One of Those Days
12/05/2014
It's important that this post is fair, after all we both have made errors under way. The day we left Tenerife, I messed up the auto pilot and EW thought he'd have to tear the electronics apart to fix it. (Fortunately I thought of and tried a soft restart fix and that worked.) Today was EW's day for a screw up.
As I mentioned yesterday, the first couple of days are all about moving the boat and getting enough rest. I had the midnight to six watch last night, hadn't slept fully on any off watch to that point, and was ready for four hours of sleep when EW came on at six.
He woke me at 7:30. I had been deep in REM sleep, dreaming in Technicolor. It was a "movie" dream. I'm sure if I had been able to sleep for another 90 minutes I'd have the plot for a movie that would make a million bucks. Well, probably not, but I was sleeping soundly when I heard, "Sorry, Bubs, we have to jibe." I grunted but rose up. "I was going to wait," he continued, "but there's a squall coming." I climbed out of the very comfortable bunk, put on my Dallas sweatshirt, and topped it with the life jacket and harness, saying, "Don't ask me to do something hard until I've woken up."
Once we were on deck, I realized that while I had been lured up for a simple jibe to find that we were going to also take down the staysail and set the whisker pole on the jib. Oh joy. Since non-sailors read this blog I won't try to relate all the sailing stuff. Plus some of it makes both of us look downright stupid (If you were to hear the full tale, EW would be the bigger goat, this was his screw-up, after all.) To make a very long story into a short story, the simple jibe before the squall took over an hour and a half (pretty much the rest of my off watch) and included a tangled jib, and a bosun's chair. (You know it's not good when anyone has to go up the mast at sea, but EW didn't have to go up very far, and this part of the adventure wasn't the result of a mistake.)
But we got 'er done, and the boat sailed beautifully all day, until we had to change course and take the whisker pole down in the evening. (Again on my off watch, but I was awake. I've not yet been able to catch up on that sleep I lost this morning.) Oh, and I forgot the punch line: the squall that concerned EW never materialized. He could have waited to wake me up. But I've forgiven him. Mostly.
Tonight on our Atlantic Crossing Net I found out why one of the boats is so far ahead of us. Hobnob left the Canaries almost at the exact time we had done, and they are almost exactly 75 miles south of us. They will sail faster than we do and they have been ahead of us since we started, but that's a huge lead. Turns out that being in front didn't exactly help them as they had no wind for 12 hours, while we were able to sail with 6-10 knots of breeze. It's easy to gain on another sailboat if you use the iron mizzen. (That's engine to all your landlubbers.)
As of 20:25 on December 4th, we were at 25 degrees 59.09 minutes North, and 019 degrees 53.90 minutes West. Our course is 220. Life is still good and I still love EW. (But that may have been in question for a brief moment in time this morning, somewhere between 7:30 and 10:00.)
As I mentioned yesterday, the first couple of days are all about moving the boat and getting enough rest. I had the midnight to six watch last night, hadn't slept fully on any off watch to that point, and was ready for four hours of sleep when EW came on at six.
He woke me at 7:30. I had been deep in REM sleep, dreaming in Technicolor. It was a "movie" dream. I'm sure if I had been able to sleep for another 90 minutes I'd have the plot for a movie that would make a million bucks. Well, probably not, but I was sleeping soundly when I heard, "Sorry, Bubs, we have to jibe." I grunted but rose up. "I was going to wait," he continued, "but there's a squall coming." I climbed out of the very comfortable bunk, put on my Dallas sweatshirt, and topped it with the life jacket and harness, saying, "Don't ask me to do something hard until I've woken up."
Once we were on deck, I realized that while I had been lured up for a simple jibe to find that we were going to also take down the staysail and set the whisker pole on the jib. Oh joy. Since non-sailors read this blog I won't try to relate all the sailing stuff. Plus some of it makes both of us look downright stupid (If you were to hear the full tale, EW would be the bigger goat, this was his screw-up, after all.) To make a very long story into a short story, the simple jibe before the squall took over an hour and a half (pretty much the rest of my off watch) and included a tangled jib, and a bosun's chair. (You know it's not good when anyone has to go up the mast at sea, but EW didn't have to go up very far, and this part of the adventure wasn't the result of a mistake.)
But we got 'er done, and the boat sailed beautifully all day, until we had to change course and take the whisker pole down in the evening. (Again on my off watch, but I was awake. I've not yet been able to catch up on that sleep I lost this morning.) Oh, and I forgot the punch line: the squall that concerned EW never materialized. He could have waited to wake me up. But I've forgiven him. Mostly.
Tonight on our Atlantic Crossing Net I found out why one of the boats is so far ahead of us. Hobnob left the Canaries almost at the exact time we had done, and they are almost exactly 75 miles south of us. They will sail faster than we do and they have been ahead of us since we started, but that's a huge lead. Turns out that being in front didn't exactly help them as they had no wind for 12 hours, while we were able to sail with 6-10 knots of breeze. It's easy to gain on another sailboat if you use the iron mizzen. (That's engine to all your landlubbers.)
As of 20:25 on December 4th, we were at 25 degrees 59.09 minutes North, and 019 degrees 53.90 minutes West. Our course is 220. Life is still good and I still love EW. (But that may have been in question for a brief moment in time this morning, somewhere between 7:30 and 10:00.)
laughing!!!
Posted by: LeeAnn | 12/05/2014 at 07:36 AM
sail 0nnnnn...l0l
Posted by: peedee | 12/05/2014 at 07:32 PM