Scott used to say to me "wind is our friend" when we would be walking into a strong head wind making our way down Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. My concern then was the mess it was making of my hair. Today, the wind was our friend when it started to clock around at 0500 and gradually turned from SSW to SE putting us on a beam reach. Woo Hoo as Scott would also say! After two and half days of rocking, rolling, bouncing and listening to the cacophony of every creek, squeak, rattle, bump and bang (at times the noise came close to being in a Chinese torture chamber) on Starship the change from the wind being on our tale was enormously welcome. We have been on a beam reach since mid morning and it has felt like being back in the trade winds again, which was the best sailing we have experienced so far. We are also headed directly at Koumac, which means all most all miles we make are now in our favor, in sailors terminology this is Velocity Made Good (VMG).
I am probably especially relieved, because I have apparently been seasick for the first time ever in my life or possessed by an alien species and as Scott mentioned I have been a lumpasaurus since leaving. It certainly has been a bit of a rough start for me back on the high seas. Today I am feeling better and managed to get through the day with only one short nap, I basically can barely remember much about the last couple of days (hence why Scott had to write about them). However, I did make a gallant effort to keep my watch schedule, which seems a bit remarkable to me now.
The day was pretty mundane until after lunch we seemed to have a list that kept us busy right up until time to make dinner. After cutting short our time reading together more of Gipsy Moth Circles the World by Francis Chichester (a special gift to me before leaving Australia) to make the best of the remaining daylight we decided to heave to. As a reminder, "heaving to" is a sailing technique where you oppose the sails, which stops forward momentum of the boat. During the two hours we were hove to, Scott BBQ steaks for dinner. This marks the third time ever we have used the BBQ at sea and twice has been on the Tasman.
As Scott was preparing to BBQ I noticed a strange hissing sound coming from the galley. It is amazing how tuned in your ears are on a boat (I often wish I could tune out). We both went below and stood with our ear near the galley sink, which was throwing off some incredible heat (Scott had just been using very hot water). We turned the water pressure off and the incessant hissing stopped. I opened the cabinet door under the sink and steam poured out. It only took moving four bottles of cleaning products to discover a hose clamp had come loose and precious water was leaking out under the sink. Wow, it may be our first five minute problem. It took more time to take everything out to dry it off then it did for Scott to tighten the hose clamp. However it is worth noting, we were lucky it was only a five minute problem, these kinds of leaks undetected could empty your water tank and destroy your water pump. Phew!
Speaking of our precious commodity, today it was finally time to take a shower. Four days might have to be the limit and it was pushing it. It is always interesting to get back into a routine of how to get the maximum benefit from a little bit of water. For those of you who have been following the trip from the beginning, you may recall our beloved "bug shower", a three gallon insect sprayer that we added a kitchen sprayer hose to and used as our shower in the cockpit on Tournesol. Well, we left the bug shower in NZ and use the shower in the head on Starship. I'm considering adding showering to the list of Olympic events on the boat, washing dishes using the foot pump in big seas is definitely one. Today while I was standing on one leg attempting to shave my legs in the very small sink I was thinking three things. One, now would not be a good time to be hit by a wave. Two, I wonder if this is how a flamingo feels and three, I'm sure there is an easier way to do this (next time).
Tonight while eating our steak and roasted veggies for dinner we passed within one and a half miles of one of the waypoints on our trip from NZ to
1 comment:
At what point do you decide that shaved legs are just not that important at sea? The extra fur may come in handy on a cold night, and really, who's going to care. I'm sure Scott will get over a little scruffiness.
Renee (listed as anonymous because I'm too lazy to set up an account)
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