18 27.2N 033 01.23W At sea Day 10
Pipedream
Fri 3 Feb 2012 11:11
finally. Pods of maybe a hundred dolphins, flying fish... none have boarded
us yet. Albatross, snipes and possibly a whale pretty close to us... I say
possible because you only get to see this big black back of something for a
few seconds and then it's gone.
Sailing has been a bit of a challenge. After the pole fitting broke we are
relegated to tacking down wind. With the waves that have had weeks to
develop in our 20 kt trade winds... the motion below is lively to say the
least. We have lost a batten car (gismo that holds the main sail to the
mast) and now the adjacent slug. (another gismo that holds the unbattened
part of the main to the mast) We have put two reefs in the main to relieve
some of the strain and also because it would be the thing to do in 25 kt
winds.
We will try to stay at latitude 18 30N tacking back and forth all the way
to the Virgin islands. It is warming nicely and the night watches are
feeling less like deer hunting in the Poconos. We almost had a major deal
buster last night. The linkage on the pump for the toilet lost a pin so we
could not flush it. George was able to rig a nut and bolt to get us
flushing again... four people, one toilet, and it won't flush... for two
more weeks, no thank you.