May 11, 2009

Sort of Like Life
The last couple days at sea here have been like life in general; some good, some not so good, none of it really following the script. Studying the wind history of this route for the last several years, you might have predicted the light breeze, but nobody would have expected to spend any significant time on a starboard tack. The wind patterns from the Marshalls to well south of Fiji are all in the influence of the Trade Winds. They come from the east. Maybe northeast, maybe southeast, maybe they stop. But several days of light northwest wasn't in the playbook. That was before WE came through here. We did take the spinnaker down at dusk night before last. Karen wasn't comfortable with having it up in the dark after big clouds formed in the late afternoon. Good call, that. 800 square feet of nylon generates a lot of power with even a small increase in breeze. I botched the release and lost a little skin to rope burn, but that would have been a lot worse in a squall in the dark. That night we spent hours getting soaked, and trying to use the moonlight to drive around the biggest, blackest clouds. Limited success there. Yesterday was pretty benign, and we made some easy miles with just the jib. I took the opportunity to put together a new control line system to keep the boom from bouncing side to side in rough water. It's been annoying and dangerous living with that for years. So, last night we got to try it out. We're glad I got it done, even for just that one night. It was far from the worst night we've ever had, but it's never going to even get close to the top 50%. The squalls formed up at dusk, and we were bounced and shaken from cloud to cloud on a completely random wave surface for hour after hour. Predictably, it made Karen seasick. It made me tired. Sails and courses changed on the half hour. I am SO glad we battened over the deck hatches with plastic sheet, to make them watertight in all conditions. It doesn't do much for the ventilation these sultry afternoons, but only the floor is getting wet, from us dripping on it. No overhead leaks, while the water pours from the sky. No danger of water shortage, as the collection system fills all the containers each night. Then, at dawn, one last black cloud, one last burst of crashing, thumping, plunging through an enormous chop. Now the sea follows us meekly in low, smooth swells as we slide gently southeast with the wind 10 knots on the starboard quarter. We're trying to rest up for tonight. The pattern looks suspicious. We're at 06 deg 53 min S, 172 deg 40 min E this afternoon. We're making a bit over 100 miles a day now, so in a couple days we should make 10 degrees south latitude. I think the pattern will change there. But then, you never know. Ted