Daily Life on an Open Ocean Passage-Day 19
29 April 2012 | 25 miles North of Equator
John
We are getting close, King Neptune is awaiting to make us Shellbacks, lowly Pollywogs no more!
Watchkeeping/Keep the boat moving
Our watch system from the start has been 4 on/ 8 off, but we only start our watch at 8pm. So, formally, only really responsible for four hours every 24 hours. During the day everyone just keeps an eye on the boat or whoever is not cat napping during the day. This has worked out very well, as no one has had any issues, no complaining......I personally found the 8pm to midnight the hardest, as I'm really not a catnap kind of person, so by 11pm, fading pretty fast. Besides that, they are all sleeping, so they'll never know I'm sleeping on watch.
The watch routine has been pretty simple, as trade wind sailing doesn't require a lot of sail change or course corrections. In fact we have been on the port tack for at least the past 2 weeks or so, even during the blow we had to 30 knots, just rolled in some sail and reefed down deep. Everyone seems to occupy their watch time differently. Paul is a voracious reader, seems like every time I look up he is reading something under the light of his headlamp. Pete, thank goodness is our sail trimmer, he tends to really get the most out of the point of sail day or night. I on the other hand, listen to music and gaze at the stars, oh and take a few catnaps :)
Keeping the boat moving requires changing the headsail back and forth from the 135 to the big code zero, and any reefing of the main. Surprisingly, Sherpa really sails nice in the trades with no main up at, she balances better and we see no real loss of boat speed. The other part of keeping us moving is doing a routine check of all the systems onboard, rigging, sails, mechanical, engine, thru-hulls.....
Knock on wood, we've had just a few items that needed fixed or attended to. We had a little problem, that could have been a big problem, with the holding tank overboard pump. Nothing a piece of bicycle tube couldn't fix. We blew the solar panel fuse, but were able to reroute it through another fuse block, all running fine now, making power to keep those beers frosty cold!! The last few items we'll have to wait, the engine room blower is on its last legs (makes a lot of racket, just turn it off), and we seem to have a leaking raw water pump on the engine, which I'm hoping will hold up until we get to Hiva Oa, and find a replacement or have one shipped. Wouldn't you know I have 4 spare pumps, but didn't get a spare for that one--probably the most important one. I guess we could rout the flow through one of the other spares we have on board in a pinch.
All in all the boat has been "Moving" just fine, about 750 miles to go to the first landfall. Let's hope all stays status quo.
John