L'Eau Commotion Westabout

5:00pm Monday 25th June 2018 ( UTC-6 )
You are never really asleep in these conditions but the commotion at 2:30am this morning would have woken the dead. Sailing pretty well downwind with the single reef main to Starboard and half the jib poled out to Port a little surge had us execute a gybe. Not a Chinese Gybe with all that entails or an Australian Gybe which are pretty common but about half way in between. With the preventer consisting of a 3 purchase tackle round a winch the boom did not slap over with the sail and we became practically hove to - a technical term for going nowhere sideways. Mindful of a similar experience in a squall in the Atlantic Doldrums, though the wind then was much stronger, I gingerly eased the boom over to the Port side as the rudder alone had no effect in direction control. I also furled the jib and preferring not to do too much deck work at night I altered course to the North West and set the autopilot, saying if the speed dropped I would set out a fishing line in the morning and reposition the jib out to Port, neither of which happened. Instead we are making reasonable progress under the main alone which is more comforting in the occasional squall. Well hardly a squall in the true sense but just a few more knots of wind and a light misty rain which brings up the question of my water supply. Again recent experience has led me to consider collecting rainwater a pretty hit or miss affair so I topped the tanks up giving 230 litres and filled all the 20 litre metho drums giving another 160 litres which should be plenty to get me home. I sort of dipped the stainless tank, considering the slosh factor, and would say I have 300 litres aboard, and of course there is the reliable but tedious Katadyn manual reverse osmosis water maker. Now as far as plastics in the ocean are concerned I have to admit that I haven’t been actively looking out so I can’t be quoted as an authority but so far in the last 40,000 miles I have seen none - acres and acres of sargasso weed, quite a lot of kelp but no rubbish. Even though the chances of catching a fish are somewhat limited without putting out a trolling line I fired up the fridge to see if the W & S could handle it as well as the autopilot lights and instruments and I am pleased to report all systems are perked up and purring along. One of the drawbacks of this tropical cruising is that it gives me time to read up on some of my pet subjects which has the unfortunate effect that I start muttering to myself to the tune of what a load of codswallop and then the only way I can get it out of my system is to write it up in my blog. So - Be Warned!