DAY 6 - Very Quiet

Yesterday afternoon and evening were as quiet as the morning had been. I tried a bit of sailing once or twice but soon was forced to give up due to lack of wind. I fiddled about doing nothing in particular but managed to accomplish some useful things.

I inspected both sail lockers at the bow of the boat and found them to be bone dry. I cannot recall ever before having dry sail lockers, whether I had been sailing the boat or not. They had to be dry because I know that the sail locker is now stronger and better sealed than when the boat was new.

This morning I checked the bilge and found that the water level was up about the equivalent of one of the keel bolt nuts. I gave the electric bilge pump a burst and in 4 seconds it was sucking air. Whatever water ingress problems I have must be in the back of the boat. I am confident the days of taking on serious water when we are beating hard to windward are over.

I then did some work on man overboard issues. If I were to fall overboard clipped to a jack line I would not fall hard in the water then wind up at the stern of the boat because my clip has slid along the jack line. I would wind up roughly chest-high in the water with my line coming down hard on the top wire rail. It would be up to me to grab the gunwale and climb on board. On the starboard side I would have help: the red line for the parachute drogue runs from the bow roller to the cockpit, clipped on with plastic ties. I could grab that, pull it down, and maybe get a foothold.

I could see that a more productive approach is to reduce the risk of falling overboard to a minimum. I tried a suggestion of Dieter. I ran a rope from the stern cockpit platform at chest height to the D1 (inner) shroud then to the inner forestay then back along the other side of the boat to the cap shroud and the cockpit platform. The result is a ring of rope that I can hook in my armpit as I move back and forth on the top deck. I would definitely not rely on it and will still use the halyards running along the cabin top as hand holds, particularly in rough seas. However, it seems to me that if the unexpected happens (e.g. unexpected lurch, rogue wave) I've got a pretty good chance of being restrained by the perimeter rope. I've yet to test the arrangement in sailing conditions but the rope is low enough to clear the boom as it moves forward so I am confident.

Last night I watched a movie, "The Untouchables" which I enjoyed more than when I first saw it years ago, possibly because I was very focused on it and took in the extremely well done scenery of Chicago in 1930. After the movie I still had a 1.5 hour wait for a weather fax that I wanted so watched the first half of "Apocalypse Now". I like that movie more every time that I see it.

It was actually a very enjoyable day for me. The sea was like a large placid lake. The serenity allowed me to relax and not worry about dangers. I was able to visit the deck without my life vest. I would get lost in a book or a movie and totally forget that I was on a boat. I would then occasionally take a break, walk the steps look about, and feel that I was stepping into a dream. There I was, in a tiny boat, alone and totally surrounded by calm blue water. Once there was a stunning sunset. Later it was the sliver of the new moon low on the western horizon. It all had an air of unreality to it. It reminded me of the movie "The Truman Show" and I wondered if I would drift into a curtain representing a make-believe horizon.

For dinner I had one of those pre-packaged meals that Ron got for me. This was a Hormel roast beef dinner. I placed the unopened plastic container into 25 mm of simmering water for 7 minutes, took it out, opened it, enjoyed a real hot roast beef dinner with carrots and potatoes. I didn't even have to clean the pot.

I had the 7.30 PM session with Richard and Jeff and was delighted to hear from Richard that he was on the move, heading NE, partially reefed against a 20 kt wind, and doing 4.5 kt. He said that after one week he had wound up farther west and only 250 nm north of where he had started. In his fourth week he is still 1200 nm from his destination, Vancouver Island. Richard asked me how I was doing and I replied that with the current course and speed I would reach the north shore of Oahu in about 180 days.

The weather fax out of Honolulu was unreadable due to noise, which is metered by the system that I am using. I experimented and found that I could get a decent weather fax out of San Francisco. So in future I will look around for the best reception as a prelude to downloading a weather fax.

I had a good night of uninterrupted sleep and woke up at 7 AM. I went on deck to see that it was an overcast day with a gentle breeze that I might be able to work with. I had my usual breakfast of coffee and toast then checked the chart plotter. I had lost 13 nm to the S/SW in the 29 hours of drifting. My track looked like a pretzel. The breeze appeared to be from the NW. I rolled out a bit of sail for a starboard broad reach heading south to get some steerage, then gybed and rolled out the entire jib on a port tack. Yes, I could work with this wind. At 0830 I was steering NNW (025 T) at 2.6 kt against an apparent wind averaging 7 kt. Soon I switched over to Jeff the Monitor which handled the steering very well even at low water speeds. Shortly before noon the wind started to back, then there were rain clouds in the distance, and at 1 PM there was an abrupt change in wind speed (10 kt) and direction (NW) and Pachuca was hiking along at 5.1 on jib only.