Day 28 - Spray Dodger Up and Under 1000 Miles

It was a great night of sailing - and sleeping.

In the early evening I had a look outside and the situation was good. The boat was still moving well but the wind had dropped just that little bit to make the ride smoother and there were no longer those big swells occasionally causing the stern of the boat to slew around or to slap the boat hard on the side. The nearly full moon was out and I could see plenty of stars. Down below the cabin had dried out during the day. Even the trousers I was wearing felt dry and not clammy. I had a very good Sailmail session at 6.45 pm via the Africa station which lifted my spirits. Because I as no longer bound to the midnight transmissions via Chile I was able to turn in early after my half bottle of wine, a tasty and satisfying meal (It is the same rice and beans every night, but I love it.), and a movie (The French Connection). Bed was very comfortable. I had moved to the port bunk and would be pinned more or less against the back cushion without being rolled around from side to side. The bedding was dry, warm, and inviting. It was like diving into a swimming pool of sleep.

Nevertheless I had set the alarm for 3 hours to check for a wind change that would set us on a different course. All was well so I returned to the cot and slept until just after 4 AM, dawn. I check two things when I wake up. The first is to feel the motion of the boat and see if we are still sailing, because it will mean that we still have wind and the self steering is still working. The second is to go to the chart plotter and see our track. This morning all was well and we were still running east at lat 36S04, about where I wanted the boat to be. I set the alarm to wake me in time for the 6.30 AM SAMMNet session but I didn't need any more sleep and got back up out of bed to start the day. We were moving a sedate 3.5 kts but according to the grib file the wind would veer slightly and strengthen over the next 12 hours.

I got a reply from Sam of SAMMNet thanking me for the boat information that I had sent to them. He and Graham will be listening for my transmission. I noted that Sam was transmitting from "Simonstown".

I cannot resist including the following message that I received last nigh from Victor, a literary and philosophical powerhouse living in comfortable obscurity and full of Shakespeare's "wise saws and modern instances":

----------
"Why does Captain Robert venture beyond the horizon where few would dare?
Why does he go to the very precipitous edge of the world?
Why does he endure the furious tempests of the Heavens and the Great Waters?
It is to see the Wonders of the Deep, and to experience the Hand of the
Almighty .
It is to teach us *Geography,* the exotic nations and foreign climes.
Who would have heard of Tristan da Cunha?
Even my grandkids have now seen it (courtesy of Google.and Robert )
Teaching GEOGRAPHY. That's why!
A far far more noble way than to wage wars.

Godspeed to Cape Town and a Merry Xmas ."
----------

I made contact with Graham at SAMMNet at the 6.30 AM session. He called for me specifically and I responded immediately. The quality of the transmission was challenging but adequate. Graham asked me for my position, speed, heading, wind direction and strength and barometric pressure, and I'll be ready with this information in future sessions. He then gave me a very comprehensive report on my weather situation through Saturday. I now know that the S Atlantic High of 1022 Mb is centered 900 miles to my NW at 24S, 013W, and a deep low of 982 Mb is passing 800 miles to the SE at 45S, 010E. This represents the first comprehensive picture of the synoptic situation that I have had during this passage and is of great value to me. The wind predictions through Saturday 1800 are good. Tonight I can expect winds of 24-30 kts but no gale winds are predicted. There will be a couple of bouts of winds in the 10-20 kt range, which could present problems at the low end of the range, but I might get lucky. Graham is transmitting from north of Port Elizabeth near Pt Alfred.

Wow, is it great to be connected to a net! I will get weather forecasts and maritime warnings and they will keep tabs on my progress for safety reasons. (One of their questions was the make and model of my EPIRB.) I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy at the moment. A few days ago I noted the contrasting situations of myself and Jeanne. Each day of progress puts me closer to certainty and security. For Jeanne each day of progress takes her further into uncertainty and peril, which is what the Horn adventure is about. Having said that, and having Been There and Done That, I prefer my current situation.

I then began to dither on whether or not to try to put up the spray dodger. There was a following wind of 15 kts and the proper and safe thing to do was to wait until the lull on Saturday. On the other hand I was anxious to see the outcome and I figured that I could do it safely, so I decided to do it and the sooner the better because the wind was going to pick up. Although water was not spraying over the cabin I suited up completely because I wanted to eliminate the possibility of any distractions from spray. The first task was to fasten the leading edge of the dodger which involves three separate bolt ropes: the main one across the middle and two short ones on the outside of the lines running from the mast into the cockpit. The original design is that zippers are used to connect the dodger to the middle and left bolt ropes, and the bolt rope at the right is not zippered bt is simply slid into the track. Because the left zipper was jammed up I had sewn that bolt rope directly to the dodger. I slipped the left bolt rope into the track, move the dodger to the right enough for the right bolt rope to get started at the other end of the track, centered the dodger, zipped up the main zipper, and that was the end of the biggest hurdle. The plan had worked. Thereafter it was a matter of putting the canvas over the frame, folding the frame back toward the cockpit, zipping the dodger to the two overhead bars of the frame, then strapping down the sides. I did most of that work by standing at the companionway.

The result looked pretty good. With the secure leading edge and the hard downward pull of two independent lines on each side of the cockpit the canvas was taut and the grab bar across the back of the frame felt firm. The chances were good that the repaired dodger would see me through to Cape Town.

At 10 AM I shortened sail quite a bit. The wind had picked up and was expected to strengthen and I saw no need to drive the boat too hard. We were back down to 5-5.5 kts.

At noon our position was 36S06, 002W14, giving us a n-n distance of 116 miles to the east (092T). We were 1025 miles from CT and would without a doubt be under 1000 miles by nightfall. I expected the biggest milestone of the trip tomorrow. (Hint: Check out the longitude.) The barometer had fallen 2 points to 1013 HPa. We were racing to the east at over 6 kts with a strengthening wind and I would reduce sail soon. I saw on the DC meter that surpluses of 10 and 11 amps were being delivered to the house bank. I turned on the refrigerator and was still getting a surplus of 5 amps. The wind charger has been very good. It does not normally deliver the amperage of the solar panels at their peak, but it delivers 24 hours a day with a good wind.

By the time I reduced sail 30 minutes later the wind was up to close to 30 kts. The sea would soon rise to the occasion so I expected an interesting night. Anyway, for now our speed was averaging less than 6 kts and the boat was riding better. We were on a port tack which was good because if the sliding hatch were overwhelmed by a wave the water would wind up in the galley and not the navigation station.

In the middle of the afternoon I noticed that things were getting quieter, even though we were still being frequently hit by heavy waves on the deck. When I noted our speed dropping below 5 kts during the lulls I rolled out a bit more sail. I then poured myself a cup of wine and began monitoring the wind and speed numbers. I was hoping that we had seen the worst of it and we might have a reasonably quiet night.

The work I did to seal the dorade vents was successful. I noticed that was not being dripped on while in the bunk after those cabin-sweeping sheets of water. The sealing of the two window had also worked, although there was still the problem of water dripping - and sometimes pouring - from the ceiling area whenever a sheet of water swept over the sliding hatch.

I had a few thoughts about that sliding hatch problem. I cannot redesign the main hatch but it seems to me that I could prevent 95% of the problem if I had an improved spray dodger design. The problem with the current one is that it relies on Mickey Mouse press studs to hold the material on the sides to the coaming. These studs break, the screws used to fix them into the coaming come out, something changes and the press stud on the canvas will no longer meet its partner on the coaming, etc. These problems are exacerbated by the natural and useful practice of putting coiled ropes, gloves, or whatever in the inside of the dodger. The result is that at the moment there is nothing holding the dodger material to the coaming on the sides, which means that water has a free ride to the main hatch. When I have a new spray dodger made in Fremantle I will work hard with Debbie to ensure there are more robust attachments along the sides. I cannot see why zippered bolt ropes in tracks cannot be used on the sides. They certainly work well at the front.

At 4.30 PM we were 1000 miles from Cape Town.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com