Regarding the shattered starboard window on my spray dodger, I remembered that at Bob Carroll's suggestion (thanks again, Bob) I had clip-on sun shades made for the windows. I'll see tomorrow about putting on the starboard shade. It has a minimal number of clips holding it, so I may have to do some sewing. It must be strong for what lies ahead. I'm not so interested so much in the see-through aspect of the windows, but what I really need is the protection the dodger gives to the instruments at the companionway as well as the companionway itself.
Late in the afternoon I turned off the chart plotter. It was not providing a service so there was no point is using the electricity. About an hour later I had a look at the wind instrument and it was off. I then recalled that when the breaker to the chart plotter is there is no power to the wind instrument. No problem. I switched on breaker and turned the chart plotter for good measure, and to my amazement all of the numbers came up on the plotter. It was reporting position, COG, SOG, wind direction and strength, etc. There was no longer a problem with the Seatalk network. I have no idea why the the system was working now when my earlier efforts of restarting did no good. ... I wasn't game to turn on the autopilot and would deal with that the next morning.
I tried to go to sleep at 9.30 PM but a strange shuffling sound on deck bothered me. I tried to ignore it but couldn't because any new sound really must be investigated. It was pitch black and the wind was howling at 19 or 20 knots and just as well that Pachuca was beating with a double reef in the mainsail and a tiny amount of headsail. I turned on the deck light and went up with my own spotlight to have a look. The rope holding the aft end of the lower jerry can timber to the stanchion had parted and the rope holding the upper timber was under a lot of stress as the line of jerry cans sifted with the pitch and roll of the boat. Soon I was at the board with a couple of pieces of rope and made things fast for the night. The next day I would have to check every rope holding a board to a stanchion. The incident, by the way, shows an advantage in using 2 boards instead of 1: redundancy.
I then wanted to get to sleep but the heading that the boat was making had been bothering me for about an hour. The wind had backed and we were on a COG of about 0100 - almost due east. I reluctantly decided to tack the boat - something I didn't want to do in the harsh conditions in the middle of the night. But I had one thing going for me: there was such little headsail out that I wouldn't have to wind any in so that the sail would clear the inner stay. All I had to do was to make sure that the lazy sheet had not wrapped around a deck cleat. The mainsail could take care of itself. After the tack I would adjust the mainsheet traveler then orientate Jeff to the new wind direction. The tack went well and the result warranted the effort. I had gained a full 30 degrees in my quest for the south. Now if only this wind would persist throughout the night!
The wind indeed held up all night. However, its speed and direction were somewhat variable, depending, I suspect, on our proximity to a squall. At times the wind would exceed 22 kts and the boat would accelerate to 4.5-5 kts. After 30 minutes of that it would resume the 15-17 kt range. Sometimes it would veer 30 degrees taking the boat west, only to back again in another 30 minutes. The boat coped well with the conservative sail plan, but at 9 AM we had made only 35 minutes (i.e. 35 miles)of southing. It was hard, slow going, but I had no choice and at least I was making some progress. The cabin remained remarkably dry throughout the night. My only complaint now is the steady shipping of water into the bilge. I am convinced that it is coming through those plastic thru hull fittings at the back of the boat. Normally they are above the waterline but when I'm making way in a sea the boat pitches and immerses the fittings. Evidence of this that (1) the boat never ships water in calm waters such as in a marina, even though it might be raining hard, (2) the lazarette floor is always wet when underway, even though there may have been neither rain nor enough water on the cockpit sole to cause it to pass over the barrier into the lazarette. Any water in the lazarette will pass into the bilge through the various holes that allow hoses to pass through.
At 9.30 AM I tacked and let out 100% more headsail to a no. 2. That gained 15 degrees in our southing, on a port tack with a COG of 125T and speed of 4 kts against a 16 kt wind. I had been influenced by the grib file which had predicted a subtle shift in the wind direction from just east of south to just west of south.
Just before noon I had a look at the autopilot. The controller at the binnacle displays "NO PILOT". The manual states that "The controller is not receiving data from the SmartPilot computer." I did a continuity test on the 5A fuse of the computer and found it to be OK. I probed the power posts and the unit was getting power. And let's not forget that strange clacking sound that the computer was making when it broke down. At this point I see nothing more to be done. The manual is quite specific about not opening the unit. I'll have to accept the loss of the autopilot, but at least I have almost full functionality in the chart plotter - "almost" because it cannot display heading data because the information from the flux gate compass is not getting to it. Heading was useful because the discrepancy between heading and actual COG gave me clues about the presence of currents. Three of the four components of the autopilot have been replaced at various times: (1) the controller in Adelaide (2) the linear drive in New Zealand (3) the flux gate compass in La Paz. I'll see if I can get the computer either fixed or replaced in Cape Town.
Just before noon I checked the result of my attempt to make yogurt using a recipe that Brenda had sent me. You need boiled (sterilized) water, full cream milk powder, and two tablespoons of yogurt - in my case the remains of the yogurt that I had brought from La Paz. After letting it stand for 24 hours I tasted it and it was very, VERY good. (Thanks Brenda!) It is now in the refrigerator and I'll try to keep the chain of culture going as long as possible.
At noon we were at 06N28, 113W59. We had made a n-n distance of 41 miles. Because of the tacking that 41 miles was almost directly south of our previous day's position, moving us 41 precious minutes to the south. Note that this was done without use of the engine. That last long engine run had left my batteries in pretty good shape so I saw no need to run the engine. I had a very close look at the grib file prediction for the day. The wind was as it predicted, promising to get stronger as I moved south. One more degree back to the north and I would have been dealing with 6-7 kt winds. I was hopeful that I had broken through to moderate and steady winds. True, they would be adverse winds, but we would deal with that by simply slogging on. I looked forward to the prospect of leaving behind the uncertainty, unpredictability, and episodes of becalming of the last week.
After lunch and a nap I attended to the unpleasant task of strengthening the lashings of the jerry cans on deck. My plan was simple: unless the ropes holding the timber to the stanchion had parted, I would merely put a tight loop of rope around the lead and aft jerry cans and their adjacent stanchions. That would secure and help support the ends of the lines of jerry cans. To that end I sacrificed a beautiful length of 10mm rope and cut 4 lengths of 2.5 m. I went to the starboard weather side and found that the forward end of the line indeed needed attention. The rope securing the upper timber had come loose and the entire front end was starting to dance around. I re secured the timber then put the new loop around the container and it worked a treat. On the way back I tightened the ropes of a container, and I found that the job I had done on the aft end during the night was good enough and did not need attention. Then I looked at the leeward side and concluded that it was too risky to do the remedial work on that line of containers. With the boat heeling while pitching and rolling there was too much danger of my being tossed overboard. I looked at the line from the cockpit and everything looked tight and secure with no sliding around. I will attend to that side when I get the opportunity.
I then had a cup of tea and a few almonds while I watched on the chart plotter the boat trucking along at 5 kt on course 130, almost SE.
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2 comments:
If it were easy it wouldn't be a challenge.
Hang in there, bro -- you're doing OK.
Good the containers are standing up well again.
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