Day 8 Post By Jon
A Typical Day in the Life of a Sailor at Sea (Continued!)
Day 8 8:00 A.M. (1402 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
184 NM made good over last 24 Hours
We are still nicely making way at 7 knots or so with fair winds out of the North\Northwest and following seas.
Day 8 3:00 P.M. (1168 NM from Hawaii)
I ended the yesterday’s log a little early; I didn’t include the rest of the day in the life of a sailor and we had a major course change.
I discussed earlier that racers very rarely sail the rhumb line or shortest distance between two points for many of reasons. That may not be the fastest point of sail for the particular boat racing, there may be favorable currents along a different part of the course or in the case of long distance racing there is the weather factor. We have had light, moderate and heavy winds so far and our preference would be moderate to heavy; we still want to join the elusive Rocket Club of Double Digits. Yesterday after I relinquished the computer John and Tom studied the weather charts that Tom had downloaded earlier. Our current course was taking us right back to the doldrums southwest of us between our current position and Hawaii. Though this course would be the shortest for us to take it doesn’t look like the fastest. Tom and John saw stronger winds further north of the rhumb line so they told us that we needed to adjust our course by increasing our bearing to 250 degrees rather than the 220 we had been on for the past few days. The forecast shows stronger winds further north when the isobars are predicted to spread on Friday
I was at the helm so I pushed on the tiller until the compass read 250 and all hell broke loose. It never fails whenever something like this is required I it never happens in a vacuum. Around that time a cloud came over with moisture and an increase in wind velocity and direction (22+ knots and 10 degree shift); not at all favorable to our new course heading. We first decided to reef the main by decreasing sail area since the boat was pitching and rolling. This helped a little so we decided to try the second reef point and keep the asymmetrical flying. Understand that it is much easier to reef then to change head sails. After the second reef, which I had never experienced on Avion though I use it all the time on my sailboat Antigua, I once again felt marginal helm relief but Avion was still not happy. It became obvious that we needed to change the head sail. One of the problems with having 10 different headsails aboard, sometimes it becomes a challenge to determine which headsail is the best for the current conditions and course. We had two choices; go to a smaller asymmetrical spinnaker or go back to the jib top. Kent resolved the dilemma by crawling out of his bunk, obviously wasn’t getting any sleep anyway, and explained to the crew that the best solution was the jib top. David turned to John for conformation and John agreed. Nico was happy; he gets another mark on his forearm. Like a red badge of courage Nico takes his trusty Sharpie Magic Marker out after each headsail change, this latest was number 13, and marks his forearm. Juan beat David to the punch and suggested that he replace the Sharpie marks with tattoos when we arrive in Hawaii and if we are lucky he can have them run all the way up one arm, across his face and down the other arm. He mumbled something about his mother not understanding..
After the headsail change Avion changed from a raging rodeo bull to a passive lamb; we needed something in the middle, like maybe a thoroughbred race horse. After shaking out the two mainsail reefs we got our wish and Avion started looping along at just under 8 knots to the proper course. We finish off daylight with dinner that was readied by the Skipper, just at the right time, since we were all hungry from all of the excitement of the course change, wind direction/speed change, and the headsail change. Again we were greeted by a fabulous hot casserole prepared by Kent and Joann of green chilies, cheese and eggs which truly hit the spot. We still have 2 more frozen meals to eat and then it is on to freeze dried backpacking food.
The day in the life of this sailor finished out by crawling into my bunk at 10 P.M. where I quickly fell asleep in anticipating of it all starting over in just 4 short hours., can’t wait.
Day 8 5:30 P.M. (1149 NM from Hawaii)
179 NM made good over last 24 Hours
Juan checked into the SSB Children’s Hour and asked the fleet listening if anyone knew the answer to the age old proverb; If a sailboat broaches in the vastness of the Ocean and no one sees it broach, did it actually Broach? He explained that after 8 days at sea Aero, a Hobie 33, crossed Avion’s path by less than of a mile. Shortly afterwards a small squall passed by with winds in excess of 22 knots. Nico was at the helm and managed to ride the gust out with no issues and we watched the wind line pass Aero and she rounded up. So we were unable to prove or disprove the proverb since we saw it. Jaun did state that there was a benefit to their broach. We benefited because we got an excellent lessen on how to quickly recover from a broach and they benefited because we were sufficiently distracted to sail off our course and possibly lose as much time as them.
Since we are only 114 NM from our halfway point we are looking forward to having our halfway celebration tomorrow assuredly providing Juan with more humorous stories to relate.
avionbianca 