Author: Pam
Throughout the night the wind continued to be light, but steady making for a peaceful first night of this 1200 nautical mile passage. It looks like 0800 will be the official start of our days with a daily check in with Gavia on 8122 and then moving over to the “Rag of the Air” to check in with the other boats on passage for New Zealand. It seems there are always several nets going at one time, usually because a small group of boats that know each other establish one that is more informal. It is nice to have these venues to check in with and to give your position, find out if there is anyone else near you and get the current weather forecasts. Jim who is the net controller of the “Rag” is on every morning and is there as a volunteer for the boats who are at sea, very generous if you ask me. Just before we turned on the SSB radio we passed through a small squall that graced us with a beautiful rainbow, always a good way to start a day. After our radio sked we dived into the breakfast treats we had ordered from Ifo Bakery, I had a chocolate muffin and Scott had their famous cinnamon bun. As always it is so nice to have fresh food for the first couple of days and expertly baked goods is certainly a treat. I thought I would bake more on passage, but the conditions and my baking pans haven’t drawn me to the task. I am hoping to get it together during the next sailing season. I know I have an interested party if I did manage to bake something and his name is not Nemo.
All was going along smoothly until around mid day when the wind and seas picked up. The wind increased to 15- 20 knots, which is ideal, but the bigger seas that came with it caused the usual change in our environment. We had to close the hatch and all of the port holes, unfortunately some of that happened after it got a bit wet in the cabin. We started getting hit with waves over the bow and the usual streams started flowing across the cabin sole. At least we have learned to leave without the two small rugs on the floor so they don’t get soaked. Scott was in the cockpit making some adjustments to the sails when I heard a fairly loud crash. A moment later he stated calmly “we have a small problem with the dodger.” One of the support bars on the port side had sheered off leaving the dodger compromised. He filled the hole with epoxy and he will drill in a new screw for extra reinforcement.
We ate lunch in the cockpit and had the last of our frozen treats from Ifo Bakery, chicken enchiladas. They were actually more like a taco in my opinion, but they were yummy and it was really nice to just pop something in the oven. While we were eating we were passing Kao and Tofua, two southern Tongan islands 14 miles to port. We believe Kao is possibly volcanic, but we don’t know that for sure. It was the silhouette of a perfect triangle with Tofua a longer and flatter island to the right. These islands will be our last glimpse of land until we make landfall in New Zealand.
In the late afternoon we decided it was time to put a reef in the main since it looked like the wind was only going to keep increasing. This process went fairly smoothly. The reefing lines have developed some annoying twists and this always makes reefing the sail a bit more challenging. Once we brought the jib in as well life was a bit more comfortable.
As the seas had picked up my tummy was not liking the roller coaster ride. Eating was not on my high priority list. We decided on Wolf Gang Puck’s Clam Chowder, which I must say is the best canned clam chowder I have eaten and it seemed to sit fine with my queasy tummy. I have never experienced sea sickness in my entire life or on this adventure until the last couple of passages. When the boat is picked up and dropped or rolls a lot from side to side, combined with not being able to go out into the cockpit has turned out to not be a winning combination for me. I still have not gotten physically sick, but I just don’t feel like a million dollars either. The lack of desire for food on passage has been referred to by others as being on the Jenny Craig diet, certainly not my plan.
The night continued to be rough with those pesky waves and very dark with no moon until the very early morning hours. It is nice that daylight comes around 0530 and with it the adventures of another day at sea.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment