Forty Banana Halfway Cake
07 October 2022
• Norrh of Palmerston Atoll, South of Suwarrow Atoll
by Karl
Today we marked the halfway point between Bora Bora and Vavaâu - about 660 miles to go. Robin picked up all the fallen ripe bananas in the cockpit and mushed them into a banana cake for our halfway celebration. Also, a Bora Bora vanilla cake. And I baked some very dense bread from a mix. Very dense because the yeast we bought in the Marquesas is no good.
That leaves about twenty more ripe bananas to eat.
We have had some rainy weather today - heavier rain squalls than we have seen in a while. I just came down below from hand steering through an hour long rain with gusty winds. At least the moon filtered through enough to light our way still. The rain seemed to calm the seas for a while., with a mist of rain splash across the sea surface. Then, as it cleared, the filtered moonlight made a ghostly scene as the Mabel Rose pressed westward, driven by the freshening breeze.
SY Windsong was over sixty miles behind us this morning - they are dropping back. But it looks like they are tacking downwind instead of steering a straight course west like we are. Met Bob had assumed we would want to tack downwind, too, and initially gave us some zigzag waypoints until I told him we are happier sailing dead downwind.
I do not know the point of tacking downwind in a monohull at sea. By sailing a zigzag course, you substantially increase the distance you need to travel. True, in light airs and flat water a monohull might pick up enough extra speed on a broad reach to make up the difference, and a catamaran will almost certainly do better reaching than running.
But in a moderate to strong breeze, we can make close to hull speed with just the jib up and poled out. Reaching and gybing with the main up in these rolly seas means the boom will swing with the roll, breaking the shape of the sail and slamming hard against the sheets. The boom swing will be worse in lighter winds â�" the only time zig zag broad reaching might give an advantage over a straight dead run.
That slamming boom is hard on the rig and hard on the crew, too. When the sheet stops the swinging boom short, it torques the boom hard at the mast gooseneck fitting. I am pretty sure that's how we cracked the weld there. And the loud bang that the sheet block and traveler car make when the boom stops short right over our berth makes sleep impossible - I wake up with my heart pounding. To say nothing of the risk of injury from an accidental gybe.
Much better to have the mainsail furled and the boom securely sheeted in, while our poled-out Genoa at the bow pulls us straight downwind, quietly and safely. As it pulls us ever westwards now, silent and secure in the moonlight.
Comments