Day 6, Interesting Night

The wind was up to 17 kt as darkness approached and the boat was heeling more than I like to see. Following my resolution to follow Dan's advice and drive the boat less hard I decided to put in a reef. I had not reefed in a while and I had yet to try the new system which hopefully would allow me to perform the operation without leaving the cockpit.

I let off the mainsheet to take pressure off the sail then eased the halyard to allow the sail to drop. I then began pulling on the new line which brings down the first reefing point at the mast side of the sail (luff). By a combination of easing the halyard and pulling on the reefing line I had that reefing point in position in about 60 seconds. Then I pulled on the conventional reefing line to bring the aft (leech) reefing point down to the boom, made the line fast, put strain on the halyard to stretch the luff, and that was that. I pulled in the mainsheet to put the mainsail into play then rolled in the headsail to a no. 2.

Forty five minutes later, at very last light, I decided to put in a second reef because the wind was up to 22 kt. I went through the same procedure using the second reef lines and I was amazed at how easy and safe it was. I then rolled in the jib to about a no. 3 and the boat seemed much happier, though we were still doing 5.5 kt.

That's how we went into the night, on a SW course. I was hoping that this wind, which had not been predicted, would not get worse.

At 8.30 PM I spotted the first ship on AIS. It was 46 miles to the west, headed north.

At 9 PM I was forced to the foredeck. The anchor was on its roller and once in a while a wave would hit it and there would be a mighty clang. I was sure that the anchor would not jump off the roller because I had pulled the chain in tight, but I thought it prudent to avoid the risk of damage to that front end section, to which the forestay is anchored. I didn't want to heave to by backwinding the headsail because to get going again I would have to either tack or worse, gybe. I tried simply rolling in the headsail and that did the trick. The boat slowed to a crawl yet the Monitor was still able to steer the boat. Nevertheless it was nasty business. The bow was pitching, the odd wave would make it over the bow, and the worst part was that the curved deck was very slippery from the water. I couldn't place the anchor on the deck because it would slide hard into the toe rail. And for that matter, I was tending to slide into the toe rail too. Anyway, I managed to get the anchor back to the port shroud and lash it securely from three different directions. I then unrolled a bit of headsail and soon we were doing 5 kt again.

I won't beat myself up about not stowing the anchor earlier. I needed it on the roller while I was near land and then the strong wind took me by surprise.

The wind held up at 21-22 kt until about midnight when I detected a slight easing. The boat was traveling comfortably so I decided to take a series of 30 minute naps with only a brief check between them. I decided to keep the radar on all night and just as well because in addition to the 5 or 6 ships that crossed my path I detected four object all seeming to be headed south. They could have been fishing or perhaps other sailboats. However, nothing came within 8 miles of me all night.

My little timer would go off, I'd rise and check the chart plotter for radar or AIS targets. Invariably they posed no danger. I would then pop my head out of the cabin and scan the horizon for lights. All being well I would set the timer for another 30 minutes and go back to sleep. At 4 AM I got the AIS data on the Ital Liberia, out of the Panama Canal and headed for Taipei at 19 kt course 330 and still 55 miles away. The transponder estimated that it would pass within 8 miles of me in 2.5 hours. At that distance the convergence estimate can't be too reliable. A change in wind direction or speed could put me on a collision course, so it had to be watched. But the ship was over 2 hours away so I resumed my sleep. An hour later the target was gone. The ship must have changed course.

At dawn Pachuca was still headed SW happily ambling along at 4.5 - 5.0 kt on an easy beat into a 13 kt wind. The sea was still rough, the boat was traveling well under her reduced sail, and I saw no need to shake out the second reef. Breakfast sounded better to me.

I had breakfast of buttered toast and coffee while I listened to the Amigo Net and Don Anderson's weather report. It sounded like the weather report of another part of the world, with generally light 5-7 kt winds on the Pacific side of Baja and light and variable in the Sea of Cortez. Granted, Don's report extended only as far south to Cabo San Lucas. But I started off at Cabo San Lucas and at dawn I was only 50 miles SW of the cape. Yet in that zone the conditions were as I've already described. Strange.

At 9.30 AM I was at 22N05, 110W44, 65 miles SW of Cabo San Lucas.

I checked the inside of the boat and was generally happy with what I found. There had been no leaks in the V berth area, head, drawers and hanging closet, main cabin, nav table, or quarter berths. The work of Jak and myself appears to have done a lot of good with those cabin leaks. The galley is still a problem area, with cupfuls of water dropping down through the vent. I had decided to wait until I get to Australia to totally remove that vent and put a proper fiberglass patch over the hole so that once I've repainted the deck one will never know that the vent existed. In the meantime I'll pick a calm day to take the vent cover off and re seal everything with silicone, plastic sheeting, and duct tape.

The chore for the morning was to bring the anchor and chain into the cabin. The anchor fit very well at the base of the clothes locker. I set it on two boat fenders and fitted it so that it is unlikely to shift in a heavy seaway. I stowed the chain as described in a blog months ago. I cut off the bottom of the second plastic box, set it on top of the one that was already in the floor of the V berth area holding the chain of the fisherman's anchor, then used cord to tie the two together so that the top one would not jump out of the groove. Then I fed the chain down from the deck and was very happy to see that it fit very well in the plastic boxes, with room to spare. So now there is no chain or anchor at the bow of the boat.

Then I struck the colors. I am probably still in Mexican territorial waters and should fly the courtesy flag, but it took a hammering in last night's wind and another night like that and there will be no flag left to fly. Likewise I struck the Aussie flag.

I haven't shaved since leaving La Paz and I don't plan to until after I have reached Cape Town. I just don't want to consume the heated fresh water. ... Besides, a beard will help keep me warm in the Southern Ocean.

It was an afternoon of pleasant sailing with bright sunshine and a 10-11 kt wind from the NW. The temperature was perfect and I was sailing just in underpants. I brought out my paper chart of this area and marked my first daily position. I got the three weather faxes covering the this tropical area and there are no threats of tropical cyclone activity. At 4.30 PM local time I was at 21N40, 111W04. I had made good approximately 100 miles to the SW in 24 hours, and I was clear of the shipping late. The wind was holding up at 9-10 kt and of course I was hoping that it would hold out throughout the night.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com