What a difference a day makes
12 March 2018 | South Pacific
Mike
This morning the sun was out and winds had dropped below 17 knots. We lowered the jenny and repaired the tear after which we unfurled her to the 1st reef mark to see if we could fly her (the head sail/jib) without putting much pressure on our remaining rudder. Much to our pleasure we were able to sail without much rudder pressure and only a couple of degrees off our rum line. As I head to bed we are less than 900 miles from the Marquese Islands. Tomorrow we will attempt to fly the parasail (kite). If successful, we should be able to increase our speed. One additional, note, we are dragging a 10 ft chain (30 lbs) at the end of a 20 foot rope along with another rope (line) maybe 30 feet to create drag on the starboard side to below take the load off the port rudder. It has helped in allowing us to sail further south, which is desired. Currently we are around 9 S and will need to get to 14 S in 5 - 7 days.
My 7-9 shift was almost clear of clouds maybe 2/8 of the sky had clouds mostly near the horizon - the stars gazing were magnificent.