Day 18, Tuesday, June 28, 2010

How could I have complained about the constant movement, the being thrown around, the always having to brace myself. The winds had been strong for so long, I couldn't remember anything else. And then it happened. The winds died down and it was much worse! I would never have believed it, had I been told. When the winds are light, not only don't you move forward much, but the sails start slapping against the rigging and the whole boat shudders. You just know that it's bad for the rigging and sails and morale! We had two days of light winds and they were terrible. Good news though, we are back to 15-20 knot winds!

Yesterday afternoon, in the light winds, we had some rain storms pass over us. There was no wind with these storms, just rain. Feeling rather lethargic with all the sitting while on watch, I decided to get some exercise. I pulled out the scrub brush and scrubbed the whole boat in a sprinkling of rain. I said to Michael that all we needed was a good down-pour to wash away all the dirt that I loosened. In the morning, Michael told me that sometime during the night there had been a huge rain which did wash away the dirt and salt. Gromit looks nice - all fresh and clean!

UPDATES:

*****We've caught three fish in the last day. Yesterday's was a barracuda type - about 3 pounds - great lunch, and today's were a tuna - about 5 pounds, and and a mahi-mahi - about 6-7 pounds. Dinner's planned for tomorrow! *****The girls have been baking again: Maia and Amelia, brownines - so good! Zoe, lemon bars - so refreshing!

*****Michael has been making water and charging batteries with the generator.

*****Liam has been flying paper airplanes into the Pacific Ocean!

*****Lots of lasts happening: last carrots and cabbage consumed today in the form of coleslaw, last of the fresh vegetables, last of the fresh fruit except apples, which I've been hiding for when 'fresh' became scarce. Lots of other lasts which I can't think of right now.

Our ETA on the chart plotter is showing an early arrival on the 30th of June. But, as we all know, things can change.....

A message from Michael:

Throughout this 21 day passage numerous food items have unintentionally moved. Imagine someone putting your kitchen on a 2 dimensional teeter totter for 3 weeks. We are alwayts making lists, things to repair, things to provision, things to do prior to pulling anchor, well here's a list of the food stuff that has become airborne on this passage:

-full jug of lemonade onto the floor -Liam's just filled dinner plate of fish, rice and some vegetable onto the floor just prior to a fork full -slice of toast with peanut butter and jam, and you can guess which side hit the floor -in the cockpit, under the dodger we have a hatch that is normally closed however on this day it was opened, secondly we have normally been healing to starboard so if you place something against a starboard fiddle then normally it stays put. I placed my potato salad against the fiddle adjacent to the open hatch. One minute later it was 7 feet below and spread out -freshly squeezed lime with pulp onto the floor -cooking oil hit the floor while Maia was baking -compost, including coffee grounds, were spilled down the companionway stairs -eggs Maia - down front of stove and on floor Zoe- on companionway stairs and across the floor -large container of our 'Oriental, North Carolina, pecans, flew from the cockpit down across the cabin floor -all sorts of bits and pieces of food during preparation have slipped off of cutting boards onto the floor -Liam's bowl of rice with soy sauce -Michael's coffee grounds from the coffee maker all over the clean dishes -our large cast iron frying pan hit the floor and created a sizable crater and of course -spilt milk - everybody cried!!

Day 14 and 15 June 24, 2010

My shift usually starts at 7 am. This morning, as I was making my wake up tea, before coming up into the cockpit, the boat start to rock violently and the sails began flogging out of control. I quickly popped my head up into the cockpit to see what was going on and saw Michael at the helm trying to get Gromit back on course. It took a little while because we had lost a lot of speed and we need speed to maintain steerage. Finally, we were back on course and within minutes the same thing happened. We engaged our autopilot (automatic steering mechanism) and Michael went back to see what was up with 'Wallace' the wind vane. He found a broken cable. With only one cable, the rudder portion of the vane was completely pinned to one side causing Gromit to want to go in circles. I suggested we either undo the other cable or try to pull the rudder to the centre position, so that the vane's rudder would not fight the boat's rudder.

For this to be done, we had to turn Gromit into the wind to lessen the stresses on the rudder. Of course, everything is domino effect. Before we could turn the boat into the wind, we had to level anything that could fly around below more than it already was. Our 'stuff' below was leveled for the boat to heel to starboard. With us about to turn into the wind, we would be turning into the waves and swell causing us to heel all directions, so, 'stuff' that had been safe was not in danger of flying around. Once below was looked after, we began above deck preparations. This entailed furling the jib (rolling up the head sail) and then bringing the main sail to the middle of the boat. This done, we could finally begin to turn the boat.

We had called Artemo to let them know what was happening and they reefed their sails to slow down and wait for us. As luck would have it, or just bad timing, a huge squall was heading our way. A squall on the ocean entails super high winds and big rain. The wind whips up the surface water causing waves to roll in all directions. I was at the wheel and Michael was at the back of the boat as the winds whipped and rain pelted. After about 10 minutes, I got the signal to put Gromit back on course. Nothing came of this whole exercise. The broken cable was unreachable and a line got tangled on the bottom of the vane. For us to properly deal with this would require us to not be moving forward and flat calm seas. So, for now, we are sailing with autopilot on and a wind vane rudder about 40 degrees to port. In the mean time, Artemo, even though they were reefed, had gotten quite a few miles ahead. Eventually, we caught up. Sailing with 'auto' instead of "Wallace" the wind vane, is a different kettle of fish. Wallace follows the wind, so we don't have to adjust our sails, whereas, Auto follows the course we tell him to, regardless of the wind. So, if the wind shifts, we have to either adjust our sails or adjust Auto's course. Constant vigilance is required. Well, it is actually more intense constant vigilance because we are vigilant all the time anyway! Also, when Gromit and Artemo were both on wind vane steering, we both reacted to the wind equally and kept our speed and distance from each other much more constant. Oh, the trials and tribulations.

When we arrive in Fatu Hiva, in the Marquesas, tomorrow morning, we will jump into the water and look at what has happened to our poor Wallace the Vane.

June 29, 2010 10pm - 50 miles to go!

The excitement is building! Around 4 am, we will be passing 4 nautical miles north of a solitary rock which is located about 17 miles north of Fatu Hiva Island. At that point, we will change course and head south to sail towards and then along the western shore line of the island. The anchorage we are heading for is about 2.5 miles from the top of the island on the leeward side. Highlights we have heard and read about on this island are a 200 foot waterfall high up in the volcanic hills - fruit trees and cashews lining the way there, wood carving and tapa cloth made from the bark of several types of trees including mulberry and banyan. We are looking forward to finding the bakery, where we have heard, that we can get baguettes - real, authentic French baguettes! Hope we can find some nice French cheeses to go with the bread