06/15/02
As we are getting out further from shore, there is quite a bit less activity. For a lot of the morning, there was not much wind to speak of, and we found ourselves motoring. Eric and David tightened the headstay in the morning, as it seems to have worked loose. In the afternoon the wind picked up a bit and we found ourselves on a reach. We did not quite have enough wind for Victor to steer, so we used George instead. (Note: Victor is the name we have for the windvane mechanical self steering device attached to the transom, and George is the name of the electric autopilot.)
The prop shaft generator was working, so using George did not drain the battery. This continued for a couple of hours, but the speed of the propeller (we are making up to 7.5 knots at times) caused the generator to overheat – so much so that the solder Eric had used to connect the resistor had melted off. Later, the jib began to flog a bit, so we rolled it in and ran with mainsail alone. We were still making good speed.
The motion of the boat was once more becoming a problem for me. As we were reaching with a following sea, the boat was yawing back and forth constantly, and every movement made on the boat had to be a deliberate, calculated plan, as one could never tell which way the boat was going next.
Later that night, David fell against the fiddle on the table, breaking one of the pins. The next morning they engaged in an engineering project to replace the missing pins with new screws at different locations.
My task was first to resecure the spare propane tank, which had come loose and was banging around on deck. I took a longer piece of line with which I was able to get a few wraps and get a little tighter.
Our next task was to install the emergency SSB antenna. When Eric had installed the running backstay, he didn’t realize that the proximity of this steel cable to the backstay, which is used as the SSB antenna, would interfere with it. The previous evening, when Eric made a test transmission on the HAM radio, it came out garbled. He has an emergency SSB antenna which can be mounted on the rail. Normally this would be used only in the case that we have lost the mast or the backstay.
Before we could install the emergency antenna, it was necessary to open the lazarette (where the main propane tank is stored at the stern of the boat) and switch the antenna cable to connect to the emergency antenna connection. This required moving the life raft aside. Once we got the lazarette open, we saw that the two antenna connections were not the same, and Eric had to build an adapter from his extensive collection of spare parts on board.
Once all this was done, the wind had lightened and we were on more of a run. Eric decided to set the preventer and the whisker pole and run wing-and-wing for a while. All three of us were on deck to set this up. First, the preventer, a line with an eye on one end that is secured to the tip of the boom, is attached to a long line with a snap shackle through the eye and run up through a block that is attached to the stem fitting, and run back around the anchor winch, which is used to apply tension to it.
Once the main is set, the chore of setting the whisker pole begins. First we had to unlash the pole from the deck, then attach the topping lift to the loop at the middle. Next we attached one end to the eye on the mast, and brought the other end out to the bow pulpit where David secured it with a “gasket” (sail tie). Then we ran both the fore guy line and the aft guy line, and tied them both to a loop at the end of the whisker pole with bowline knots. The fore guy went through a block at the bow and secured to a cleat up there. The aft guy was led back to midships, through a snatch block, and secured to a cleat next to the winch. At this time Eric gave me a snatch block. I put the block around the jib sheet and handed it to David, who attached the shackle from the snatch block around the piston at the end of the pole. Once this was done, it was time to raise the pole with the topping lift (my job), while David kept tension on the fore guy and Eric kept tension on the aft guy. After this was all done, we had the whisker pole sticking out perpendicular to the boat, and we were ready to roll out the jib. At long last, all our work was done and we were running wing-and-wing! At this time the wave motion has reduced somewhat, and it felt a little more comfortable.
Later in the afternoon, Eric gave us a quick introduction to celestial navigation. The basic premise of celestial is that you are taking lines of position on celestial objects rather than terrestrial objects, since those are the only objects that are visible on the open ocean.
At the end of the navigation lesson, Eric glanced out of the cabin window and noticed a ship. This was (apparently) an oil tanker that passed within two miles of us. That was the only sign of life we had seen for three days.
At this time the wind died and the mainsail was flogging so badly from the wave motion that it was necessary for us to “hand the mainsail” and start the engine. We motored for a few hours, when at 2230, the wind picked up and Eric got David and I up to raise the main again. This was a very intense experience for both David and I, as the deck was quite wet and slippery from the dew, and the boat was pitching wildly (earlier in the evening as we were motoring, I was watching the inclinometer. The heel angle was constantly undulating from 20 degrees port to 20 degrees starboard). David had a slip, nearly lost his balance and fell over, but thankfully was able to gain his grip before that happened. The experience of working with the mainsail is quite frightening when the boat is moving this way. I try to stay as low as possible, but this is not easy when working with gaskets and working with the halyard. The problem with raising the main halyard is that it sometimes requires two hands and it may be necessary to stand up to get proper leverage on the winch handle. This is the point that I feel most vulnerable. It is also quite an exhausting experience to crank that halyard all the way. There is a low-torque groove on the halyard winch drum that is supposed to facilitate winding the last few feet of sail, but I need a free hand to push the wire over into the groove at the same time I am cranking, and that extra hand is usually needed to hold on for dear life.
Once the mainsail ordeal was over, we had to move the whisker pole out of the way, as we are now sailing close-hauled and don’t need it, then we unrolled the jib (not all the way), set Victor for the course, and I was able to get some rest and catch my breath before starting my watch at midnight. Earlier in the evening I witnessed the first brilliant sunset of our trip. I tried to get some pictures but I don’t know how they will come out. Sue’s moon was also visible in the sky. Later on, during my midnight watch, I had a nice clear sky with no moon present, and was able to see the brilliant stars and milky way that I have heard so much about. It was quite an experience. The rest of my watch was uneventful. I came on again at 0600, and we were more on a reach. Eric and I set up the boom vang to hold the boom in reach position, and I tweaked Victor occasionally to keep the course in the 110-120 range. We used the Iridium phone for the first time at 0700. Eric was not able to contact Brenda for some strange reason, but I was able to contact Sue, give her my position, and tell her that I was okay.
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