I milked the wind for all it was worth and both the chart plotter and Dave's "GPS Data Plotter" software are remarkably consistent in estimating the distance to Mar de Plata as 497 miles. Fortunately the light breeze is pushing the boat on an arc from NW to NE so we should not lose ground during the next few hours. According to the latest grib file we should get 24 hours of moderate northerly winds starting at about 9 AM and I am looking forward to that because we'll be able to set a course to Mar de Plata sailing off the strong side of the rig (starboard).
I got up at 6 AM and found the wind to still be light - less than 8 knots - as expected. After two cups of coffee I got to work assembling the tools and materials for the day's rigging work. Thirty minutes later the wind picked up a bit so I rolled out some sail engaged Jeff, and had a third cup of coffee to see how things would develop. Soon I was up the mast to swap the broken section wire with my second and last spare. I encountered the sort of problem to be expected when sizes are mixed up. I had replaced the 3/8 (10mm) wire with 5/16 (8mm) wire and had been forced to use a correspondingly smaller rigging bolt (toggle pin) because the 3/8" bolt was too big for the 5/16" swaged end. I discovered that the smaller pin had slipped through the tang at the mast enough so that the pin had been held by only one side of the tang. I improvised with a shackle at the tang mating with a shackle at the swaged end of the wired, and I moused the shackles with s/s wire. I made the new splice with 6 bulldog clamps instead of 4 because I was able to rob two clamps from the inner forestay which by now was being held by only 2 wires. Soon the spliced jury rig was in place and snug, though not tight because we were on the leeward side of the boat which meant that the shroud could be expected to be a bit loose. I was careful not to over tighten the end clamps because I had noticed that the inner forestay wire had broken just above the top clamp, and I figured that I had created a fatal stress point with that clamp.
I then raised the mainsail after playing games with the halyard wrapped around several steps. Soon we were sailing at over 4 knots to the NW. I then turned my attention to the inner forestay, cutting the two last wires, lashing the upper part to a mast ring, and throwing the lower part over the side after recovering the bottle screw.
The entire effort took 5 hours including cleanup, and the shroud splice represented the last shot in the locker as far as rigging fixes go. Back at the cockpit I monitored the boat over a cup of hot chocolate and muesli bar and watched with great pleasure as the boat headed almost toward Mar de Plata, making over 4 knots on COG 300T. We had crossed back across lon 50W. Outside it was a lovely day with clear skies and bright sunshine. From the pattern of winds during our becalming it appeared that the center of the high had passed right over us. The cabin temperature was 68.2F.
At noon our position was 43S36, 050W24, giving us a n-n distance of 66 miles in the very good direction of 303T. After a 6 hour period of calm we were again making good time toward the NW on a northerly wind that was expected to last 18 more hours as it gradually backed to the NW. We were 470 miles from Mar del Plata.
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