World ARC - Day 63 - 11th March - Another day at the office
Nina
Steve and Lynda Cooke
Sun 13 Mar 2016 04:18
World ARC - Day 63 - 11th March - Another day at the office
After all the excitement yesterday we settled in for a routine day aboard Nina. The night watches passed without incident so we awoke to a bright sunny day looking forward to wing on wing downwind sailing. The wind had other ideas so we went back to a reach with the wind coming over our left shoulder almost straight away. But the wind was inconsistent in strength and direction so the foresail was flapping around. What to do? Time for pancakes said Steve. So Peter and Steve went below to make breakfast pancakes which went down very well setting us all up for the day.
The morning passed uneventfully with a 12 knot breeze giving us steady if fitful progress. However the foresail was flapping around making a great racket and gradually wearing itself out in the process. After discussion Steve and Peter came up with an idea. Would the spinnaker work better with a greater tolerance to the continual small changes in direction. Last time we flew this sail
it gave us great problems with twists so it did not come our properly giving us an hourglass shape. We put it away with some extra twists in the top with the hope of correcting the problem but did not know if this had worked. Only one thing for it more dancing on the foredeck. The sail change complete we sat back to see what happened. It worked a treat. The spinnaker filled beautifully on the light winds and obliged us by reacting to the changes in wind direction without our having to make continual adjustments.
Ever the optimist Karen had put out the fishing line during first daylight in the hope of catching a Friday fish supper. Sadly we didn't get a bite all day so that lure will be retired tomorrow.
Fortunately Lynda had a back up plan based on some sailfish steaks supplied by Meeremowe from the previous passage. So all enjoyed fish and chips as the daylight faded.
On a final note we put our clocks back an hour at midday to keep some synchronisation with the sun. Our 3 am to 6am watch is the last of the night and is so much better if it ends with dawn
rising. As the week has passed sunrise has moved to nearer 7 than 6 so we decided to make the change. We'll do the same again at 2,000 miles and again at 3,000 so we arrive at Hiva Oa
with a small adjustment to make to get the UTC minus 9.5 local time.
So just a routine day in our office enjoyed by all.