The wind is still super light when I wake up so I decide to leave the twin sails up while I get ready for my day. The fingers are still giving me grief so I will try a more elaborate solution. Taking out box one of my floating hospital.
The tools, neosporine, medical tape and gauze.
The result, gauze full of local antibiotics held by heavy duty medical tape. This should hold.
It looks impressive but really it is only so it sticks!
then I decide to check email and send a few to get weather information. I will send my first direct update to the blog that way. I use AxcessPoint and Iridium and everything works fine.
It's all dry enough to handle the situation. You can see the Doyle spinnaker I have been using in its bag.
The forecast is for more wind ahead hitting in about 60 hours or so but super light until then. I could head way way South to get even more wind but it wouldn't be worth it (assuming the forecast is right which I have learned by now is not likely) as the extra distance would not be compensated by the additional couple of knots of wind I would find. so I gybe back on course to Hawaii for the day and decide to take short hitches South whenever I can and hope for that bigger wind to hit.
Still not racing in my mind but I just can't live with a slow boat, or rather an inefficient boat if I have information to make it more efficient.
Unfortunately, more bad news coming with the emails. I call Nathan and for some reason I feel the need to cry over that situation.
I know that more food will make me feel better so I eat a little something.
More debries spotted, this time closer to the boat. I see bottles, plastic or glass usually, something that hasn't or won't decompose and that has air trapped in it that will keep it floating. Makes me a little sad.
Somber mood today. And it is really light air. I do 4.5 knots with the twin sails up, 5.2 knots with the kite up. I am too bored with the twin sails up so I put the kite up but I need to heat up in order to achieve this speed.
There is a bit more wind in the afternoon and the boat hits 6 knots pretty consistently while I am able to square back and head down, more toward Hawaii. I am on starboard pole again. I gybed with the twin sails up (it makes gybing easy!)
The wind dies almost completely in the afternoon. I take a nap on deck, cloud-bathing. It is very soothing. I leave my hand hanging in the water. This is kind of a day off...The boat is moving but I am not actively trimming. I have been getting about 6 to 7 hours of sleep during the light air stuff and I am growing impatient. I hate light air stuff...I have a lot of respect for sailors who do well in it as it requires extreme concentration, huge mental will and excellent trimming and driving skills. I get better at it all the time, but I still can't like it.
All about creating apparent wind.
The wind picks up in the evening and I put the kite back up (it was drooling when the wind died to almost nothing), and head up on a reach again.
I stay up most of the night, until my eyes closed - things look pretty predictable so I should feel good about leaving the kite up but I have noticed a hole on the bottom of Doyle so I take it up, put the head sail up and I will put up another spinnaker tomorrow after I get up.
With the wind, the night is chillier but it feels good to be moving again. I need a hat and a jacket on top of my fleece and underpants that night to stay on deck. I rejoice at the perspective of a night out. I can't see any stars, it's all covered in clouds. I don't really care since my solar panels are not working. Mr Fusion hasn't needed to give me much since the AP doesn't take much and I have been doing a lot of hand steering, also frankly to try to keep my mind off of things. There is a resolution that is starting to make it into my mind and on which I plan on acting the following day.
My fingers are still painful so I redo the dressing before I turn the boat into night mode.
The AIS alarm goes off and I see a name displayed 'Clipper MA'. I call on the VHF several times, calling the ship by its name but I get nothing. Finally I see its lights on port. Absolutely no risk of collision. I give up the VHF and just watch the ship pass by. Periodically the AIS still goes off since the ship still transmits.
My first meeting with another ship. There are people out there. Strangely enough the people I have missed so far are my cats. I have talked to Nathan and my family every couple of days and I will probably increase the frequency as I get closer as it won't be so important to keep my minutes on the prepaid card. I have felt sad and mostly sorry for myself, but not really missed people. Feeling people close-by sends a wave of homesickness and I miss my friends too. I close my eyes and relive happy moments with them. This is enough to put me to sleep. huh oh, I fall asleep at the helm! I wake up as the boat movements have changed, set the timer, autopilot and go back to my dreams.
Tomorrow will be a special day. Half way to Hawaii. And time to act on today's resolution.
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