Armon experienced a big near miss during the night. He finally owned up to it - which is a lesson to everyone. There is always something to be learnt from a near miss - so sharing those experiences is important. Things were quiet during the night so Armon was standing up at the dodger, stretching his legs and looking around. He had just turned around to grab the helm pedestal when the preventer gave way and then he found himself looking at the boom as it was coming across the boat. Accidental jibe as the wind was dumped from the sail during a roll. He was able to duck just in time. If he had turned the other way he would not have seen the boom coming across. And we do not want to think what the consequences of that would have been.
Now we always warn each other about our head position and the boom, and the preventer is there to do just what its name implies - prevent the accidental jibe. But lines break or release with constant action on the locking mechanism - so one must never get complacent!
Armon re-secured the preventer and added an extra safety knot.
A booby bird settled in for the night - making our pulpit his home. I guess she saw the squall line up ahead and decided to find comfort on our boat.
0638 Sunrise 0639 Moonset At the equator they occurred simultaneously.
The night was otherwise uneventful. Confidence and “Tori” sailed themselves. The winds started to die off in the morning. We altered our course to 180 to reduce the luffing on the genoa.
0600 Position: 04*40’ S and 130* 41’ W
Winds are easterly at 5-7 knots
Mainly sunny.
A truly beautiful morning.
Net news: 2 boats are quite a ways north of us but then they left after us: Batu and Hollow Hut
Four boats are west and south of us: Impulse, Naughty Naughty, Meridian Passage and Cinnabar
Our hitchhiker is still on board. You would think that the luffing of the genoa would scare her away. David could get real close to her (I am calling her a female - though we do not really know) to get a picture and she just sits there and poses. She has a soft blue to lilac face and bright orange/red webbed feet. We are thinking the she belongs to the booby family but are not really sure about that either.
David is up at the bow trying to get her to fly away but not having any luck.
We lost the pin to the solar panel on the port side. this pin allows us to adjust the angle of the solar panel to maximize energy production. David heads down below to check out his collection of screws and nut and bolts to see if he has a replacement.
0800: More repairs required on the bimini . I should restitch the entire casing as the thread is starting to break down from all the UV and salt water. The sunbrella is still in pretty good condition - for now anyway.MY fingers are too sore to do all 60 inches of it at this time so I opted to just do the sections that have split open.
Winds are a bit lighter this morning which means less stress on everything. The sun is hot and the sky is clear - I am not sure how we would be able to stand it without the bimini - another reason for doing the small repairs and getting it back up!
I have been craving pancakes for days now - totally mental as the conditions would make cooking a challenge. I am lucky to get the coffee made. So finally things are calmer and I can make pancakes. Hungry jack Buttermilk PancakeMix - cannot believe that I am making pancakes from a mix - but hard to resist a box that just requires 1 egg and 1 cup of water, mix and pour. Served up with Log cabin Syrup and bacon - a real American breakfast. We have quite a few apples to consume before our arrival so I might grate up a couple of apples into the batter. The crew was happy!
Booby bird is still with us. She noticed a couple of other birds flying around and perked right up. Thought she was going to join them but no such luck. She has been around for so long now that we decided to name her Ethyl.
0920: winds have slackened right off so we furled in the genoa and stay sail, tightened up the main and fired up the motor.
1200 noon Position: 5* 5’ S 131* 00’ W
COG is 2141230s
50 % cloud cover
Seas are rippled with a 3 foot swell
Distance Travelled in 24 hours: 120 nm
Total Distance travelled to Date: 2250 nm
1230: salt water shower, shave and a fresh water rinse for three. Full bellies. Clean bodies. Almost human!
Ethyl finally flew away and went fishing but only after much harassment from David. now he has to clean up all the poop on the bowsprit and pulpit.** David just gets it all cleans up and Ethyl returns! He gives up. I do not know what is more entertaining - Ethyl or David trying to get Ethyl to quit landing on the boat. Sorry - small things can amuse small minds when you have not seen anything but blue water and sky for days!
Mark Knoffler now entertains us in the cockpit and the boys get to enjoy their Mexican beer of the day. I put together a sauce for our pasta this evening - Pasta Salsiccia - tomato sauce with Italian sausage. I typed up an email for delivery tonight when the air waves are less busy. David played with Ethyl some more and got her to fly away again.
We decided to eat a little early tonight - while it is still light. Then the galley can get cleaned up., David can get ready for the evening net and Armon can get to bed.
We had just finished eating and another squall hit us. David and Armon put on their rain gear and I went below. Lots of rain this time so I would not be coming up for awhile. Guess I will do up these dishes and give the boys a break. The boat turned into a sauna in no time at all - will all the port holes and companion way closed. I was almost as wet as the boys and was dying to go outside just to cool off.
0700: Things started to settle down. Armon got dried off and hit the rack.I went up on deck to keep David company and cool down. We managed to dodge a couple more squalls
1930: Turned the motor off - had run it for 10 hours.
2130: I went to bed. The boat had cooled down a bit and I was able to open some port holes.
Ethyl is back!!!
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