Day 72 - On the Move

The boat sailed to the SE all night and I managed to spend over 10 hours in the cot. I felt that I needed rest so all I had was a cup of cocoa for dinner and went straight to bed at about 9 PM. Before retiring I rolled in a little more of the headsail out of concern for an unexpectred wind change during the night, yet the boat still moved satisfactorily at over 3 knots. The evening grib file indicated that the wind would veer toward the north and strengthen through the day, reaching a hefty 28 knots. It would be all downwind work using the headsail. I would drop the whisker pole at about noon in anticipation of the strengthening wind. The 2.30 AM weather fax showed a more conventional picture of a big high to the north and a low to the west, working together to provide the westerly winds for us.

During the evening's Sailmail session I got the great news that Matt had made it around the Horn, along with a copy of his blog entry of the achievement. Learning that he made the rounding lifted my spirits, for his sake and also probably because it was a very encouraging reminder that it is there, it is real, it is close, and it can be done. What a tough and proficient sailor he is. What attitude. Anybody sailor who thinks that gales in a 27 ft boat can be fun is very special indeed.

But on a sadder note this is part of a message that I received from friends in San Diego: "Just saw in Lectronic Latitude that the Westsail 32 "TLC" with the 84 year old gentlemen headed for the Horn was dismasted about 500 miles from Easter Island ...not sure which direction. He is fine but help is headed his way." It looks like he will be OK, which is the most important thing. I wondered how he got out his distress message without a mast to support his HF antenna. Maybe he used his EPIRB to attract attention. The "Lectronic Latitude" is I think the internet version of the publication "Latitude 38" for anyone who wants to look up the story.

At 9 AM I went topside to fire up the engine and have a look around. The headsail was happily pulling the boat along and everything else looked OK. In contrast with the previous day of more relaxed and carefree sailing under sunny, dry, and gentle conditions, this day had reverted to the usual overcast and drizzle. I was back to the wet weather regime: hatches down and locked, companionway closed when not in use, nav station shower curtain back up, and full wet weather gear when going on deck. There would be no refueling operation today but I planned to bake bread. I was now wearing two sets of track suit bottoms over the Icebraker body stocking and would add the heavy navy wool sweater over my chest if I got chilly.

After shutting down the engine I visited the foredeck with two large adjustable wrenches. As I expected the jury rig forestay was loose. I gave it 6 turns of the screw. Both parts of the stay had been coiled and bent so I figured that it would take a few days to straighten out the kinks. There was still 1" of adjustment in the bottle screw.

Just before the noon report I decided that it was time to gybe the boat. Our heading was 160T though our COG was better at about 145T. That meant dropping the whisker pole. I eased the jib sheet then at the mast used the cord to open the latch at the outer end of the pole, but try as I may I could not get the pole off the sheet. I went back to the cockpit to try an idea from Bob Carrol and rolled in the headsail completely. This took the end of the pole forward toward the headstay, so I eased the jib sheet and "klunk", the pole dropped onto the deck. Easy. I freed everything up, lashed the pole, and returned to the cockpit pleased that without sail we had kept making way and Jeff had continued to steer us. I took over, gybed the boat then set it up on its new heading, and when I made it to the chart plotter I saw that we were on a very good course of 100T, good enough to lay Tierra del Fuego if not quite the Horn. However, the wind was forecast to veer toward the NW and strengthen, so eventually I would have to actually ease off the wind in order to lay the Horn. With only 1/3 of the headsail rolled out and running before a moderate wind of 15 knots we were making 4.5 knots, no doubt aided by the current. I'd like to have been more aggressive about our boat speed but I did not want to risk damaging the headsail.

At noon our position was 51S22, 094W58, giving us a n-n distance of 67 miles. The direction had been very good at 136T, almost exactly SE. The barometer was at 1014 hPa and falling. According to the paper chart we were 1075 miles from the Horn. The chart plotter and laptop software put us at less that 1020 miles from the Horn. Either way, we were approaching a milestone.

It turned out to be a superb afternoon of sailing. The wind direction held steadier than I had expected and until 8 PM we were averaging about 4.5 knots on a course within 10 degrees of the Horn. According the the previous night's grib file the wind party would be over at about midnight. However, I was looking forward to this night's grib file which I would download at about 9 PM.

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