SailBlog

It is has been just a tad of bad timing...all the calmings of the wind have taken place at night. I was uneasy as the sun went down last night, finally I could have gotten on the deck to work...but it was colder now, and I was just so tired. I have been becoming overwhelmed by sleepiness, my eyes just so tired I cannot stay awake...and it happens with the late afternoon. By dusk, I am tucked in to bed if I can be... and it will be that way tonight.

I wanted so desperately to get up with the dawn and get going this morning, yet, I didn't really fall asleep until the early mornng hours with the diminishing and backing winds. After the dawn watch and sail adjustment, morning wee calling, I fell truly asleep. So as the dawn appeared, I just could not move. It was nearly 7am when I got out of my bed.

The winds had filled in a bit and we were ever so gently sailing along on only a reefed jib...it was paradise. It is a shame that trips like this seem to compel me go as fast as I can...in part it is because of the delays. It seems I am always trying to catch up... yet, if I was cruising hard and ahead of schedule, I imagine I would still keep pushing,... but maybe not all the time. Sailing is just so serene, the most elegant of slow waltzing when there is just a gentle wind and we are slipping through the water. Instead, we are pressing water dynamically,...'get out of my way'... pushing for that extra long mile day...or making up for the night becalming.

But this morning, I was going to get the boom apart, late start or not. The wind was still light but it picked up soon after I got going. It was tempting to haul the mainsail to get IS really going, but I just couldn't work on the foredeck with spray and heeling over. The 'race' was going to have to wait until I finished working today.

I had gathered most of the tools I needed the day before as I was contemplating working on the boom all day. The process of how to make it all work is still a continual playing record in my brain...trying to visualize each step somehow as...for the most part, I just can't figure out how I am going to pull it off. But day by day, the process comes into focus. My Bob had agreed that I need to take the lines out of hte boom and separate the two pieces in order to work on it. The boat is just too small to maneuver the boom as needed to measure and fit things.

It is amazing how some items found their way onto Inspired Sanity, and how they turn out to be the 'right thing' for a moments needs. I have had a spool of relatively small, but strong, bright orange polypropolene line, at least a thousand feet, on the boat since before going to Ireland. I picked it up at a 'sale bin' at a hardware store. It is incredible, the number of needs it has served to fill. It is my trip line for my sea anchor...and now it is the snake lines so that I can pull the reef lines out of the boom.

Somehow, my carpenter's square has gone amiss. I routed around, and my navigators tools had a square edge...so that i could draw a square edge on the boom to cut off the ragged edges of the break. There is a track on the top and bottom which would take a bit to cut through but the sidewalls are just sheet aluminum.

The whole challenge of doing any project like this is functioning on a moving, heeling surface that is all curved..there is no flat place for a boom. But once separated, I was able to get a position with good leverage to do the cutting with a hack saw. If I were home, I would be using a Dremel...but the hack saw made fairly quick work of it... a half hour or so of cutting per side. And i was quite pleased, as this kind of work is 'precision' work. If the ends are not well squared off, the fit will not be as secure, or I will end up using a file to try to level it all out. More work.

But by the time I finished one side, I was ready for a break... my back, shoulders, elbows...are going to seriously be crying tomorrow. I used my legs to brace the boom to cut it and they are more black and blue than not at this point. but..C'est la vie. It has to get done and without any proper table or space, this is it.

I went below for a drink and mid morning snack and remembered that I had an appointment to call Herb McCormisk at Cruising World for a quick phone interview... Will Barbeau had graciously gone to Cruising World to see if there was any interest in covering my story, my boom haven broken,...etc. and Will was pleased that Herb was happy to set up the interview.

As wonderful synchronicity would empower, the phone worked well, not that i didn;t have to call back several times when the phone cut out, but at least it continued to reconnect... We had a great chat...Herb is a gracious fellow and keep your eye out for an article in the March Cruising World issue.

I took opportunity as the phone seemed to be working well, to talk to my Bob which was great encouragment as i was setting saw to the boom finally. We discussed my process and how it was going to go. I told him about my 'jib track bolt' find...and we firmed up how to use the wood resources I have on board...It truly edged my confidence a bit further as he confirmed and we added to the plan.

Then back out side ...and i got the otherside of the boom cut. They fit reasonably well.. There will be a need for some filing as the edges are a bit rough and a couple of places to even out. I was considering to continue on and try to get some measurements done, but the winds were picking up and I wasn't ready to change gears. I have to move my 'box' from the cabin floor and have things set up to do the work on the floor surface.

Plus, it had been such a beautiful sailing day and I was way underpowered in order to keep working... so it was time to haul the mainsail and get moving. It took another hour to clean things up; tie the boom pieces secured on the deck; put tools away that I would not need again. It was time for lunch... a bit late and I was ready to sit down.

Now my thoughts are more focused on the next stages of the work... the wood. I measured the boom depth at 3" across...then was realizing that the boom is 3", the oak board nearly 1" and the plywood 3/4" (really 5/8"), which means that i need bolts that will go through all those layers. I have some long bolts in my box, but not 5 " long.. that is long. I am starting to realize I have to come up with another plan to mechanically secure the boards.

We had talked about using a total line wrap ... a traditional sailing technique. It would have to work. I do have 4" bolts, so countersunk in the oak, I can bolt them through the boom with fender washers..I would have to create a variety of ways to secure the boards. The rectangular box would only be screwed together, not nearly enough to hold the boom secuce.

As I was pondering...a thought came to me. My box is full of 4" bolts because I bought them eons ago when I was rebuilding the deck/ hull joint..and incredible venture. This joint was damaged in a hurricane, the rails crushed at points when I bought the boat. But over the first years of sailing II, in Ireland, I realized the deck joint was really rotten and a potential nightmare. Before I considered taking II around the world the first time, I took the whole deck joint completely apart. The design includes a scupper so the fiberglass deck actually has a 90* bend in it, a 4" tall scupper wall, and then another 90*bend that forms the rail...the hull comes up to the joint with a 90*angle bend...the two meet and are bolted together... then the jib track with all the forces on it, is on top of the rail... The end result was that the jib sheet tensions eventually worked the 90*angle joint and it was broken. The whole joint became a liability.

So I determined I wanted to wrap the whole joint with fiberglass and epoxy it, knowing that it would make it ridged. My sons and ex-husband, all wood craftsmen, and I rebuilt it with a monstrous Brazilian Cherry 4" rrail that surrounds the joint.

So... all of the bolts we ended up using for that job were all 5" bolts or longer... I started to think and realized that the jib track bolts would be perfect. I am not even using the jib blocks with the Genny at all. So ... a total relief filled my being as I realized that I was back in business with the original idea of bolting it all through...but I still have to get the bolts out of the rail...

So lots to do. The winds are settling in for the night. It is the kind of night when we can make really good mileage. A west wind 15kts, a nice moving swell... but the problem is that the wind is too far behind me ...a due west breeze. i need to be able to run wing on wing, or else choose a sail...I would just use the jib.

Then I thought about trying the main, without the boom, in a wing on wing. I was nervous aobut it, as if the wind backs the main..I am not sure how the boat would handle it... I have to think ahead of time how i would recover, and if I can do that in the middle of the night, ... So I started to set the pole and then decided not to do it. The winds are suppose to increase in the morning...I didn't want to get caught with the whole rig up and gusts blow up. And I put it all away, even took the main down so that I could get a better downwind angle...I got it all flaked on the deck...

but the winds were really perfect for wing on wing... I decided to try it again... but delayed..and then ... when I checked my course the way I was running ..it was more SSE than I wanted so I finally gave in. I had my dinner first to get some energy . Then went to the task of getting the pole ready. If the winds come up, all I have to do is to furl the jib, douse the main..and then set the jib to lee...I can leave the pole hanging like I have many times before.

Another experiment... And it is working ...the mainsail is doing fine wing on wing boomless. Great... I feel so much better about the delay repairing the boom. I have 2-3 days of these west winds so it would be a shame to have to sail underpowered or SSE...as it is , I will sail ESE, but tha will begin to get us a bit more south.

AS much as I loved being warm on the deck today and my feet and hands are warm... it is so wonderful...but to get to CApe Horn, I need to get south. There are also some big highs ahead that extend down to nearly 45*S. So it is time. At this point, there are no fronts coming up above 45*S. Time to fly. Farther south means less nautical miles per longitude... a shorter distance to the Cape.

As I type,, my back is tightening...I am going to feel the work I did today tomorrow. I am glad that I may be able to take the day off from saw and maybe get some rest tonight. No wind generator sounding like a jet engine and hopefully, nice steady winds. But I will have to be careful on watches to monitor the winds as it is going to build in the morning... that could be wee morning hours or 'real morning' hours... or a series of squall lines. So, i will be expecting to have to jump up at some point...or hopefully it will just become obvious when it is time to douse the main and swap the jib over. Then again, it may not blow that hard.

I am going to have to stretch before I go to bed... and take my Vitamin I (Ibuprofen) and hope for a good nights rest. It is going to be a mix of stars and clouds...the moon is nearly halfway to full. I can see it peering at me through the companionway. Only a few of the little brown Prion like birds were here today...but the ocean was that gorgeous crystal blue...my Calypso Blue... with the sunshine.

It is amazing how my life has changed on board in this last week. For months, the equipment was working great, little maintenance...I was nearly bored...just the cold weather to complain about the wild frontal boundaries, one after another. But it seems that mid journey crisis has taken hold pretty well. The list of projects is growing and they are all challenging projects... Not unlike at the beginning of the trip...

Remember when I had to get the batteries out of the box and rebuild the shelf? That was a hard day and a back breaker...I paid for that for a few days, yet the fix was a good one and it is great. The solar panel fix has not continued to work. The light is blinking standby...not charging...on a brilliant sunny day. So I wll take another crack at fixing it...but it will take soldering it, which takes power to use the soldering iron.

The wind generator is going to be a problem too that I will need to resolve...especially if the solar regulator cannot be jury rigged. Changing out the wind generator is going to be a long day's project... but I am working on a way to use blocks to help lift the pole back up into place once the other generator is put on. Where there are lack of hands, there is the need for leverage to be found somewhere. Some kind of block and tackle to hoist slowly and methodically.

I have to lay down or stretch...something ...my back cannot sit any more.

Tonight..I grabbed the book "The Soul of Leadership", Deepak Chopra, p168 "The soul's guidance doesn't come in the form of instructions, suc "Don't be so selfish" or "Think about other people more". Beng silent, thhe soul works differently--it makes ald habits less satisfying. the sensation is like walking on solid ground that suddenly stops supportig you. ...Guidance is the gradual melting away of ego an all its familiar responses. ... The stages of personal change: Being Stuck, First Doubts, Self-Questioning, Seeking Change, Finding Change, Reintegration... With more and more control over my reactions and learning to let go... in the reintegration: I'm new. There are traces of my old reactions, but they barely influence me. I don't think about who I used to be. I am clear about who I am and happy with the person I see inside."

Keepin On Sailin On Caring... This journey has brought me through an amazing guidance of God consciousness and the energy ofLIfe... I truly do believe Chopra's words, as who I am today is brand new creation each day, all things are possible, anything can happen, everything will change, Presence allows us to manifest and access the Life energy here for us for Today.

Fairest of Winds and the Love of the Ocean Only Gratitude Donna

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