Day-7
24hr. Run=154
Position: Latitude-07*23’South =Longitude .92*33’West
Weather: Wind: S.E. 10-20kts.
Seas: 4-6 feet S.E.
Cabin Temp: 76*-81* Sunny with small puffy white trade wind clouds.
Barometer-1008mb
Day-8
24hr.Run=154NM.
Position: Latitude-09*15′ South=Longitude-94*16′ West
Weather: Wind S.E. 8-20kts.
Seas: SE 5-7ft.
Cabin Temp: 75*-78* In the am a few squalls about but none hit us and by 10am it was full on blue skies and sun.
Barometer=1010mb
Day-9
24hr.Run=150NM
Position: Latitude: 10*54’South= Longitude: 96*07West
Weather: Wind 8-18kts
Seas: 4-6ft.
Cabin Temp: 73*-78*
Barometer 1010mb.
Total Miles sailed so far=1266NM.
Miles sailed last three days=458NM
Distance left to go to turning point before heading to the Horn=1952NM
Top speed so far=9.8 kts.
THE REST OF THE STORY:
DAY-7
I Took a reef in the main this am as we were a little overpowered and it made life aboard so much more comfortable. Now both main and mizzen are reefed and the Genoa is rolled in about 20% to keep tear rolled into avoid making it larger. The staysail is full on at 100%, and we are sailing great.
More flying fish and squid on deck this am. They would make fine bait but the freezer is still to full to fish!
Got an email from a friend and he says “Fxxk” the wind generator as he knows of a power company that invested in them and nearly bankrupted the utility. The sad part of that was the people on the system that had had nearly the cheapest rates in the nation before the free wind power have watched their rates double in just a couple of years and struggle under huge debt. Having said all that I truly miss mine and hope to get it going again.
Each morning I use about a quart of water rinsing the three solar panels off with a sponge, as the salt spray reduces their effectiveness. Even at 80* I’m noticing the cooling of going further south, and the moisture in the air is starting to make things feel cool and damp aboard.
DAY-8
With squalls in the area a sailor needs to be a bit more cautious. I normally reef down a little more at night, and mental go through the drill in my mind as to how I can get all sail down and in what order as it can be very “chaotic” if overtaken at night while asleep by a severe squall. Radar is your first line of defense, because the size and distance they are from you can be measured and tracked.
Typically the power of the wind in a squall is pretty much determined by the size. My experience is anything two miles or less in size seldom requires reducing sail. The small ones you can just sail off downwind in them until they pass over, normally no more than 20-minutes.
A squall that is 2-4 miles across can be more serious especially if you are already sailing hard as the wind strength will most likely double for 20-30 minutes as it goes over you.
When the squall is 6-8+miles across it is time to get serious about taking amounts of sail off once again, especially if you are already sailing hard and fast. I know of several boats that were caught in large line squalls such as this and had all their sails destroyed as they failed to get them down in time and watched them blow out in winds in excess of 60kts. Once again radar allows you the ability to know the size and distance away night or day.
DAY-9
This morning when I awoke things were quiet aboard and we had slowed to just over 4kts. I knew now was my chance to roll the Genoa out and patch the sail. While bouncing around clipped into the bow pulpit I applied sail tape to both sides of the tear that was about 6 inches long and one layer of sail material glued down with contact cement before getting it rolled back up on the furler as the wind had piped back up. Repair on the fly to be continued.
Several hours later there was another lull in the wind strength, so I eased the sail out just enough to get at the tear and did a little dance on the bow platform juggling the can of contact cement and my chisel as I applied the cement and eventually the second piece of 5oz. sail material to the other side. It was then that the real fun began sewing the patches together on a plunging bow, possibly much like doing needle point on a “pogo stick”!! After about one hour the patch was complete and Sailors Run was ready to go with a Genoa that could now be rolled all the way out. “Yahoo”!!
Today is shower day as I take one every three days whether I need it or not, and trust me I’m doing the
“right thing
Just to revisit my Around Alone route for any that have joined me lately it is “Around Alone Non Stop from Bahia Caraquez Ecuador and back again.”
Since I’m doing this as a record attempt I had to enter the Northern Hemisphere which I did as soon as I left Bahia, and since the course has to measure out over 21,600 nautical miles by rhumb line measurement I’m adding distance by sailing to a position in the very remote South Pacific, which is sailing West of Easter Island to 35*South and Longitude 120* West. Once there I can start my run into the Horn and then on around the world at or near the 48* South Latitude, south of the 5-great Capes West to East.
I noticed a peculiar odor coming from the vegetable storage area, it smells much like a rabbit hutch I once had or maybe it was that Ginny pig cage I kept in my bed room. I suspect that my six cabbages wrapped in news paper need to be trimmed down and rewrapped!!
Bouncing along in the Pacific, El Jefe’
Sailors Run & Jeff motoring on the Rio Chone,having left Puerto Amistad Yacht Club in Bahia Caraquez
Proudly flying the Flags to all the Countries we have been to
Flags were made by both of us.except the U.S.A. one
Heading out to do their Around the World Adventure