At 1 PM local time I prepared the bunk after finishing an Arnold Swartzenegger movie then went on deck for a final look around. I felt wind which the instrument was reporting to be at about 9 knots. I decided to have a go at sailing because I had little to lose but a bit of time. The visibility was excellent in the bright moonlight and working on deck was easy.
The boat was pointing to the south so I rolled out a bit of headsail, gybed the boat, then set the sail and engaged Jeff. The sail filled beautifully and Jeff held the course and we were now making about 2 knots to the NW. I had a cup of hot chocolate at the steering station enjoying the setting and watching Pachuca as she silently plied through the water. 90 minutes later as I was preparing for sleep the wind died down. I went up and saw that the sea had become so calm that the swells were low enough and long enough to cause very little agitation to the sail when it was overpowered. On that basis I kept the boat keep sailing on a beam reach to just to the north of west, at about 1.5 knots. That was better than drifting to the SW at 1 knot. We had already lost 3 miles to the south.
I checked the boat every 2 hours and she kept moving throughout the night. In the morning over coffee and coast I watched in amazement as the boat sailed and steered itself with only 4 and 5 knots of wind. I had never seen the boat move in such light conditions before. The key to it was the calm sea.
I then spent 90 minutes searching for weather faxes. I could hear the signal from Wiluna, Western Australia, but the fax was too grainy. I had better luck with Chile. I missed the first half of their schedule because I was too slow to try their lower frequency, but I hung in there and the next fax was the isobars one that I had been wanting. The Chile weather faxes extend to the east only as far as 55W, and I was at 54W58, but that was enough for me to see the high under which we were sitting. Then the wind picked up another knot or two and I was able to put the boat slightly into the wind. After rolling out a bit more headsail we were making 1.8 knots to WNW. I could see opportunities during the next 2 days if I was willing to play the winds.
It was another warm, clear, and brilliant day. This was the calmest deep water sea that I had experienced since crossing the North Pacific from Hawaii to Juan de Fuca. I was now trying to escape from tranquil, peaceful, pleasant, safe and relaxing conditions. Ah, if only all challenges in sailing were this easy! For the day I was planning a bath, change of clothes, a beard trim, and my first attempt at a self haircut ever. I opened the cabin and forward hatches to air out the boat, which was amazingly free of mold considering what it had been through.
While I was spending some time in the cockpit enjoying the sun I noticed that the wind had picked up to close to 9 knots, which I figured might be enough to carry the mainsail. The mainsail would reduce the weather helm, help us point better into the wind, and thereby increase the speed of the apparent wind. It took a bit of doing because of the halyard-mast step problem. I used the engine to point the boat into the wind so that the halyard would be pushed away from the mast when I eased the tension. I then learned two new things to make the future hoists easier. First, I must completely roll in the headsail before the hoist. I learned this after rushing to the mast to remove the lanyard holding down the peak of the mast. While I was there the boat moved off the wind, the headsail filled, and before I knew it we were headed downwind. What saved me from a difficult upper step halyard wrap was the second thing that I learned. By oversight I had left both running backstays hard on. (They are ropes that pass from the aft corners of the boat to tangs about 2/3 up the mast.) The taut backstays had acted as barriers that prevented the loose main halyard from swinging side to side. Wow, what a help that is!
After the sails and Jeff were set I saw that we had gained about 0.7 knot in speed (Not much in absolute terms but a 25% increase in speed) and we were pointing at least 20 degrees better, now on course 295T. This was 40 degrees off target but given that I had expected to be lying ahull drifting to the SW all day I wasn't complaining. The apparent wind was about 10 knots and given our position within a big, lazy, stable high, I was hopeful that it would last all day. Schedules aside, the sailing was splendid. I planned to spend a lot of time in the sun with bare legs and maybe even bare arms. For the first time in many weeks I put out the fishing lure to try my luck at trolling.
I spent an hour in the cockpit having an all-over sunbath. I found that the sun had just enough warmth in it to keep me from getting cold. Halfway through the session I had a salt water cockpit bath and after drying off, instead of rushing into the cockpit to get dressed I stayed in the sun for another 30 minutes to warm up and really dry off. Afterwards I trimmed my beard, moustache, eyebrows, ears, an nose. I had a go at cutting my hair but of course found it difficult. Nevertheless I got a lot of hair off and finished looking fairly presentable, from the front at least.
By then the wind had dropped to below 6 knots but the boat just kept sailing on. Even the boom was behaving. However, it was not doing us much good because the wind had backed and now we were headed WSW. Time to tack. I tacked and that yielded a satisfactory course to the NE at 0.7 knots. But the wind had dropped further and was plumbing 4.5 knots. The sails were barely managing to carry on and the situation would not be tenable for the night. However, I decided to hang on in case the wind picked up later. Jeff didn't have enough way to function, so I disconnected him and lashed the wheel hard to port and found that the course held steady.
At noon our position was 41S43, 055W09, representing a n-n distance of 35 miles to the west at 274T. We were 250 miles from MlP and 50 miles east of the start of the continental shelf.
I managed to keep the sails up during the lull where the wind had dropped to below 5 knots and in the late afternoon we were sailing to the NE at 0.8 knots with the wind at about 6 knots. I would keep the mainsail into the night knowing that if I had to drop it I would be doing it in bright moonlight.
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1 comment:
Exhausting getting up every three hours lone sailor!
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