sesame seeds in the wok as I cleaned and chopped vegetables, then setting them aside I wokked two large diced garlic cloves, diced fresh ginger and sliced white mushrooms in vegetable oil with a dash of sesame oil, and then added white onions, broccoli stems and carrots. Then after I had added rotini to a pot of boiling water, I added to the wok some diced ham steak, chopped broccoli florets, poblanos, red peppers and tomatillos, and when this was nicely heated through, I added a few dashes of light soy sauce, a few splashes of water and a shake or two of rice flour to make a nice sauce, to which I added a big dab of oyster-flavour sauce. I turned off the heat under the wok, added the hot, drained pasta, the toasted sesame seeds and a couple of diced Roma tomatoes and tossed.


Part way through enjoying this delicious dinner we paused to watch a spectacular sunset, which was filling much of the western sky with golds, oranges and magentas. We hoped there was enough red sky to be 'a sailor's delight', and bring us some winds.

After dinner we jibed the spinnaker in 2 to 3 knots of breeze, and our midnight position showed we were averaging 1.7 knots southward. At 0015 we were becalmed and remained so until 0615, when a ripple grew into a westerly 2 to 3 knot breeze then slowly increased to 4 to 5 knots by sunrise at 0717, when it was pushing us along at 2.5 to 3 knots.

Shortly after sunrise I flashed-up the generator, started the watermaker and Edi put in the first of two loads of laundry. With the three loads the previous day, we have nearly emptied the laundry hamper, overstuffed with a backlog from our weeks of poor watermaking. In three hours we made another 206.6 litres of water, bringing the tanks back up near the upper end of the full mark. At 1030 we shut-down the generator, which brought the battery bank to 92%, while running our watermaker, washer-dryer, coffee maker and toaster. The solar panels and wind generator took over and by early afternoon had brought the 1225 amp-hour battery to 100%.

Our noon position showed a distance made good from the previous noon of 61.47 miles on a course made good of 158. Not very good, but considering we were totally becalmed for 6 hours, and for the rest of the period we saw no breeze over 5 knots. About one third of our movement was thanks to the south-going current. Our distance run thus far is 416.37 miles and we are 809.4 miles from Academy Bay, Isla Santa Cruz in the Galapagos.