(286) Puddle Jump - How it Went Pt 2
13 April 2018 | 20 nm from Hiva Oa
HB
There were never any scary sections for us. Lots of rocking back and forth in the NE Trades that required ear plugs and lots of cushions to get a decent sleep off watch. It was also where most of our bruises occurred and the galley disasters happened. I dumped a large bag of sugar all over Ian's shoes and a pile of clothes. A tub of yoghurt went awol off the counter into a cupboard behind that contains Tupperware containers. And a leaky bottle of maple syrup in a locker above Ian's nuts and bolts required two large lockers to be emptied and cleaned out with hot soapy water.
The boat itself has had no major breakdowns. A couple of self inflicted, near disasters perhaps but we somehow fuddled through them. Minor things included a shackle attaching the headsail tack to the furler drum that came loose and needed a fiberglass repair on a piece about 1" in size. Lost one screw and had to tighten the remaining ones on the gooseneck where the boom attaches to the mast. With all the rocking and banging of rigging I'm surprised more things didn't come loose. Our autohelm would up and quit occasionally but our trusty self steering has hung in there, although it requires an effort to get it set up and make course alterations. One of our port stantions for the safety line broke, clean off, about 5 inches from the top. Again Ian's trusty fiberglass work has splinted it in place until we can get someplace for proper stainless repairs. Early on while changing out a shackle we gave the headsail sheet too much freedom and it quickly wrapped itself around the front halyard. What a mess. We finally cleared it with both of us at the bow handling the sheets around the halyard in reverse. Doesn't appear to be any damage to the sail, and now we have a workable system in place so that doesn't repeat itself. And some leaks have shown up in the cabin windows and prisms, that we have temporarily patched with duct tape.