Day 62 - Forestay Back Up

I woke up at 6AM just in time to catch the BBC news. Fortunately I've managed to keep the bunks dry and I had a deep and restful sleep in the warm, dry, and cosy bed. But fatigue, a belly full of hot food (spaghetti in this case) and a comfortable bed aren't sufficient for a good night's sleep: the boat is a major ingredient, and last night the boat had been good. I expected a fair wind until morning and after setting her up for the night I went to sleep without worrying about her. The cabin temperature this morning was a crisp 54F and I had trouble forcing myself out of bed, but at least the sun was shining outside and all of the flooring in the cabin was dry. I went to the drawers and pulled out fresh pairs of socks, fluffy slippers, and track shoes. For the first time in days I was not walking either barefoot or in soggy shoes. Over coffee I realized what a horrid 24 hours in had been, with the gale, the gear failure, and the rolling. The rolling deserves special mention. There is the normal rhythmic and predictable rolling under sail and then there is the incessant 30 and 40 degree rolls and periodic clobbering by waves where everything wants to slide or fall over and there is a constant exertion in everything that you do, including just trying to sit still still and enjoy a hot drink. Deck work becomes particularly challenging. It's probably a survival thing but at the time you don't seem to know that it's happening - you just accept what is and do what has to be done. But now that it was over, comfortable in my warm fluffy slippers and enjoying my third cup of coffee, I felt like I had been put through a cement mixer.

I've been too miserly with my clothes. I've relied on only 4 or 5 sets of underclothes since I left La Paz and have been using the one pair shoes that were falling apart before my departure. I must have 30 sets of fresh underclothes, plenty of arctic socks, 4 or 5 sets of fresh footware - including brand new slippers and sports shoes - and plenty of sweaters. I've tried to managed with little, being very careful to keep my top clothes dry and washing underclothes whenever I can because I know that to raise the standard too much would mean going through set after set of clothes and winding up with a big damp bundle to deal with later. Having said that, if I can't pull out my arctic socks in the Roaring Forties when will I use them? With them I'll have start using my sea boots.

At 7.30 AM the boat was doing 3 knots on a course of 140T. It was time to roll out some more sail.

If sailing conditions got no worse I would move out of the reactive posture and think about doing things like baking my first loaf of bread in days. I also wanted to reinstall the inner forestay as soon as possible. I was still resisting the repair of the headsail not out of laziness but because I didn't want to risk buggering it up before the sailmaker could attend to it.

I suited up including with socks and sea boots and gave both sides of the deck a thorough inspection. Everything looked OK. The shrouds seemed nice and tight and I wondered if the cold weather had caused a slight contraction in the wires. I did notice the mast moving a bit where it passes through the cabin. I had never noticed the movement before but then again perhaps I was being a bit sensitive about the mast following the forestay problem, because I was sure that some movement is normal. Nevertheless it spurred me to get that stay up immediately so I spent the bulk of the morning doing the job. The deck fitting, which is an inverted stainless steel U-bolt with diameter of 1/4" at the thread, had sheared off at the top of the nuts, not below the nuts as the earlier one. The stay had a kink at the lower end and had two broken wires, possibly caused by the shock when the fitting gave way. I had a close look at the broken wires and there was no sign of corrosion: the strands of wire had broken due to stress. The fix may be as simple as replacing that 1/4" U-bolt with something heftier - 3/8" or maybe even 1/2". In the meantime, I got the stay up and under tension to help support the mast. Hopefully it will go the distance because it's under tension only along its length. I decided to leave the running backstays up also to give some support to the mast.

At noon we were position 46S39, 106W57, giving us a n-n distance of 85 miles in the direction 132. The paper chart and the navigation software were in agreement that I was 1560 miles from the Horn. The barometer had risen 9 points in the last 24 hours to 1018. We were headed at 170T so it was well past the time to gybe to the east, but I had been anxious to get that forestay up. I wore ship and went a little bit off the wind because it had lightened to about 10 knots which put us on a course of 105T doing about 3.5 knots. I had been expecting a 19 knot wind but that certainly wasn't happening.

I'm having wind charger problems similar to what Matt described in his Christmas message. During the gale the unit began to free wheel and made a lot of noise for the duration of the blow. I'd seen this before and it was normal. According to the owners' manual a thermostat will disengage the electrics when the temperature inside the unit reaches a certain level, which will happen in high winds. Normally the unit begins to function after it cools off but this hasn't happened so far. As Matt had to do, I climbed up and tied down the blades because 28 knot winds are predicted for tonight. When things are quieter I'll have another try with the unit. If it still fails there are a series of static and running tests described in the owners' manual. Beyond checking the connections and voltage regulator the only thing practical that I can do with the unit is to check its brushes, which Arnold and I did in the first wind charger (that was replaced under warranty). I'll certainly miss its gentle hum.

At 5 PM he boat was ambling along at just over 4 knots under headsail along on a beautiful heading of 115T. I had spent the entire day in my foul weather gear to avoid the hassle of suiting up every time I wanted to go topside. This was probably how it would be for the next couple of months, and why not, it helped keep me warm.

We went into the night with the wind starting to increase and veer toward the north. The wind was still less than 20 knots and our speed was only 4.5 knots but I reduced the headsail to avoid stressing it, particularly later when I would be reducing it again as the wind speed approached the predicted 28 knots. It would be a northerly at that point and we should have an easy lay to the SE. Later in the night the wind would be backing to the NW and weakening, and I was quite relaxed about that.

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