Just before 7 AM I got up to find the boat headed at 140T at only 2.5 knots. I adjusted Jeff, eased the sheets, and put the boat on a beam reach with more headsail rolled out. That put us more SSE at 3.5 kts but the boom was slamming occasionally because of the weak (9 kt) wind. By now I felt comfortably clear of Ducie Island, which was 70 miles away on bearing 230T.
I had another look at the latest grib file and the way the winds would be backing to the N then NE coupled with a black line traversing the grid in one of the frames suggested that I was passing through a front. The sky was mostly overcast with dark moisture laden clouds.
After breakfast I tuned in to the "Pacific Seafarer's Net" at 0200 GMT on 14.3 MHz and it was not what I had expected. The first 25 minutes were scheduled as "warmup" and I heard contacts from all over the continental USA and one from Mexico City, but none from boats at sea. At 0225 GMT the "roll call" was supposed to begin, but I didn't hear a roll call. I switched off with the controller speaking ham talk with somebody about his dipole antenna. At least I tried. By the time I switched off the radio the boat had settled down and was making 4.2 kts on a heading of 165T.
Our noon position was 24S15, 123W39, giving us a n-n distance of 93 miles. We had moved 1.5 degrees to the south. I had just rolled in some headsail to slow the boat down to 5 kt against the rising sea.
After lunch and a short nap I put on my harness for a deck check. Before going to the foredeck I went to the steering station to put some WD40 on some sticky hinges and there below the wheel was a broken universal clamp. I knew where that had come from. The spindle that takes the ropes of the Monitor wind steering is clamped onto three spokes of the wheel with universal clamps. So against the wheel is a metal plate. At three of the six spokes a clamp goes around the back up the spoke, forward through slot in the plate, then out through another slot and back up to the back of the spoke. It was tricky replacing the clamp. The first task was to find a suitable clamp. Fortunately I carry a big supply of spare clamps and eventually I found one just the right size. Then I disengaged the self steering, freeing the wheel. Fortunately the boat steers itself to weather so I didn't have to worry about that. Then I loosened the two other clamps so that the metal plate could move 5mm back into position so that the spokes were centered between the slots, held the wheel against the movement of the rudder while holding the plate in position and feeding in the end of the clamp in and out of the slots, then feeding the end into the screw mechanism of the clamp while turning the screw driver. It was a real easy job - for somebody with 4 hands. It is at times like this that I miss that extra crew. Fortunately it all worked out and I managed to finish the job just before the boat gybed while I was tightening the three clamps.
I then went to the foredeck for a look around. I've learned that the best way to deck check is to stop and visit for a while rather than having a quick walk up and down. I noticed that one of the shackles holding the tack of the staysail was not moused, so I fetched my tools moused it. The other shackle could not be moused so I gave the screw another half turn to make it very tight. I then paid a visit to the mast. Oops, the pin on the expensive shackle on the trysail halyard was very loose. I tightened it right up then kept looking around. Then I heard a distinctive "tick" like the one that has been haunting me for weeks. After several days out at sea I had started hearing a new sound in the cabin: whenever the boat pitched forward violently I heard a "tick" sound as though two pieces of wood were sliding against each other. That sound was one of the reasons why I moved the position of the staysail's tack turning block from the top of the cabin to the sheet car track. After searching for days I concluded that the sound was coming from the mast area. Perhaps something had changed structurally and the movement of the mast was sliding against the coach roof. Or maybe my novel use of the running back stay had brought out a sound that would always have been there. Well, if I'm really, really lucky the sound may have simply been the trysail shackle clanging against the ring - a new sound because I recently installed the halyard in La Paz. I tightened the halyard and I expect to know within 24 hours if that mystery has been solved.
Then it was time for a cup of tea. I had no more Twinning's tea bags left (very hard to find in La Paz) so I went into "Box W" on the port side to get the Dilmah tea bags. In the bottom of the box I saw hundreds of tiny weevils moving around. Out came the box, out came its contents, then I washed the box out by holding it over the side in the stream of rushing sea. After drying out the box I examined its contents. Most of the items were in good plastic packaging that had not been breached. However, a bag of split peas dating back to Australia had been breached and I could see the little critters inside. The split peas went over the side and the plastic bags that had held it were double washed in sea water and will be put into the garbage bag when they dry. I then put the remaining items back into the box and threw in several bay leaves that Bob Carrol had given to me. I checked the other boxes (X, Y, and Z) and they were clean. I have modern packaging to thank for the containment of that infestation.
We had a splendid afternoon of sailing. The sky had cleared and once again we were on a blue sea and under a blue sky. No longer were there local rain systems to wreak havoc with the wind. For hours the boat sailed quietly on a beam reach (i.e. wind coming from the side) at 4.5 knots with a moderate wind of 11 or 12 knots from the ENE.
I had my second cup of tea in the cockpit where I spent an hour enjoying the sun and the scenery. While I was out there it occurred to me that we had crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (23S27) about 12 hours earlier. I saw no birds during that hour. About two days earlier I had seen a pair of large birds with light feathers and long angular wings that could have been shearwaters. Two days before that I happened to catch sight of a small bird landing on the water - petrel, maybe. I probably spend a total of 2 hours a day topside doing various things and I have been keeping an eye out for birds without much luck. I've had no sightings of sea creatures other than the many tiny flying fish that meet their doom on the deck.
At 6.37 PM local time (23.37 GMT) we crossed the latitude of Ducie Island, 24S40. We were at longitude 123W33, putting us 63 miles to the east of the island. Easter Island was 770 miles to the ESE on bearing 104T. We were the same distance from Cabo San Lucas as we were from Drake Passage, 2950 miles.
The grib file predicted that during the night the wind would back to the NE, then the N, then eventually the NW. Normally I run downwind with the headsail only. It provides a steady and comfortable pull on the boat and there are none of the dangers of accidental gybes when using the mainsail. However, given that I was trying to protect the headsail I decided to try running downwind with no headsail and the mainsail boomed out. To that end I rigged up a preventer (to prevent accidental gybes) from the end of the boom to a snap block on the cabin and back to the cockpit while there was still daylight.
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