Windhorse Sailing

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.