Day 70 - Sewing While Waiting

The situation yesterday evening was exactly the same at that of the previous evening: a SE wind that rendered beating to weather pretty much a waste of time. I would be pounding the boat for an extra 2 knots a good 60 degrees off target. I simply rolled in the headsail and let the boat creep along quietly at less than 1.5 kt and pointed to the NE. This rendered the boat very comfortable throughout the night. It rock and rolled gently with the occasional sound of swishing water as the bow came down, and the light hum of the 20 kt wind through the rigging. I had a couple of drinks, had a great spaghetti dinner, watched a movie I hadn't seen before, "The 13th Warrier" with Antonio Banderas, which in enjoyed very much, then had another great night in the cot.

Last night's grib file indicated another day of SE winds that would die to nothing in the middle of the following night. The 2.30 AM weather fax showed the high still to our NNW. It had moved about 10 degrees of longitude to the east in the previous 24 hours, but that still left it above us. In the morning I saw for the third day the same wind situation and saw no justification for either tacking or beating to weather. It was all disappointing but I was calm and complacent to the point where some might judge me derelict. But ranting and raving and railing against the weather gods would do no good and the best thing to do, in my opinion, was to take care of the boat and make myself as comfortable as possible. The weather in this part of the world was so dynamic and unstable that there had to come a change sooner rather than later.

It was another grey day and the temperature in the cabin at 7 AM was 48F.

At noon our position was 50S41, 096W37, for a n-n distance of 37 miles 057T. We were 20 miles further north and 24 hours ago. The wind was still from the SE.

I decided to do something useful and dragged out the headsail to be repaired. I got out the sail repair kit and rummaged at the back until I found the little book "Sailmaking" which has a small section on repairs and stitching. I started work at the leech and found that part of the sail in worse shape than I had expected. The material itself had degenerated and torn, and there was some delamination. Nevertheless I persevered and by the end of the day I hoped to have that section sewn. Ahead would be two sewing runs of 13 ft each. However, the material along those runs was in good shape it would easier to line it up for sewing. Also there is a run of several feet where the UV cover has separated from the leech. However, I had to look at this as a project, where I would do a bit of repair here and there whenever I got the chance. If I managed to put enough stitching in the sail to think that it would have a chance I'd put repair tape over the runs. In the meantime I'd have to figure out how to get the sail in and out of the V berth area quickly. The sail is heavy, huge, and seems to fill the entire cabin.

I really got into the sewing and put in about 6 hours. I got in trouble with the first of those long runs because I had trouble keeping the two overlapping sides lined up. The sail is very stiff, with an internal layer of some sort of matting which gives its strength but makes it very difficult to work with. The project was in jeopardy until I changed the method of stitching. I had been trying to duplicate the zig zag stitching of two layers overlapping by about 1/2". I switched to what the book calls "round seam stitch" where I put the material side by side with their edges together. I then round and round the edges. I don't know if this is structurally as sound as overlapping but it presented some significant advantages. To start with I was able to achieve beautiful alignment. Also, I could put in a lot more stitches per inch. I'm also putting on double stitches. I was having trouble with a single thread because I had trouble keeping the thread in the needle. What I did was to pass a thread and cut it so that it was the same length on each side of the eye then tie the ends in a knot, making a loop with the knot at the bottom. This helped me to get the initial thread well anchored, eliminated problems with losing the thread, and allowed me to sew a double thread with each pass. I'm working at the rate of about a foot per hour on those long runs, which means that I've got about 30 hours of sewing ahead of me.

And will it all work? I can't be sure because I don't have any guide posts by which to judge what I'm doing. My plan is to keep stitching and stitching and stitching and if the time comes to put the sail up I'll be psychologically ready for anything from sail self destruction in 20 minutes to exemplary duty for the rest of the voyage. ... The work is very hard on the hands and Captain Morgan is helping to soothe the pain.

In the early afternoon the sky cleared and the bright sun emerged. There were clouds but they were the big puffy friendly white variety. The sea was blue and relatively calm. The barometer was up to 1013 hPa. The conditions would have suited a weekend fun sail off Fremantle, Port Townsend, San Francisco, San Diego, or wherever. I took a break and enjoyed the sunshine over a cup of tea and muesli bar but otherwise eschewed the delights of the afternoon in order to attend to the sail.

The wind had died down to 10 knots but was still stubbornly from the SE. Then I noticed that the wind information was not appearing on the chart plotter. The display over the companionway entrance was working fine. I restarted the chart plotter and the ST60 wind instrument but that did not help. It looked like a Seatalk connection problem that would have to wait until tomorrow.

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