At dawn after a cup of coffee I stripped down for action and put on my battle dress of shoes, harness, and gloves. Rolling in headsail is a trivial task off a friendly coast on a weekend sail, but out here I make every one of these operations a big deal. If something were to go wrong, such as my losing grip of the jib sheet or, worse, the furler line, I could wind up with a damaged sail. The operation went well and I learned that rolling in 2/3 of the small amount of headsail that had been showing was sufficient to quiet down the boat. I got a free salt water shower for my trouble. That left me with the double reefed mainsail, the staysail, and perhaps 50 sq ft of headsail. The boat thereafter settled to a speed of 5.2 or 5.3 knots, rising to not quite 6 kts during the wind surges. As usual, I felt much better after reducing sail, and life in the cabin was more comfortable. After breakfast I ventured to the foredeck and confirmed that the headsail was still in good condition.
Shortly after rising for the 2 AM weather fax session I stuck my head outside and noticed a glow of light off my starboard quarter. The glow was too large and full to be from a star or planet. I turned on the radar and sure enough there was a hard target 12 miles almost astern of me. It was not putting out an AIS signal but from the lighting I figured that it must be a fishing boat in action. I watched it for 30 minutes and turned off the radar when I was satisfied that our separation was increasing.
I had a look at the world chart of ocean currents and it appears that we are moving into the branch of the Peru current that circles back down to the south. The current will be toward the SW at first but gradually clock around toward the S and be assisting me until approximately 35S. This current is not as strong as the south equatorial current, but it is significant enough to find a place on the world charts. This is all good news to me because I've learned that to a sail boat currents are a very big deal.
At 11 AM I started the engine then stuck my head into the lazarette to investigate the whooshing sound that the manual bilge pump had started making the previous day. As expected the main rubber diaphragm had a hole in it. Fortunately I had managed to pick up a service kit for this pump in California. The repair effort will be challenging because I'll be working with the steering wheel not only in place but also turning back and forth wildly under the control of Jeff. I should attend to this matter soon, while I am still in this warm climate. In the meantime, I'll rely fully on the electric bilge pump which has proven to be reliable and efficient (knock on wood). I have a spare electric bilge pump, a gift from my pen neighbor on D jetty at the Fremantle Sailing Club.
At noon we were at position 12S15, 122W42, making our n-n distance 134 miles. We had moved another 2.2 degrees to the south and were now south of the latitude of Lima, Peru, 2700 miles to the east.
I was feeling better after those few hours of quieter sailing. (When the boat is agitated I am agitated.)
In the afternoon I dug out the Whale Gusher Titan pump service kit and went over the instructions, which pointedly state that the rubber components must be changed every 3 years whether they are still working or not. I installed my Whale Gusher in 2008, shortly before sailing out of Fremantle, so I can't complain.
The apparent wind dropped to 13-14 kt during the middle of the day so I rolled out some jib to keep the boat speed above 5 kt. At 3 PM the wind began to pick up to 17-18 kt then the sea began to build up, which is the real problem. So I rolled some headsail back in and reduced the speed from 5.5 kt to 5 kt. Looking back, it had been a very good sailing day, with the boat moving well with moderate winds and in terrific weather.
I've had to move my Sailmail sessions two hours later than my usual (to about 2400 UTC) in order to get successful connections and transmissions from Panama. I've noticed a station at a place call Manihi, which is a relatively close 1370 miles away somewhere in the South Pacific. I'll be trying that out for my connections. Also, there is a station in Chile 3100 miles away which will probably become my sole Sailmail station as I proceed south.
I did some paper chart work in the late afternoon and realized that we were headed for Ducie Island only 730 miles away. In the vicinity and just to the west are Henderson and Pitcairn Islands. I have now placed these islands as waypoints on Dave's laptop chart system so that I can keep a good eye on them. I would very much prefer passing Ducie Island well to the east so to that end I hardened sails which resulted in less speed and therefore the need for more sail. In the morning I'll about shaking out a reef.
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