Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 17, Friday, April 23, 2010

Latitude:
Longitude:

Conditions:
As I begin this update, it is 11:00 p.m. on April 22. The rain has let up. We've been thinking of Russ's Mom Lorraine this evening. She would have been 100 years old today. She knew we were planning this cruise and know she would have loved getting daily updates about our progress.

We have had a record breaking day regarding our distance traveled. In the last 24 hours, we have traveled 141 nautical miles. That's our best day so far. It looks like we are going to start the new day out quickly as well. We have changed tack a few times this evening, once before sunset, and again at 10:00 as the wind has been shifting around a bit, but it is now blowing once again from the northeast at about 25 knots and we sailing consistently between 7.5-8.5 knots. The swells are on our starboard stern quarter and giving us some good push I can hardly believe it. I don't know that we have ever sailed consistently over 7 knots in Worrall Wind. If the wind picks up anymore though, we will need to reduce sail.

When we change tack, our routine is that Garyn goes forward to release the preventer and clear lines. Russ and I go aft. I take the helm and hold the boat on course either coming about or gybing as necessary, and Russ works the sheets and the wind vane. That seems to work out well. My watch is almost over and we are flying through the night. It has been cloudy and rainy all day, but this evening the moon has been shining through the clouds to illuminate the horizon. The swells have lessened a bit, but not by much.

2:00 a.m.
When Garyn awoke for his watch, we went out again to adjust the sails. We pulled in a little jib, let her fly with less tension, lowered the traveler on the main, and fell off a little more. During the course of the night the wind had shifted and we were no longer on a broad but a beam reach. I had been correcting, but with the sails tight, Worrall Wind kept rounding. Once we made the adjustments, she continued on her way. Russ and I went to bed in the lower saloon area.

6:00 We have reached our half-way mark. We are equi-distance from Mexico and the Marquesas. Yippee!While we slept, Garyn kept the boat moving along and tracked a squall on our starboard side from 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. It was parallelling our course but moving faster so eventually passed us by. We had already broken yesterday's distance for the first 6 hours by 7 nautical miles. We have tacked once again and are heading southwest. The seas have calmed down to about 8 feet, but are expected from the gribs to pipe up to 10 feet and the wind to die down. So far the wind seems to be pretty close to grib modeling, but the waves have been greater, so not looking forward to slow movement and large rollers. We'll see.

The sun is out this morning and we have some air moving through the boat. Hopefully, we will get dried out a little bit and solar panels will charge us up. Last night, we were squeegying down our windows on the inside it was so humid. It's beginning to smell like a locker room.

We check into the Pacific Puddle Jump Net once and sometimes twice a day to give our coordinates. I don't know if it is our location or if we have something going on with our radio. We seem to be able to transmit well (others can hear us and our email goes out quickly), but our reception is really slow for both voice and data, even when tuned and in high power. Perhaps some of our sailing buddies can give us some advice. Usually it's the transmission that is poor.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 16, Thursday, April 22, 2010

UTC/Local: 2009/1309
Latitude: 09 05.466 N
Longitude: 123 45.318 W

Conditions: (We traveled 110 miles from 2400 4-21 to 0000 on 4-22.)

The cloud cover this morning is 100%. With dawn came some rain. I felt is sprinkling down on me through the back hatch on the fan tail. We have our bimini over this hatch and it is pretty protected. The rain was so misty and not coming straight down but from just the right angle to give me a cool wake up call. I found myself completely sideways in the bed bracing my head and feet between pillows and cabinets, so that the rocking I experienced while sleeping was from head to toe, instead of roll from side to side.

Garyn and Russ managed through a minor squall last night. The sea and sky are grey. It looks like it should be cold, but it's 81 degrees and 86 percent humidity. The wind is consistently 20-25 knots this morning. We are on a beam reach with no mizzen, full main and a reefed jib, with a heading of 250, and are smoking along from 6.5 to 7.5 knots. The only thing that would keep this from being perfect are the 9 foot swells coming every 6-8 seconds from our starboard beam and stern quarter. The boat is rocking back and forth and when a swell runs under the boat and we glide down, a swoosh of white water rushes by and our speed over ground accelerates to 8 knots.

Yesterday evening, between the sunset and dark, we noticed fins in the water. Dolphins, little ones, were all around us. We could see them coming from our northeast. At any given time there were 30 or more in the water around us, leaping, jumping, surfing off the waves. Too bad it was too dark to take good photos. We understand from our whale and dolphin resource book, that often these Pacific dolphins (porpoises)will swim in pods of 100-500. We have also noted another little sea bird, other than the Booby. It maneuvers and skims over the waves, up - over - down, sideways. As the wave rolls up to 6 feet or troughs, the little bird is less than an inch from the water, occasionally dipping in its beak, perhaps getting a drink or picking fry, brine shrimp, or other miniscule goodie from the water.

This was a three - try morning. It took me three times to make coffee. The first two trys ended with wet coffee grounds spilling everywhere and Russ's hot chocolate dumping in the sink. Even pouring water in a thermos is a challenge with the waves so close together.

1:00 p.m. We have had an exciting morning. The grib (weather) files, indicated that our wind would begin to die around 11:00 a.m. this morning. Well it hasn't. The wind has continued to be between 20-25 knots, perfect for Worrall Wind. So we have made excellent time. Worrall Wind has been traveling this morning 7-8 knots, surfing up to 9.5. The boat is handling itself well. We are so glad we have Hydie our wind steering system.

Unfortunately, the swells are pretty awesome and have not settled down, so while the ride has been swift, it has been quite bouncy and rolly. Sometimes Hydie becomes overwhelmed with the waves and we need to help her out. I'm sure we have had a couple of small mountains pass under the boat or slap us on the side, sending rivers of water down our deck. All the ports and hatches are closed down tight. The rain has kept us in the pilot house all morning. The boat interior is warm 81 degrees (stuffy)and recording 96% humidity. We have our little fans blowing the air around and in between showers we open the skylight in the pilot house to let in some fresh air. Since 12:00 a.m. this morning, we have traveled 76 miles in 13 hours. Our little water turbine has been producing 6 amps per hour. Our solar panels are sleeping under the cloud cover. At some point today, we are going to need to run the engine or the generator to make up for the two days of cloudiness.

We are listening to audio books. We were getting tired of Fountain Head by Ayn Rand, so we decided to give it a hiatus and listen to In Sun Burned Country, by Bill Bryson. This one too is a bit long and rambly although the author has a great sense of humor and it lightens up the mood.

We are making good progress, everyone feels good, and the bilge is dry.

All is Well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 15, Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Latitude: 09 54.583 N
Longitude: 122 01.316 W

Conditions: Warm (80 degrees at midnight), humid (60%), a breeze of 15 knots, sea swells 8-9 feet

At midnight, last night we marked 2 weeks at sea. As we begin our third week this morning, are odometer indicates that we have traveled 1,386 miles. We are 1112 miles from Puerto Vallarta. As you can see, our distance traveled is greater than the rumb line to our current postion. If we followed a rumb line (direct angle from our current postion to Hiva Oa), we are 1580 miles away from the Marquesas. We wish it were that direct, but the wind direction, speed, and wave/swell intensity and direction from moment to moment determines our course. We are a little disappointed that we haven't covered more ground, but hope once we have passed through the ITCZ, we can pickup some south east trades. We are within 5 degrees now of being in the "doldrums". The forecast actually looks like we might have some winds, and the squalls do not look as intense as they have been. We hope this pattern continues. We've been saving our fuel for powering us through this area if we get stuck. When we were planning to leave on March 31, we estimated that we would arrive in Hiva Oa around April 28 (29 days). Seems like this was pretty realistic. Since we left a week later, we will probably arrive in Hiva Oa late in the first week of May.

Our first week was marked by very little wind and of course very little progress. Our second weeks has been better in terms of speed and direction, but the following seas when we are running downwind, wing on wing have not been consistent. Sometimes they follow from directly behind us which is nice ride when they aren't too big, but they also are coming from our port stern quarter and our starboard stern quarter. This direction and sail configuration, rocks the boat continuously 30 degrees starboard to upright to 30 degrees port. The rocking continuously fills one sail and spills the other. This motion makes every activity on the boat a challenge. Garyn fixed lunch yesterday and before he could get it up to the saloon it all landed on the floor. Food preparation has led to a lot of stuff sliding across the counter and diving through the gap area of our gimbaled stove. There's probably a couple of meals sliding around underneath.

Our fresh fruits and vegetables are being consumed and will probably be depleted by the end of the third week. Then we will move to the canned fruits and veggies. The refrigerated lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and celery have held up well. The slightly green tomatoes, potatoes, and jicama have done well in the hold so far. The peppers,lemons, carrots and cabbage have not fared well without refrigeration, but the mandarins, grapefruits, apples, and limes have. As the frig has been freed up, I have been transferring some of the wilting stuff in.

I had the dawn watch today. The sky started to lighten about 5:30. By 6:00 it was apparent that we were going to be introduced to our first squall. A very dark black cloud was on our port quarter dipping its many tentacles into the sea obscuring the sunrise. I flipped on the radar and sure enough, we had an image of the squall sneaking up on us. I woke up the guys and we got into our harnesses, went out side, took down the wing on wing configuration, turned into the wind and ran on a beam reach with just the main, and closed all of the hatches. Fortunately, this little squall was a good drill for us. Retrospectively, when we turned upwind, it took us off course and slowed us way down. We should have done a controlled gybe and will give that a try next time if presented with a similar situation.

The squall ran past, spitting water from its clouds, just enough to cool us off and wash down the boat a bit. With the black cloud now in front of us and to the starboard side, our wind direction had shifted making it possible for us to run with gennaker on a broad reach if we gybed. So we did. As I write this paragraph we are flying between 6 and 7 knots about 230 (southwest) towards our next mark. Our plan was to do a left turn dog leg at 125, but we are cutting the corner a bit.

Time for a nap. Garyn and Russ are watching Genny and Hydie for awhile.

We have now dropped below latitude 10. We had a little excitement this afternoon as we came off a wave and rocked too far to starboard and back throwing the bow of the about just enough to go down wind long enough for the gennaker to wrap on itself. We knew what to do. I took the helm and purposely put the gennaker in the wind shadow behind the main. Russ released the line and Garyn pulled down the sock to extinguish the twisting sail. After Genny was down, they worked on taking out the twist and bagging her for the time being. We are now sailing wtih main and jib on a beam reach, heading a little more west than south, but the boat is much more comfortable for all of us on this tack and as evening approaches we have more manueverablity with this sail combination of a squall comes up. According to our grib charts, the wind is supposed to practically die tonight. We'll see. Garyn is napping as he has first watch tonight. There are a lot of clouds so I doubt whether we will see much of the moon. Russ has KP in the galley and dawn watch. Moi....to bed to bed for the whole night.

All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 14, Tuesday, April 20, 2010

UTC 1500 Local 0800

Latitude: 11 34.562 N
Longitude: 120 10.633 W

Conditions:

The further we travel south the warmer the days have been getting. Yesterday, we were in the low 80's all day, dropping a few degrees into the high 70's at night. We traveled 24 hours with our genny up until 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon. The wind had been very light and we only had gone about 50 miles in 24 hours. Not good,, but the best we could do given the wind direction and light wind. Had we not had the genny, we would have been sitting and not moving at all.

Late yesterday afternoon, we took down the gennaker and ran the engine for about 3 hours to move us ahead a little bit southwest to see if we couldn't catch a stronger wind and to add some amps to our battery. When the motor work was done, we decided we could get more mileage out of the wind if we ran wing on wing again. We go faster, but the boat rocks from rail to rail almost constantly making it difficult for those not on watch to sleep.

The constant rocking, rubbing and pressure required a few maintenance checks and work today. Our gennaker line was rubbing against an open stateroom window, nearly pulling the window out of its slider and fraying the gennaker sheet. Duct tape came in handy here. Hydie's (Hydrovane) nylon covered wind wing was wearing in some places. After giving her a little water and white vinegar wash down, Russ put sail tape on areas where she had been starting to wear and rub.

In the last few days, we haven't seen much wildlife, except for the suicidal flying fish that we find crispy in various locations on the deck and a few boobies. Russ spotted a sea turtle, and I thought I saw a single dorsal fin go by. Could have been a dolphin or a shark. So far we haven't done any fishing.

The moon is starting to fill in and light up the night sky for a couple of hours before setting. Our days are filled with reading, listening to music and audio books, doing little repairs, cooking, and cleaning. It's never quiet out here. The sound of water washing past or slapping against the hull, the wind in and out of sails, the rhythmic creaking and clanking of doors and other objects in the boat, and occasional boobie squables provide us with a symphony of ocean sounds. Sometimes, it's nice to put those I-Pod earbuds in and change the music.

Russ has another little project going this morning. One of the screws he put back in when he was re-installing one of the fuel injectors seemed to have lost its threads. He tried to fix it. He did a check last night after we ran the motor to see if the fix held. It did not and now there is some diesel leak into the oil. Russ is removing that entire fuel injector and replacing it with a new one. He is kicking himself for not doing that in the first place. WW will now require, yet another oil change. We had what we thought was a lot of oil, but this next change is going to nearly deplete the store. Glad we had it. Wish we had more.

All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 13, April 19, 2010

UTC 1500 Local 0800

Latitude: 12 37.461 N
Longitude:119 19.386 W

Conditions:

Since yesterday around noon, we have had light seas and light winds of about 10-12 knots, coming from the north east. We have changed tack and are now headed more south than west and no longer running with the wind but have it on our port quarter. It's a perfect tack for our new gennaker which we have had flying now since noon yesterday. We were a little apprehensive about flying her at night, but the grib files indicated a continuing trend of light winds, so she flew off our starboard side on a broad reach most of the night and at least we were moving 3 knots in the right direction. An added benefit was the definite port tack and the quelling of the incessant back and forth rocking we were experiencing running down wind with confused seas hitting us from all directions.

The sky is clear, the air temperature is 82 degrees already this morning. We finished up our rousing game of dominoes yesterday evening. Garyn was the clear winner. Russ and I were neck and neck for second place. When Garyn went out, I had a double blank in my hand and Russ had 3 points in his. He lost by 2 points! That was a squeeker!

Last night was picnic night aboard Worrall Wind. We had ham steaks, potato salad, and coleslaw. It was calm enough to eat off plates. Yeah.

Russ and Garyn are on the lido deck enjoying their morning coffee and cocoa. I got my first full night of sleep last night since our engine failed and the whisker pole broke. That was to be my night off and turned out to be a full night on. With those little miseries behind us, it couldn't be more perfect out here. It's amazing how much better a good night's rest is.

I'm on early transition watch tonight. Garyn is on dawn watch. Russ gets to sleep through the night tonight. I expect that unless something happens, we will be spending our day today reading, listening to Fountain Head, and lounging about....rough!

All is well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 12 - Sunday - April 18, 2010

UTC/Local: 1039 / 3:39 a.m. PDST
Latitude: 13 58.154 N
Longitude: 119 01.815 W

Conditions: Slow going.

The moon is beginning to wax and for a little bit last night, before it quickly set there was a Cheshire cat grin crescent in the sky with a reflective glow on the water extending right to the hull of our boat. We are looking forward to having a little more visibility at night with moon. It's been very dark.

At first the dark nights are unsettling, particularly for someone as visual as I am. Russ as a private pilot is more use to flying with instruments and feels comfortable just monitoring the wind gauge, compass, rudder angle indicator, radar, etc. I am getting more use to it, and frankly now that we are so far out there are no landmarks to see even during the day. It's just water and sky in every direction. The position of the sun during the day helps with my visual orientation and directionality of the boat, but of course at night we are totally dependent on the instruments, particularly when it is cloudy.

Every night so far in the early morning hours before the sun rises, the clouds form obscuring the stars. So far, we haven't gotten any rain out of these clouds as they are more like a high fog and tend to burn off by mid-morning. If they haven't burnt off by mid morning, we usually have them all day and that cuts down on how much electricity our solar panels produce. We like that sun!

Since the sun went down, the wind has been fairly light right around 10 knots. Our forward progress today has been excruciatingly slow, anywhere from 0 to 4 knots, and probably no more than 50 miles total. Heidi our wind steering system is trying to keep the little bit of wind that we have right on our back so that we can continue to sail wing on wing.

Our main is flying on a port tack and our jib is poled out and flying on a starboard tack. The swells go from mild to moderate coming from a confused sea. Confused means that the swells don't seem to be primarily coming from a single direction. All during the day on Saturday, the wind was coming from the north east. The swells were coming from the north, northeast, and northwest. Consequently, even though the wind is light, the boat is continuously rocking back and forth. With each rock, the sails either fill up or spill out their wind. We can constantly hear them inhaling and exhaling, fluttering and snapping. Although Russ and Garyn are "sleeping", I am sure it is not deep.

Earlier this evening, the rocking made it impossible for us to eat our spaghetti and salad on plates. We tried, but wound up eating out of deep plastic containers and still wound up with some spaghetti on the floor. Having separate spaghetti and salad "not touching each other" was a special challenge for Russ and Garyn who definitely prefer tidy little piles of of food. Our dinner was kind of a spaghetti/salad goulash. Not particularly visually appealing.

Nothing is still. I'm getting better at wedging and positioning things in the galley as I cook so that things don't slide around. Garyn and Russ did the dishes tonight after our 1,000 mile celebration dinner. I was very appreciative, but couldn't bear to look down and see what was going on in the galley as I could hear plates and pots sliding all over, landing on the floor and clanking against cabinets. Eventually, everything got cleaned up. Standing on a firm, non-moving surface seems like an odd concept. I wonder what it will feel like not having to brace every step after a month at sea.

10:00 a.m. Everyone is up and listening to the Fountain Head. The wind has filled in a bit to about 13 knots and feels more constant. We are moving about 4 knots. Slow but faster than last The sun is out, the water is clear and blue. It's 80 degrees. Russ is sitting half in and half out of the door. Garyn and I have been laying down in the lower saloon, drifting in and out of sleep as we listen. I think it will be that kind of day as we rock to and fro, crawling forward across the sea.

Thank you for your emails. We are enjoying them and appreciate your vicarious presence, helpful advice, and encouragement.

All is well on Worrall Wind

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 11, Saturday, April 17, 2010

UTC/Local: 2020/1:20 PDST
Latitude: 14 30.450 N
Longitude: 118 34 553 W

Conditions:

It's a great day! The sun is out, the water is blue, the waves have calmed way down, and the wind is blowing from our back and is expected to stay light for the next couple of days. It's 85 degrees out and delightful to finally open the hatches and ports and let some fresh air pass through the boat. They've been battened down for 48 hours.

We are celebrating our 1000 miles on passage today. We aren't quite that far off the coast of Mexico, but with our tacking back and forth we have covered the qualifying distance for Seven Seas Cruising Association Commodore Candidacy. Our next step is to live on board for at least another 5 more months.

Not is it only our 1000 mile celebration (spaghetti, meatballs, a glass of red wine, and brownies today!), but we can cross off a few things on the critical list. Russ got the engine up and running, and Garyn cut down the broken whisker pole by 3 feet, we are once again running wing on wing in the direction we want - south, southwest, the refrigerator temperature has appropriately set, and the water and solar panels are producing 18 amps per hour. We are almost caught up on our sleep, but not quite. There are many reasons for a celebration tonight after weathering some pretty uncomfortable and uncertain conditions. Russ and Garyn are a great fix-it team. I'm the gopher, watch captain "Hang on, big rollers incoming" , safety officer "Don't go out there unless you're clipped on" and galley queen "eat your spinach, drink your water" keeping the crew fed and hydrated. So we got through this leg of the first 1000 mile at sea adventure. Go team!!

All is very well on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Days 9 & 10, April 15 & 16 2010
Latitude: 14 44.045 N
Longitude: 117 19.71 W
By the way, our Find Me Spot is taking longer and longer to upload to a satellite. Use the Pangolin link on our Blogspot for daily position reports. Please let us know when Spot no longer seems to be reporting.
Conditions:
The last couple of days have been difficult. After our at-sea repair of our loose gooseneck, we were in good shape. Our weather charts and grib files are not exactly in sync, however, with what we are experiencing. The wind is stronger and the seas are bigger. So much for being the Coconut Milk Run. It's more like a milkshake run. Thursday morning about 11:00 a.m. after my 1:00 - 7:00 a.m. watch, I was just laying down for a nap. Garyn and Russ were making a sail change and wanted to head into the wind and reef the main sail. We usually turn on the motor to help us stay into the wind when reefing. Well the motor wouldn't start. It would crank, but not start. Long story short. Our exhaust pipe sucked water into the engine. We had not had a lot of following seas so Russ had not closed the exhaust check since we have been starting the motor a little every day. Apparently our heavier passage boat allowed water to get in whether the seas were following or not. We closed this off immediately so we wouldn't get any more water, and will have to turn the exhaust check valve after each engine use.
No one got to take naps. Russ had been up until 1:00 a.m. and I had been up since 1:00 a.m. We worked on getting the water out of the bilge (not a lot, but enough), out of the engine, taking apart the fuel injection unit, removing the fuel injectors, and cranking over the motor to get water out of the engine. Russ was looking exhausted, but hoped to get the motor going before night fall.
Well, that wasn't going to happen. We had been running a beautiful wing on wing downwind course with 15 knots of wind when within 5 minutes the sea state and winds changed dramatically and faster than we could depower our main which already had one reef. A huge fast moving swell caught us and twisted the boat and the whisker pole snapped and broke. We pulled in the jib, and pulled the boat into the wind and swell so that we could put in another reef then fall off and be on a broad reach. It wouldn't be going south but west and the swell would be at our stern or beam most of the night. Coming into the wind without motor assist was impossible. After three tries, we muscled the main down to a double reef. (And yes, we are all harnessed up with life vests and clipped into our jacklines). We fell off and debated about doing a jibe, but decided it was getting dark and a jibe would take us to the south east not the south west. We decided to just go west and set up Heidi our wind steering system.
Heidi worked well in the beginning while we went inside, closed down the engine repair business for the night, and put everything away, tying down as much as possible. Thank goodness I had made lots of Mexican soup, and only had to reheat it. To give you an idea how rough the seas were, we ate the soup out of cups with lids. (No where near the computer!) By dark, the winds were gusting 24 knots, and the seas were 9-12 feet high steep and six seconds apart. Heidi couldn't keep up and we knew we would be hand steering most of the night. We are all tired. Garyn was the most rested and did the lion's share of the steering from about 4:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. Russ came on at 1:00 and steered until 7:00. Garyn spelled him for an hour during that time. I stayed up with both of them, recording in the log, making coffee and hot chocolate and dozed for about two hours..not enough for a gal who likes her beauty rest. 2 hours in 36 isn't enough. Russ hasn't had much more. As I write this we are all very tired. We've decided to suspend engine repair today. The Honda is going, the sun is out, and water turbine are cranking out the amps. Heidi is back on duty and for the most part is doing a good job steering the boat as the winds and seas have dropped a little bit.
We are safe and very happy to have a pilot house steering station. The boat is dry and handling the seas well, although we are uncomfortable with the rail to rail rolling. Fortunately, no one is scared or sick and none of us are taking any sea sickness pills, so we are thankful about that. We are keeping hydrated and are taking turns napping and catching up on sleep today because it doesn't look like the winds and sea are going to calm down until tomorrow so we have another long night ahead of us.
For now all is well but could be a little better on Worrall Wind.

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 8 - Wednesday - April 14, 2010
UTC/Local: 1000 / 3:00 a.m. PDST
Latitude: 15 10.711 N
Longitude: 115 06.201 W
Conditions:
As I write this log, we are one week at sea :) and about 650 miles offshore from Puerto Vallarta, a little less that 1/4 of the way to the Marquesas. Now that we have a fairly constant wind (first three days out of PV was pitiful)we are making better time and averaging six knots per hour. The wind is blowing about 14 nautical miles per hour from the north east. We are on a course of 270 degrees heading due west with a reefed main, full jib and mizzen on a broad reach. The winds are coming from the northeast. I can't see the sea swell, but it is probably 6-9 feet and from the periodic strong swells on our starboard hull that rock us to port and back flogging the jib and activating the preventer on the main, the swell is coming from the north, north west. The stars are twinkling in a very black sky. I've been on watch about an hour. Garyn and Russ are sleeping.
We have had a long day after an eventful early morning as reported in update 7. When the sun finally rose and everyone was up, we adjusted our course and sails. In so doing examined all the stress and chaffing points on the boat. The screws in our boom to mast gooseneck were working their way loose and stripped the threads. Not good, but not unexpected given all of the tension and torque from wind and rocking swell. We needed to repair this right away.
We turned on the motor, and lowered all of the sails with the exception of the cutter and turned the boat to a course of 180 to run with the swell so that Garyn and Russ could go forward on the desk and work on the mast and boom without being slammed from one side to the other. You may have noticed our meanderings on SPOT. I held the southern course keeping rollers from a confused sea on the stern quarter for two hours while Russ and Garyn dug through the spare parts putting together a combination of things that would work. The upper saloon looked like mission control for the repair of Apollo 13. With assembled hose clamps, plumbers' strapping, and a thin bicycle locking cable with rubber/plastic sheathing, Russ and Garyn clamped, wrapped, and lashed the gooseneck to the mast.
At one point during the repair job, the lazy jib sheet dipped down into the opened galley hatch looping around the tea kettle handle and lifting it with a roll and then dropping it so that it fell to the floor knocking over the bottle of powdered coffee creamer on its way down making a pasty white mess all over the floor. Garyn discovered this while I was at the helm and cleaned everything up. Those lines take on a life of their own. The first day we flew the gennaker, Garyn asked me to close the aft head port as the sheet was catching. He noticed that my silk flower arrangement sans the blue bottle it was in was dangling from the sheet. The sheet had snaked into the head porthole, nagged the bottle and tossed it into the sea. I was able to save the silk flowers.
By 1:00 p.m. the repair was complete and Apollo rounded the back side of the moon. main was back up and we got back on our rocky rolly course. We were tired and hungry. I spent the rest of the afternoon in the galley, triaging vegetables, shifting things around in the refrigerator, and making a huge pot of of spicey Mexican turkey soup. We took turns cat napping, holding watch, listening to the Fountain Head, and doing laundry.
No dominoes tonight. We were all sleep deprived. I went to bed in the lower saloon by 8:00 p.m.. Russ was on watch and Garyn wasn't ready to go to bed. He was finally beginning to feel much better after his odd episode earlier in the morning and was on his computer. We have now started Day 9 and so far,
All is Well on Worrall wind

Worrall Wind Update - Marquesas Bound

Day 7 - Tuesday - April 13, 2010
UTC/Local: 0400 / 9:00 p.m.
Latitude: 15 57.364 N
Longitude: 112 48.086 W
Conditions:
We are approximately 550 miles from Puerto Vallarta and would only have 2,180 miles to go if we flew a straight line. Last night the sea swells were about 9 feet and 10 seconds apart and the wind was 12-14 knots which made for a very rocking rolling night. We single reefed the main, eased off our course to slow the boat down a bit and to heel less. Most of the night we were on a beam to broad reach and made pretty good time until early morning a few hours before dawn when the wind died. We still had the big swells so we did even more rocking until the wind came back up at dawn and the sea swells died down to 1.5 to 2 meters (4-6 feet). With the sun up, we brought the boat back to a close reach to get back on course and pickup speed.
We listened to the morning net and talked to some boats that were within 100 miles of us, some that had been behind us and had shot ahead, and some that were ahead of us that has less wind and were hoping for more. The conditions vary within just a couple of miles. Even though we knew that the one boat that passed was a fast racing J-Boat, we were feeling pretty sluggish, and more determined than ever to trim the sails and get Worrall Wind moving faster. Fortunately, we had 14-18 knot winds which helped a lot. By "breakfast" we were sailing 6.5 knots sometimes seeing a 7.
"Breakfast" was really early this morning as we decided to turn our clocks to Pacific Standard Daylight Time when we realized it was 8:00 a.m. Puerto Vallarta time and still pitch black. So we turned the clocks backwards two hours so we are currently on same time schedule temporarily as the folks at home. If you think turning the clock forward or backward in one hour increments is confusing, try two. By 10:00 a.m. our bodies were saying lunch. By 3:00 p.m. we were wanting dinner. I was ready to start my 8:00 watch at 6:00 p.m., but had to wait another two hours which also means that I won't be really going off watch until 3:00 a.m. Lucky me. Are you confused yet? So when does our 24 hour day really end in the long book, at midnight, 10 p.m. or 2 a.m.? Let me know.
Our day was pretty uneventful. Garyn worked on trying to adjust the refrigerator. The electronic sensor/thermostat started to act up just before we left. Using our rubber ducky thermometer in the refrigerator, we were able to compensate for the correct temperature, ast couple of days,some of the food in the refrigerator has started to get too cold and freeze. Garyn noticed that the electronic thermometer ss trying to reset itself and go back to normal. The compensation is no longer working. In fact, the refrigerator never seemed to be turning off…..part of the mystery of why we have been burning up the amps. Anyway we think we are getting that worked out. In the meantime, the Honda is on again tonight.
I also got to talk with Marcia from Juniata today. You may or may not know that Dave and Marcia are friends from Colfax who were the catalysts for our cruising. When we met them 15 years ago, we had just bought our little 22 foot Catalina up at Lake Almanor. They had a 25 foot Catalina and dreams to go cruising. In know time at all we had a 25 foot Catalina and dreams to go cruising with them! Boy did we have fun in those little boats and with those dreams.
She and David , currently cruising in the Sea of Cortez were listening in on the Pacific Puddle Jump Net this morning. When I asked for a radio check of boats that could hear our transmission, I was delighted to hear Marcia call in. Our Pacific Puddle Jump boats are scattered across the Pacific Ocean. Many of the boats that were in the first pack to leave are also some of the same boats that are serving as net control and it is getting more and more difficult to hear them. As we approach the middle zone, we may want to serve a turn as net control, but we need to be sure that our transmission range can do the job. Since I only heard three boats comeback to us as having heard us, I think we don't have enough range.
With the boat on a strong starboard tack, I felt pretty safe cooking in the galley today. I'd rather have the hot stuff sliding away from me as I cook. I got a little more creative than mac and cheese tonight. I made ginger sesame pineapple almond chicken over brown rice. I think it was a hit.
Hmm. So what time is it? My body says my watch shift is over, but the clock says I have two more hours before I can nod off. Garyn and Russ are sleeping soundly. Russ was curled against port cushion on the lower saloon settee which is a great place for a starboard tack sleep. Garyn was sleeping in the V-berth also on the port side. We are traveling about 5-6 knots depending on gusting winds.
About midnight, I noticed that the winds were picking up and gusting. We were traveling between 3.5 knots and 7 knots. They were also shifting around and coming more from our starboard stern quarter. Heidi was having difficulty holding course. She would round way up in a gust and fall way off in a slack wind. I wanted to depower the main a little so, I went outside, eased off the main and tightened the preventer. We came off a swell and when we did so fell off the wind enough to gybe, backwinding the jib, cutter, and the main and gybing the mizzen. Heidi got pushed over by our gybing mizzen and stuck between the lines and the bimini top. I had to wait for an opportune time to try and free her. By the time I freed her, we were off course and the cutter was sliding back and forth on its self-tacking bar. By now both Garyn and Russ have awakened to see what was going on. Clark and Nina, our friends and crew on the Baja Ha Ha can testify about the horrible clatter the cutter makes. There is no sleeping when this is going on.
By 12:30 p.m. we had everything back under control "kind of" given the changing sea state. The swells were getting larger, steeper, and faster. The wind was gusting to 20 knots. With each gust, we would round up and head into the swell. Not only were we rolling, but pitching like a hobby horse. It wasn't dangerous, just uncomfortable. Garyn went back to bed for a little while as he was due to come on watch at 1:00. Russ was wide awake and decided to stay up with me for a while as we monitored and adjusted for the changing conditions.
By the time Garyn got back up and on watch, it was about 1:30. I stayed up with everyone until 2:00 then Russ and I decided to go downstairs and see if we could get some sleep. I was just drifting off when Russ woke me up. Garyn wasn't feeling well. He was light headed, cold and clammy almost like shock. Below his belly button he was complaining of a painful lump. We examined it and it looked like some sort of insect bite. It was quite red and hot. We gave him a benedryl for allergic reaction which we think he was having, put some anesthetic/antibiotic on the bite. He rested with head down for about 10 minutes and recovered from the light headedness and claminess. Thank goodness. We'll have to check out the V-berth when the sun comes up and the waves calm down to see if there is some suspicious insect lurking in his stuff.
Once again, I went back to bed at 3:00. Russ decided to stay up with Garyn a while longer. It was quite a ride. My Grandma Ogden would have said, holy Christopher Columbus! Very appropriate. I awoke at 5:30 as dawn was breaking, made coffee, and have been on watch so the guys can get some sleep. But now I'm into Day 8, but will continue this later this evening. Just know that between yesterday at 1500 Zulu and today at 1500 Zulu, we made a gain of 123 miles, and despite the early morning events,
All is well on Worrall Wind.