DAY 8 - Out Rigging

Yesterday afternoon turned out to be much better than the morning. The wind stiffened o 13-16 kt and I found myself sailing ESE with the occasional knock to the SE. I was in the cabin when the wind kicked up. The boat began to agitate left and right and I knew that it was time to go up and have a look. She wasn't exactly on her ear (ie heeled hard over) but I remembered the advice of Ron to take it easier on the rig, and of Dieter, who is happy to amble along gently and always gets to where he wants to go. I put in a reef, the boat still seemed unhappy, so I rolled in the jib to a 1.5. That did it. Pachuca began to amble along comfortably at 4.5-5.0 kt. I doubt that I had lost more than a half a knot in speed. I'm starting to listen to the boat more.

I had a refreshing nap then decided to investigate a problem with my port spinnaker winch. When I bring it on hard to hoist the main (because the jib winch is occupied with the jib sheet) once it a while it seems to jump a gear with a clank. I wasn't too happy about taking a winch apart while under sail but it was a pleasant day and the boat was heeled such that loose bits would tend to fall inboard. I lifted out the drum then dismantled the inner frame to where all of the gears, clutches, bearings, and springs were exposed. Everything was in order: no broken gears, clutches intact, all springs present, bearings intact, etc. I was pleased to see that everything was still clean and lubricated. I managed to put the winch back together without losing anything and used the special tool that Lenny had made to screw the top cap down extra tight. Then I stayed in the cockpit, my back against the Zodiac and the binnacle, one leg propped against the crossover to the companion way, enjoying the scene: bright sunny day with perfect temperature, steady 15 kt wind raising white caps here and there, Pachuca comfortably slicing through the short sea that had been built up by the wind. When sailing is good it's really good. (And when it's bad try to remember when it's really good.)

At about sunset I noticed that the Monitor control lines were loose. The knot at the lower end of one of the lines had unraveled. I would have to feed the line around a block at the top of the vertical tube, down the tube, around another block, then through a hole at the pendulum just above the water line, then tie a knot. This was not a job for nightfall while sailing through rough seas. I switched on the auto pilot and would deal with it the next day,

The 7.30 PM session with Richard and Jeff was a good one. Richard had little wind and figured that he was in the middle of a high pressure area. He had decided to heave to and let the weather come to him. I told him that I agreed completely because our boats are too slow for chasing after wind and weather. I mentioned to Jeff the Monitor line problem. Richard overheard and warned me to lash the water paddle to one side because someone he knew had almost lost a finger then the pendulum swung violently while he was working down there. I thanked him for his advice and told him that he may have saved me from a serious injury. I told Richard that I was trailing a grounding wire through the water and how was he receiving me? He said that reception was very good and much better than the previous night.

At 10.30 PM I had a radio session with Christopher Boscole. Reception was pretty good other than other modem communication occasionally cutting in on the same frequency. We experimented with various other frequencies. Chris agreed to provide me with the time at which I can download the fax schedule from San Francisco which will be very useful to me.

After the session with Chris I tacked the boat. The wind had been veering and I had been heading SE. I was now on a starboard tack heading NNW, with a single reef in the mainsail the jib at a no. 2.

At 3 AM I went for a check and saw that Pachuca was doing over 6 kt against a 21 kt wind. Much as I hated to go on the foredeck at night I put in the second reef mercifully with no dramas. The boat was still over stressed so I rolled the jib right in to about a no. 4 for a quiet night. I remembered Jeff's advice and moved the sheet car to the forward end of the track. The autopilot worked flawlessly all night and thankfully there were no serious wind shifts to affect the sail trim. (The autohelm steers to an absolute course. It should also be able to steer to the wind but when I try that I get the response "No Data", meaning that it is not getting information from the ST60 wind system. I'll check the Seatalk connections first chance I get.)

This high wind took me by surprise. It's ferocity must come from a Low. I looked at the weather faxes and have concluded, rightly or wrongly, that I am getting the effects of a storm with an enormous span far to the north and somewhat to the east of me. The fact that the wind is veering (clockwise) would be consistent with this.

In the morning Pachuca was still plodding along NNW at about 4 kt. After breakfast I faced the task of reconnecting the Monitor line. I looked at the job and it did not look very appealing. The big problem would be to reach down to near the water line thread the line and tie the knot while the stern of the boat was pitching in the high seas. I hove the boat to which was easy to do because I was under short sail. That cut the boat speed to under 2 it, slower than a terrified man can swim. I stripped down to my underclothes, put on my harness, and clipped the other end of the tether to the rear starboard saddle which was strong and would give me more reach. I managed to feed the line down with amazing ease. The slowly, step by step, climbed outside the pushpit, and stood on the lower supports of the Monitor facing aft. From there I managed to crouch down, feed the line through the hole, and tie a simple knot with one hand. I climbed back into the cockpit and soon had the Monitor steering the boat.

Because of the heavy sea and in spite of the reduced boat speed Pachuca was taking sheets of water along the deck back to the cabin. And the leaks came back. The dripping over the stove was as bad as ever, in spite of my having sealed the vent with fiberglass. The pesky drip from the starboard cabin vent was back. And to complete the disappointment the boat was still shipping a lot of water when beating hard to windward. The bad news having been dispensed with I'll now describe the good news.

There is no leak over navigation table - so far, at least. This is the leak that Arnold and I treated with epoxy during Arnold's last week on Pachuca. The aft top shelf in the head is bone dry. This is the leak that Arnold and I treated by re bedding the stanchion above the shelf. Likewise the stanchion re bedding over the shelf in the wet weather closet seems to have stopped that leak. I then inspected the sail lockers. The port one was bone dry. The starboard one had traces of moisture - not enough to flow - along the stringer and the bottom of the locker. The moisture seemed to originate from the area where the cables of the electric winch pass from the winch (no leak there) to the battery. This one I consider minor and will deal with it in Fremantle where I'll be able to remove the sails from the boat and strip out that horrible stick-on fabric whose main function seems to be to grow mold.

But Wait! There is more good news on the leaks. Even though the remedies for the leaks over the stove and into the bilge have failed at least I have made progress by elimination. The stove and vent leaks are not acceptable. I'll probably strip that part of the ceiling during this passage so that I can see what is going on. Removing ceiling panels really clutters up the boat but at least being solo I don't have to make anybody else's life miserable.

The leak into the bilge is definitely from the rear. I have eliminated the water intake hose as the cause because I shut its thru-hull valve days ago. I noticed today a little water sloshing in the lazarette. Any water in there will work its way into the bilge via openings for hoses. But would it account for so much water? Another possibility is water working its way through hoses as the stern bobs in and out of the water. I plan to fit thru-hull valves on all of these hoses. Other possibilities are more exotic (and difficult to fix): (1) Water entering around the rudder post? (Then why does it leak only when beating to weather?) (2) Water coming going up the cooling exhaust hose into the water muffler that may be leaking? I don't know. But I'll try to solve it in Port Townsend even if I have to engage professional help.