Day 8 -

One of the axioms of cruising is that sail must be shortened for the night. This makes a lot of sense: sacrifice a bit of speed for a safer and quieter night. Unfortunately as night approached yesterday principle clashed with reality and I had a stark choice: keep the spinnaker up and the boat moving into the night or do the right thing and dowse the spinnaker and lay ahull all night. I decided to keep the kite up even though during the afternoon it had developed a wine glass (spinnaker twisted around itself) that had forced me to the foredeck to pull hard on the sheet to fill enough of the base of the spinnaker to shake out the wine glass.

It wasn't as audacious decision as it may seem. All weather reports were consistent in predicting light winds for the next two days, meaning that just about any problem could be sorted out. Also the moon would be out most of the night giving plenty of visibility on the deck.

Two problems happened after dark. The kite got into trouble and I went on deck to find that there had been a 30 degree wind shift. Later the autopilot decided to go on standby with no notice and I had to deal with the boat slowly heading into the wind. Fortunately I had no major trouble dealing with this because of the light wind. But in the end it was that light wind that beat me. At 10.30 PM the boat was struggling to make 2 kt with an apparent wind of 4 kt, which was driving the spinnaker crazy. I decided that making 18 more miles before dawn was not worth having to be up most of the night nursing the spinnaker.

So I let off about 5 feet of the tack line, 10 feet off the sheet, then went to the foredeck to see if I could really snuff the kite with the ring downhaul line. (I had seen Bob do it by had not done it myself.) Fortunately the snuffer worked just fine, as long as I synchronized the pulls with the periodic slackening of the spinnaker. I tied the tack of the sail to one of the cleats behind the inner forestay then tied the sock at two points to the inner forestay and left it hanging off the halyard for the night. In the morning I would decide to redeploy it or stow it.

I made my first pressure cooker meal last night. One of the advantages of cooking for yourself is that you can experiment without having to worry about what somebody else will think. Into the cooker went 3 potatoes, 3 carrots, 2 onions, 4 cloves of garlic, a tomato, black pepper, a tablespoon of curry powder, and diced beef. Celery would have been nice but it didn't keep well enough to bring. I found that 20 minutes of pressure cooking was ample, and the outcome was excellent, though it could have used some salt. There is still enough in the cooker for at least one more meal. Incidentally, the beef is very well frozen so I need not be rushed about cooking it.

At 4.30 AM the hum of the Rutland wind charger woke me with the message that there was enough wind for sailing. In fact the wind was blowing at about 12 kt. By then the moon was down so I had to rely on the deck light and head torch. I gybed the boat for a starboard reach with the jib - but not so fast! I visited the foredeck and saw that the spinnaker sheets and tack line were crossed with the jib sheets. I completely removed them and dumped them in the cockpit. I then rolled out the full headsail and off we were, doing over 5 kt. It was still dark I went back to bed until the alarm woke me at 6 AM. I had breakfast still worrying about whether the spinnaker sock would drop OK when I was finished with it. My big fear was a line snag forcing me up to the top of the swaying mast. After a leisurely hour listening the ABC radio for the first time in months, as well as Don Anderson's weather report at the Amigo net session I went out on deck to deal with the lighter wind and thrashing headsail. The problem is that with a light wind the bouts of heavy rolling of the boat overcome the ability of the wind to keep the sail filled. So the mast will rock toward the sail, which will collapse, then the mast will rock away from the sail which is filling again the there is a shock to the rigging as full sail tries to hold back the mast. I rolled in some headsail, which would reduce my speed but also reduce shock loadings on the rigging.

I then went to the foredeck to look at the spinnaker sock and saw that near the top the halyard was wound several times around the part of the headsail that was rolled up. "Shit, here's trouble" was my thought. I freed the spinnaker halyard off the mast cleat and tried pull the sock down, but it wouldn't budge. I returned to the cockpit, deliberately leaving the spinnaker halyard loose, and let the headsail roll all of the way out again. I then looked forward to see the sock dropping into the sea. This was not a big worry because the open end of the sock was securely lashed to the deck. I went forward and brought the end of the sock on board then left the whole thing on the foredeck to dry.

I returned to the cockpit and rolled more than half of the headsail in then watched it at work for a while thinking what a relief it was to have the trusty and reliable headsail doing its job again. I realized then how stressful those hours with the spinnaker had been and decided that I needed a break from it. I would stow it and bring it out another day. I don't regret the experience, since there was no damage and I learned a lot from the it, which I'll mull about for the next few days. It is unlikely that I'll fly the spinnaker again at night unless I can be convinced that the wind will be steady and reliable all night (which is unlikely). Also, I've concluded that spinnakers and headsails do not mix due to the difficulties that I have described. In future, when I'm through with the spinnaker I'll stow it below and clear the deck of its lines before rolling out the headsail.

At 10 AM the boat was ambling downwind at 2.8 kt headed SSW. However, the weather charts and Don Anderson both indicated stronger winds for a few days starting tomorrow.

Today I fill up the jug with my 2.8 liter daily ration of fresh water. My second 10 liter container is almost empty, which will make I 20 liters of fresh water used in 8 days - 2.5 liters per day. I've become accustomed to the minimum water regime. I have 5 or 6 cups of coffee or tea a day, cook what I want to, and drink all of the fresh water that I want. The cooking is not particularly wasteful of water, given that when I boil rice or spaghetti I get most of the water back in the meal. I cook spaghetti in minimal water and after the meal drink the cooking water (why not?), so the only loss is in steam. Last night's stew took a lot of water, but once again I'll get most of it back at dinner time. I am now more relaxed about my waters supply, figuring that I could last for 6 months in a pinch. Nevertheless I'll welcome the first serious rain because it will enable me to begin washing clothes and use fresh water for bathing.

My noon to noon distance for the day was 62 miles. My position was 19N52, 111W40. The three islands of the Revillagigedo group were strung in a 90 mile long arc 60 miles to the south.

In the afternoon I found a sextant and took a sun sight to make sure that the celestial navigation package that I purchased last Christmas was still working OK. Everything worked out fine. I couldn't bother looking for the Chinese made Astra II sextant so I used the German made Freiberger which is better made and in much better condition. I'll use it from now on. Later on I'll start working the positions by hand using the reduction tables to keep in touch with that method I ever have to use it.

The boat was headed toward Roca Partida 45 miles away at approximately 19N, 112W. It is a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere and I expected to pass it in the night, so I would carefully watch my position during the night and be prepared to alter course to give it a wide berth. I used the paper chart to double check the position on the laptop navigation system, and the two were consistent. The Raymarine chart plotter does not show the rock because I have not purchased the cartridge for this part of the world. However, it is still useful to me because it shows the big land masses and displays AIS and radar output.

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