Fai Tira Blog Sunday 7th March

Fai Tira Pacific Ocean 1:42.60N 85:42.37W

We’ve now been sailing for 3 complete days in the Pacific and each of those the 24 hour periods have resulted in distances travelled of in excess of 150 miles. All of this was down wind and with a mixture of sail patterns ranging from just the main to full goose wing formation including the stay sail. The seas, for the most part, were nothing worse than moderate although at times the consequential rolling became very tedious and difficult to tolerate. The wind speeds remained fairly constant ranging from a fairly subdued 10 knots to a reasonably exhilarating 25, something in the range of force 6. And always from the North East, as would be expected from the sorts of trade winds often experienced in this part of the world, but often countered by the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. However we now find ourselves further West than intended and although the strength of the wind isn’t consistent with the forecast (we’re still experiencing 15-20 knots) the prediction of backing South Easterly,,,, is.

This means that our speed has dropped considerably as we try to sail as high into wind as we can while beating and making just under 5 knots of speed. However it’s not all bad. The sea’s not big, the annoying rolling motion has been replaced by gentle, ish, rocking and we’ve got plenty of time and fuel. If we’d carried on at our previous speed our ETA would have put us at our destination in the middle of Tuesday night. It now looks as though we’ll arrive, in The Galapagos, during the morning of Wednesday the 10^th,   daylight and ideal.

The sail has been far better than we could have hoped for or expected: and has proved to be just the sort of test that we needed for the recent rigging repairs. The foresail’s performed impeccably and the repaired furling gear proved effortless to operate. The staysail worked equally well and although, now, a bit more labour intensive, the hanks are not proving that inconvenient, and when not in use, we just leave it connected and tied off on the foredeck.

The partial overhaul, that I carried out to the main port winch, hasn’t been so successful. It has freed up, but it’s still not smooth and easy to use. At least the partial strip down has revealed no damage or wear. The inspection and clear out of the main fuel pre-filter, seems to be okay with the engine sounding smooth and quiet.

 It wasn’t long before we entered our first night watch of the Pacific. It proved pretty uneventful. Apart from the struggle towards the end of the watch with fatigue we also made contact with one of the many trees that had also been reported by other boats. I think it came off worse (If anyone wants a load of matchsticks, we know where to find some) aren’t steel boats just great!!!

Speed was maintained and the day almost swept by aided, for both of us, by indulgence for long periods in good books.

We decided to try a change of shift pattern for the watches. Pete was finding the run through to 1am tough and I just found that the last hour of the 5 was a real struggle. So we now planned that it would be 4 on and 4 with the first one starting at 8pm and then each having 2 hours after 4am. The new regime seemed ok, but being new, it was too soon to form a conclusion. The day followed a similar pattern to the previous one (aren’t we just a couple of little ravers??)

The second night of the new shift started poorly for me. The rocking motion, combined with the stifling heat, general discomfort of the saloon and the noise of everything rattling around, had the effect of making sleep a rare commodity.

I started my shift by gazing out into a very dark night as the moon vainly tried to peer out from under a shroud of fluffy cloud.

I suppose that there was always a certain inevitability that the brain would draw comparisons between the Atlantic and Pacific: and also that it was likely to happen when it’s on walkabout in the middle of the night. It’s strange, but straight away the psychology, of this place, tells you that it ought to be different. It somehow feels more exotic. The anticipation is greater, wildlife should be more spectacular (after all it was only 2 nights ago, whilst on anchor, that Hans off Natibu caught sight of two whales as they patrolled the bay)

Different or not, they’re both very big and both very wet!!.

For me, one noticeable difference seems that the stars are not displaying the same levels of intensity or visible volume. Perhaps just an illusion?, but the distant electric storms are the same, if not yet quite so spectacular.

Made pancakes for breakfast with lemon juice and sugar. Worked out okay, just need to be a little thinner I’ll add more milk next time.

Sea much calmer today and winds lighter, we had a brief visit from dolphins and an inspection by a passing gannet. Not quite as exotic as I’d hoped, but still very welcome.

Some worrying reports came through during the morning roll call.

Camomile had a rigging failure during the night when a shroud mounting bracket shattered. It left them with a mast in an unstable and dangerous condition that they feared might fail. None of this was aided by the choppy seas, the wind and the timing. Bill seems to have stabilised the situation now and with Lucy Alice and Enchantress in close company, they’re now making way, under power, with great caution.

The other problems related to a steering failure on Laurie Grey, causing them to turn back to Perlas: and an engine room fire on Roundabout which seems to have been controlled in time.

It’s now early Sunday morning. The previous evening showed a slight drop in the wind speed and change of direction, causing us to take down the pole, pull through the genoa and sail on a broad reach making about 5 knots. However as I went off watch the genoa was down and the engine busily working away. When I came back on it was up the again, the wind had gone round to the South East and we were beating into it. The distant light that was once behind us was now a distant light in front,  it belonged to Aqualuna a posh 55ft Discovery and part of the BWR fleet. I suppose that with a price tag 10 times that of Fai Tira, it’s no surprise that it’s that much faster than our piece of iron. The only other lights were those from the distance storms, I suppose It’s inevitable that we’ll encounter one soon.

We’re now at 1 degree North and starting to think about the celebrations as we cross the equator.

As we approach it we would be described, in sailing terms as Pollywogs. As we cross the imaginary line, we will be two weird looking, daft guys, each with a glass of champagne. Then on the other side we’ll still be two weird looking, daft guys, but now known as Shellbacks....

Watch this space!!!!!!!

Bye for now Pete and John.