Little Pea's ARC 14 Blogoramma - Yeah it's all about the chafe, 'bout the chafe...

Littlepea
Fri 5 Dec 2014 17:30
16:56.7N 42:18.6W
 
Tune of the Day: "Canned Heat" - Jamiroquai
 
Day 12.  Life on board Little Pea is becoming unbearably hot.  We are down to the minimum amount of clothing that modest dictates and have started spending as much time as possible on deck as down below is now really uncomfortable.
 
However, heat is the least of our problems at the moment. Someone once said that chafe is an ocean sailor's biggest nightmare, and they were right. So far we've chafed through sheets on a dodgy lead and now - just as the sun had set - the spinnaker halyard which was holding dear Babs aloft snapped sending her into the drink and the remaining rope shooting down the mast. Nightmare. It was all hands on deck as we struggled to haul her back on board, then prep to launch Daisy - our smaller spinnaker - on the spare halyard in Bab's place. All was well, until the predicted stable breeze decided to throw a fit of it's own, danced around the compass rose, and sent us flying due south - not the direction we were hoping for. So, Daisy (due to her cut) had to come down and be replaced by our slower, but dependable, Genoa Sail (the ever reliable, "Debs").  Debs is now working in partnership with the Dutchess in a "goosewing" combination to keep us moving on a steady and gentle track, albeit our progress is painfully slow. 
 
As dawn broke this morning, Minkey was thrown back to his younger days of tree surgery and sent up Little Pea's rig to assess the chafe situation and see if we could run a new halyard. The sea wasn't exactly the kindest to poor Minkey - who liked the experience to being worse than climbing trees during the "storm of '87" - was unable to fashion a durable solution.  We are now working on some innovative solutions from the deck but, in the meantime, are unable to launch our spinnaker kites. 
 
To make matters worse, the wind is now down to only 8-10 kts and, despite her best efforts, LP is slogging it out, rather than gliding through rhe waves with her usual style and elegance.  All in all, the past 24 hours have been very frustrating...
 
However, spirits are being kept high.  We fixed the rudder stock with Tesco's Finest Olive Oil which solved the infuriating squeek that started out of the blue 24 hours ago and has deprived us of sleep even more so than Mike's snoring.  Mike has had a productive afternoon coiling pink string which was birdsnested.  The highlight of the day today is that Ben is on mother watch and we are all looking forward to see what delights will come out of the galley later.
 
**LP Agony Aunt Feedack:**
 
Well done to Miss Pickering's Maths class for correctly calculating that we're not going to make the waypoint in time. We've put up (and brought down) all the sail we can, we are praying for more wind.  We do like your suggestion on loosing some weight and would welcome suggestions.
 
Thank you also to Amanda Jagger for the suggestion of a Little Pea receipe book.  This is actually in proress as our dependably purser, Minkey, has been keeping an acurate records of all on-board dining experiences, for future publication.
 
And one more for today:
 
Q: What is the difference between a nautical and statute mile?
A: One nautical mile = 1.15 statue miles.. The reason for the difference, is that nautical miles take into consideration the curvature of the earths surface.  I kt is equal to 1 nautical mile per hour.
 
Daily stats:
 
Max Boat speed = 9 kts, but in totally the wrong direction
Number of spinnakers used = 2 (Daisy & Babs)
Number of broken spinnaker halyards = two
Maximum Gust =  20kts
Number of Flying Fish = A fair few
Number of Whales = nil
Amount of Rain = nil
Advent calendar highlight = .A baby Gruffalo with a half melted head. 
 
Jags, Minkey, Ben and Mike