March Tuesday 22
Started off today with good winds. We had real trouble preventing the boat heading up into the wind all the time, too much weather helm, so we reduced the main down to the third reef and things settled down to an easy comfortable sail downwind in a wing and wing configuration.
The rope that holds the Watt and Sea hydrogenerator into the water appears to be getting crushed/worn in the cleats that hold it down. After a few hours it slips so that the propeller comes out of the water making a gurgling noise and the power generation reduces significantly. To resume normal operation requires one of us to press it down while pulling on the line that holds it down. Do this until a wave pattern comes by that lowers the water level enough so that youre pressing force pushes the unit down into the water. This can take up to a couple of minutes or more and usually results in getting a little wet.
The day was pretty quiet really. We watched a couple of movies. The wind started to die towards the end of the day. We thought about putting up the Gennaker but it was only a couple of hours before darkness so decided it was not worth the effort. Also no sense in getting to landfall before morning light because to be safe we would need to take the sails down and wait for sunrise anyway.
It is now 2:00am I am on watch. We may be paying for our complacency with another night at sea. The wind has dropped significantly such that our speed now may not get us there before dark tomorrow, resulting in a night bobbing about waiting for sunrise. We have heard that the anchorage is crowded and the yachts are using stern anchors to reduce the swing room required for anchoring. Not good to be anchoring at night in this area. So at first light if the winds stay low enough to safely use the Gennaker we will be putting it up.
Nasty squall on the radar just now, about 8 miles out on the port side. I need to track it to see if it will miss us, or I will have change course to make sure it does. Luckily we are still on third reef on the main, so all I would need to do is reef the genoa some if I cannot dodge it. This I can do easily by myself without waking the crew.
It is warm and humid at these latitudes. I have not sleep with even a sheet over me for several weeks. The boat is sticky with moist air and every surface needs a good wipe down.
The water in the ocean has a much higher salt content than the brackish waters where we were on the Chesapeake Bay in the USA. I can see rust stains developing on the boat that never existed before. It is just a surface stain that with some polishing will be removed. Something to keep us (me) busy.
The squall is still about 8 miles away and seems to be travelling about the same speed and direction as we are. Hopefully it will dissipate as they often do. Even eight miles away I think it is what has caused a wind shift and we are heading north of our destination by about 30 degrees.
Have just received a text from Andria, she is reading about all the cool new techie safety features of her new car that has arrived.
Squall update .. it has dissipated the wind has shifted back close to where it was previously.
Whoops, while writing this update I forgot to do the hourly log at 3:00am. I am the worst at remembering to do this task. Not a good example for the crew in this regard.
I had better send this off now before my shift in up. I need to get some sleep as I may have to get up at day light to get the Gennaker up.
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