N/n 14th
Luceyblue
Ina&Buc&Simon&Amanda
Wed 15 Apr 2009 09:42
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05:41.172S 102:46.675W
What a 24 hrs. Last night I came on watch at about
2330, just as it started to rain. We were motoring south at about 4.2 kts,
trying to find some wind.
Then it started to rain. The rain squalls here are
easy to spot, the sky goes dark, and you can actually see the rain falling as a
band of darkness.they bring "extra" wind, and last about 20 mins usually. Well
the first one passed over us at 2349, as I said, so I rolled ou the jib, and
switched off the engine to catch a few minnutes of sailing.
Over the next 7 hrs I did not go inside the boat
once, it did not stop raining more than once in those 7 hrs, and I am talking
rain where I cannot see the jib 20 ft in front of me. The average speed for
those 7 hrs was 7.1 kts. I had a great sail, but boy was I cold and wet! My
fingers were looking like prunes when daylight came, and Ina took over the
watch.
About 1000 Simon & I got started rigging up all
the stuff we would need for the days project.
We have a very smart little bowsprit that is held
in place by two wire attache to the boat at the waterline, one on each side of
the hulls. Well the day before yesterday, whilst we were flying the spinaker
from the sprit, one of he splices on the port wire failed. This meant that it
needed fixing. I had glued everything back together, and rigged up a kevlar line
to replace tthe wire, but could not get the tension needed, something non
stretch was needed.
Anchor chain, don`t get much less stretcdh than
that. So Amanda, Simon and I dragged out the spare chain and got it all set to
use. Sails down, and over the side with Ina to shackle the chain in place. Simon
was in charge of pulling on the right bits of string, and Amanda was the one
making sure we didn`t loose the shackles and other important bits. I of course
was supervising. Anyway after a splendid bit of swimming by Ina, and teamwork by
the entire family, we now have a smart bit of anchor chain hanging over the
bow.
Once we had finished lunch it was time to alter
course from south, to the required west, towards Nuku Hiva, over the last 36 hrs
we had progresed 4 nm towards our destiation! Rhight habd down, and off we go.
By this time of course there was another rain shower, so we only had the jib and
two reefs in the main, but, as Ina has recorded in the log book, 10.4 kts, on
course!!!
Well naturally that couldn`t last, the squall
passed, and we are now at a steady 6 or 7 kts on course to the Marquessas. Thank
you Steve, Rene & Luc for all your help over the last few
days!
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