Posting on behalf of Shangri-La…
They are becalmed 800 miles out from Punta del Este, Uruguay. Tentative plan - After a stop in Uruguay to repair the engine, they will travel to Buenos Aires arriving approximately May 3.
Things are good and everyone is doing well.
Posting on behalf of the Shangri-La…
The Shangri-La is having a minor technical issue with their satellite phone and thus they have limited, if any, access to phone calls or emails until they reach South America where they can fix the problem. There are scheduled to arrive on approximately April 30, so not to worry if you do not hear from them before then. They are doing well, just out of touch for a couple of weeks.
Day 25
I was on for the 4am to 7am shift. There was no wind. Francis had just furled the headsail and lashed the tiller to port as I came on. He passed on all the relevant info and went to bed.
In the center of the main saloon there is a rectangular table. It adjusts to our needs, swiveling left or right, up or down. In the down position it fills the void of the U shaped couch and has a cushion designed to cover it making the space a bed 6.5′ by 4′. Stevo bought a couple pillows, threw them in and dubbed it “Hippy Time.” As we only eat out of bowls and usually on deck we haven’t missed the table one bit.
Having no wind and therefore nothing to do at the helm, I dove into Hippy Time. Of course, I would get up every twenty minutes or so to pan the horizon for ships. Two hour later I moved up on deck to watch the sun rise. At this point there was full cloud cover except a slot at the horizon where the sun rose casting an amber glow that spread across the underside of the dark clouds.
We were surrounded by squalls. They created enough wind for a bit of headsail and 3 knots, but it was erratic. Every ten minutes Shangri-La would jibe. First a 10 knot wind from the East then a squall to the North would overpower it and give us 15 knots from the Northeast. It was a lot of work for 3 knots speed.
At 7am I was glad to wake Stevo for his watch. He took one look around, furled the headsail, lashed the tiller and came inside. Having opted for the work smarter not harder school of thought he started making bread. For breakfast I mixed an egg and some cheese with rice and beans left over from the day before. Stevo usually makes one big meal a day and we fend for ourselves the rest of the time. That might sound sparse, but believe me it is not. We are always eating.
Stevo’s big meal today will be 2 fat loaves of bread and a lamb roast. (Unfortunately, our fish average is still suffering.) In addition we have snacks stashed everywhere - candy, cookies and crackers. I can’t believe I haven’t exhausted those stores.
As Stevo’s shift came to an end around 11am the rain had subsided and the skies were beginning to clear. The tropical sun was starting to burn through and the wind 10-15kn was starting to settle out of the East/Southeast. We put out some headsail deciding to wait on the main sail until we were confident of the winds consistency.
Excited about the wind we let out the headsail too quickly and the furling line jammed. Stevo took the helm and Francis and I went forward. Luckily the sail had unfurled all the way, but it also meant that we could not reduce sail if needed. To be prudent we released the halyard and dropped the sail to the deck, flaked it and lashed it to the lifeline. Then we got out the staysail, hanked it on and hoisted it up on the inner forestay. Yes, it is a smaller headsail, but a headsail nonetheless. Then I worked on the jammed line. It was about 4 wraps around the forestay below the furling drum. I sat out on the bow pulpit and used some splicing tools to pry it all out. In the meantime the wind had proved itself steady and Stevo and Francis ran up the mainsail to the second reef. We averaged 6 knots in a 15-knot breeze for the rest of the day.
Francis cam on shift and set up the wind vane for the first time in days and stayed on deck to read “Troubleshooting Diesel Engines.” Stevo took the bread from the oven and made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then joined Francis on deck to read his book. I had a PB&J and retired to a much-needed rest in hippy time. I probably should have been writing with that time, but it felt like homework and I’ve never been good with that.
An hour or so later we all gathered around some PB&Js again. Conversation led to checking emails. Our friend Chris Roe in NY was due to give us a detailed satellite weather forecast. (Thank you Chris for helping us find the wind.)
While downloading emails I could hear the wind generator regulator buzzing, as it should. But the control panel wasn’t registering any charge coming in to the batteries. Something was wrong. So Francis and I removed two-wall panel and searched for a loose wire or anything out of place. All was in order except as Francis discovered the 30amp fuse to the wind generator was fried. I replaced it and everything seems back on track. However it is one more thing for us to keep an eye on.
15:00 to 19:00 I was back on watch at the helm. A steady East/ Southeast wind at 15 knots we ran a broad reach with the genoa headsail (that had been reloaded on the forestay during a calm that coincided with my nap) a staysail and the mail at the second reef. I steered be wind vane and maintained 6 knots speed at a 250-degree heading.
Down below Stevo postponed the lamb roast in favor of Francis volunteering to make dinner. He made a stew with canned vegetables, canned gravy, spam, and the rest of the leftover rice. I ate a full bowl. Thank you Francis, but I imagine the circumstances surrounding me having another bowl would look something like day ten in a life raft. I washed it down with some tang and lay down in my bunk to write hoping it will digest.
As I fall asleep I think I’m OK. My next shift is in 4 and 1/2 hours.
We left Cape Town one month ago today. We have been out to sea for 21 days straight now from Luderitz. No one has buckled yet and it doesn’t seem likely that anyone will. But I see how it could happen. We have averaged 2 miles an hour for the last 3 days.
There is a fine line here that I want to be sure not to cross. I don’t want any of our families to worry, indeed there is no need. We are in great shape. I have all the chocolate I need, Francis has all the mango he could want and Stevo… well he has plenty of what he needs. After all he provisioned us. We get along great and are having fun. Having said that I don’t want anyone thinking that we are at day camp. We have chosen a great adventure and with that, of course, expected are great challenges. Indeed what we have in the greatest abundance are challenges.
Weather is usually one such challenge. Analyzing weatherfax and trying to guess from the skies presented provides a less than adequate accuracy rating. Bottom line you never know what you’re going to get until your getting it. Lately it has been nothing much. We just barely keep moving. If we try to put out more sail they become too heavy and the wind isn’t able to fill them. They collapse and fill with the swell producing noise and wear, but no speed. So we wait.
Some nights this week we have had a few squalls. These small cells of weather can contain powerful winds. Always we do our best to avoid them, but sometimes they are on you and all you can do is reduce sail till they pass. At least they provide a little action. But it’s hard not to wish for heavy weather when you’re bobbing in the swell for days on end. I look back at our Shakedown around the cape. It was like being a submarine for 2 days. The rail buried. There was water up to my hips as I climbed to the bow to free a snagged sheet line. It was great fun. Careful what you wish for and take what you get I guess. To that end we use this calm to read “Storm Tactics", and “Heavy Weather sailing,” etc.
On Monday we put up the spinnaker. It had treated us so well the day before. The seam I had repaired held great. Unfortunately as we hoisted it the edge caught on he windlass (the winch crank that pulls up the anchor) and a 30-foot tear opened up as the wind filled it. It was like slow motion watching that. The light parachute silk sail would have helped us go 5 knots. Now back to our heavy Dacron Genoa and 2 knots.
On Tuesday we turned on the engine to charge the batteries. It has been 6 days since we last charged it and power has been fine. But once a week we need to boost the batteries when we charge the 2 computers and run the fridge freezer for a day. All went well as far as the batteries. All that has been straightened out, but now, a new problem. The engine would go into reverse gear but not forward. We have a transmission problem. No big deal. We can fix it – it’s just another challenge. We are in contact with Stevo’s engineer buddy Marty “the Chief.” He is walking us through the repair via email. I’ll keep you posted on that; we are still in the process of diagnosis.
Wherever you are everyday will present some challenges. It’s hard not to see them as setbacks, but out here I can embrace them as learning experiences. Part of my quest is to master the self-sufficiency of ocean sailing. I don’t want it to be easy. The harder it is the more I learn.
So realistically there is no hardship here, just some lessons to be learned. When it comes down to it we are surrounded by luxury. As the boat bobs in the swell, we swing out the boom and use it as a diving board. Looking into that brilliant blue you know that all is good. At night the stars go all the way to the horizon. The Milky Way is liquid in its density. Shooting stars leave a streak across the sky and there are so many you have to keep track of the wishes. The only wishes I have left are for the people who aren’t here with me.
The prospect of 30 more days at sea doesn’t daunt us. To the contrary every 10 degrees of longitude fires our imaginations for the challenges and adventures to ahead. Proud of the work it has taken this far and the work it will yet take to arrive at Buenos Aires we have earned these adventures.
With regard to sailing we are running dead down wind. Heading 275 degrees. 21′29.5 south, 19′32.0 west. At this position we can expect 10-15 knot regular easterly trade winds with a 4% chance of calms. What we are experiencing for the last 3 days is 5 to 10 knots. Just not enough wind to have the main and headsail, so we have just the headsail poled out to the port side. When the wind picks up to 10-15 we hoist the main out to the starboard side, which requires furling the headsail and turning into the wind so there is no pressure on the main as you hoist.
The swell has been moderate or calm. Never more than a 10-foot rolling swell. Squalls all around, but very few hit us. You can see so far that they look bigger than they are. When they get to you they are spread out and not nearly as ominous as you thought.
Oh, yeah, one more challenge - we haven’t caught a fish in a week.
Thanks to Chris Roe for his wishes of tight lines and flat sails.