Before I continue my story, I am realizing that I forgot to talk about two other casualties: a turning block unscrewed itself after the windy reach. I still have the block and I can screw it back on and I also have a spare which I decided to rig as it was less work. The block is now in the nav table. There was also a fairlead for the line that adjusts the position of the jib fairlead that got unscrewed. It looks like I have all the parts and can 'rescrew'. Also in nav table.
Now back to the story.
The rest of the night is overcast, and with a few drops of rain here and there but dry enough for me to sleep in the hammock. I only wake up a couple of times and each time, the bird is still there. Once it seemed to be completely asleep. Life on board for Clandestino is clearly worse when the autopilot is driving as the motion of the boat makes it harder for the bird to keep its balance.
I wonder how long the bird will stay on the boat. When I get up in the morning I notice that the solar panel and some of the stern is starting to be covered in bird shit. Of course, I just welcome a shit factory on board. From then on, I will immediately know if I am too deep as I will start smelling the bird shit. When I am high enough to keep the kite full, I am not directly downwind of the shit and I don't have to smell it too much...but imagine sailing with the Farallones islands on your stern.
When I switch on the autopilot, the bird turns its head toward me as if it was saying 'Dude, the quality of this ride has just gone down. What's going on?'
I am amazed at how seemingly unfrightened the bird is. I can move about the boat and do my business and it doesn't see to care at all. It is only if I make a motion toward the solar panel that it starts looking at me funny.
In the morning, it takes off. I am certain that it is a goodbye but about 10 minutes later, it is back on the boat and takes its place on the solar panel.
Except for a little bit of sun around midday, the entire day will be overcast. I check my position report and unless something dramatic happens like breaking a boom or losing a rudder, I should be in Hanalei Bay the following day. I have to wait a bit for the position report. I am too early. I decide to have breakfast in the hammock while taking videos and pictures of Clandestino. This is really a cool place to be. I can see the sails and I can see the bird.
I assume that these deep sea birds have a fantastic sense of orientation otherwise, they couldn't find their way back to land. I am also now convinced that they must have no sense of smell as they spend their entire day sitting in their own shit.
I really like the company. It is nice to see some lifeform around me. Strangely, this bird attracts others. A lot of the other birds that were before just flying around now are flying closer and start TALKING to Clandestino who royally ignores them. There is a lot more bird activity around the boat which results in a lot more birdshit on deck. Oh well...
I check my position - I am still ahead of Libra on corrected time but Libra is 2 miles ahead of me boat for boat, South of my position. I want to stay North for sure, no need to sail extra distance and I have plenty of wind. The wind might be more weird close to the islands but will be tough to tell from where I stand.
Libra has picked up speed so it looks like it's bowsprit issue has been dealt with. I start looking around for land even though I know that I am still over a hundred miles out and Kauai will be the closest island (when you do Pacific Cup, you often first see Maui in the distance on your way over)
The wind is a bit light but it is still morning. Overcast could mean more Black Cloud action which I hope will not be the case. I now speak freely to Clandestino. In French. I have decided that Hawaiian boobies are bilingual. Boobish and French.
'You see Clandestino, tomorrow I am due to arrive in Hawaii. Is that where you live? You have a girlfriend there? Oh wait, are you a guy or a girl? How do I tell?'
Since the wind remains a bit light in the morning but not so light that I need to fight for apparent wind and keep trimming the kite, I decide to enjoy my newly found freedom with the autopilot, let my thoughts wander and keep talking to Clandestino who is listening very attentively as you can tell from the picture above.
I go down below to put on a clean shirt. After all I am arriving tomorrow. Might as well not smell too much. Mind you, given the general smell of the boat, I bet that no one will notice how I smell...I then hear 'zeeeeeeep'. I rush back up and I see no bird on the solar panel!! I look back and Clandestino is sitting in the water about two boat lengths away. It must have slid off the solar panel. I suppose that our story is over...
I was wrong. About 5 minutes later, Clandestino is hovering back over the boat and 6 minutes later, it has landed again on the solar panel. Phew. Thanks.
'Hey Clandestino. Sorry about that. I will take the helm in a minute ok, so that shouldn't happen again.'
I wonder what it will be like to finish. Will I be seeing some cool looking shirtless surfers near the beach? What if Elise dismasts just now? What if I break my rudder? What if I end up taking another week to arrive?
What if I am wrong in my navigation and end up in Maui? What if I fall asleep and wreck Elise on a reef?
Nah. I should stop worrying about what I can't do anything about...
The real worry is that I don't want to lose my lead on Libra. This probably means not sleeping if sleeping means taking the kite down. I will never be able to look at myself in a mirror if I lose to Libra because I was sleeping on the job. It will be fine if I lose to Libra because she sails better - of course it will be fine, but only if I push myself to my limits. I slept really well last night, and I know that I can sleep all that I want after I finish so tonight is likely to be an up all night type of night.
I am now using Clandestino for performance reason. The faster the boat goes, the less it rocks and the more comfortable Clandestino is.
'So Clandestino, I am going to Hanalei. Want me to drop you off along the way or is that your destination too?
I am surprised as how far the bird shit can reach...and how often birds do shit.
It must get real hot on that solar panel...
After I take the helm again, Clandestino seems to be comfy enough to fall asleep...and it must be fast asleep as I get away from the helm to take the picture and it stays there happily.
REALLY fall asleep.
'Well, you're just like my cats Clandestino. Always sleeping while I do all the work.
It gets hotter during the day and the wind really picks up. The boats starts surfing handsomely again and I am having a ton of fun. I look back from time to time but the bird has really settled. For a while, it seems to be panting!! Just like a dog!
After a short while, a black bird lands right in the cockpit, on my legs first, then slides behind the main sheet post and struggles to get back up. I am startled and it takes me a minute to figure out what is going on. I don't want to try to help the bird because I am worried about breaking a wing or something. I look back and notice that Clandestino is still on the panel, and doesn't seem to care at all about that other bird. I thought it was Clandestino who had missed its landing strip.
Finally the bird manages to get on the bench. It stays there for an hour or so, and then hop onto the deck and disappears on the side into the water. How bizarre.
With the sun, the batteries are charging fine so I run the autopilot as much as I can without pissing off Clandestino. Unfortunately, even the small solar panel at the back is starting to get bird shit on it. The bird shit you see on the bench is from that other bird.
Like every morning (I now do my 'chafe and all around' patrol in the morning before I put the kite up) I scooped up a lot of dead fish (and I saved a couple during the day). I brought them to the solar panel while Clandestino was out getting his breakfast.
Clandestino looked at it in disdain. Probably not fresh enough.
Now, that other bird in the back is Clandestino's date. More later. It flew around the boat all afternoon...
I don't know what it is so if you can help me identify it, would be most grateful. I called the bird Calimera. (look up Calimero to understand)
By the way, here is a picture of a juvenile boobie from the Internet so I think that Clandestino was a young boobie:
And this is the bird that kept playing with my sails (a brown boobie)
This is the bird that landed in the cockpit
And these were the really beautiful birds that flew around quite a bit, from a thousand miles out
The wind is now up and I am racing again. There are actually squalls starting earlier in the afternoon. I look back at Clandestino which doesn't seem to be bothered by the rain at all.
Meanwhile in Hanalei Bay, Scaramouche takes line honors, Frolic finishes first on corrected time, Bandicoot 2nd and Archimedes 3rd - Archimedes is also 1st in my division.
Here is Cliff on the welcome boat (Sea Squirrel)
I am just focusing on the sailing again, just looking at boat speed, keeping the boat surfing, the kite full. I have water and food on deck. Breakfast is really the only 'real meal' I take. The rest is just food every couple of hours, and if you add everything up it does constitute series of meals. At this point, I want a fresh salad...and a cold drink.
Surrounded by clouds again...full of rain and weird wind shifts...
Not much of a final sunset...but worth a picture anyway...
I decide to stay on port tack for the night as I can see the squalls lining up. I will basically rain all night and it will be very windy. Average boat speed that night will be 8.5/9 knots. I will see surfs of 15 knots more than once and most of the speed will be in the teens. Clandestino will have to hang tight!
It takes all my attention to keep the boat under control under a couple of these black clouds - like a mini storm. I have no idea how much wind there is but I am guessing over 30. It is the most I have seen in the entire trip under spinnaker. Even the zipping around, zigzaging between waves was less wind. No way I can use the AP and the wind will only abate very close to the finish line and the islands, like within 10 miles of them - and not by much!
The AIS goes off many times that night - I see lights from time to time which I try to call on the radio (leaving the mic on deck as I can't leave my station at the helm) but getting no response. I am guessing that there are fishing boats.
At some point, a white bird lands first on deck, and then hop onto the solar panel. It is the same bird as the bird that was flying around the boat all afternoon. Clandestino seems fast asleep. The other bird settles right next to Clandestino and seems to be falling asleep too. There is too much wind for me to be able to take a picture sadly so I don't have a record of that. Both birds stayed there for hours.
It's only in the early hours of the morning that the white bird decides to literally pick at Clandestino which did not like being woken up that way. So I hear a loud Kwak followed by a series of Kwaks. About 5 minutes later, Clandestino has booted off the panel and onto the ocean the white bird. The white bird tries to land back on the solar panel six times but each time after a shower of Kwaks, Clandestino boots it off the panel. It finally gives up.
I feel so sad for that bird. It might have been super tired too.
I say to Clandestino. 'Hey, you know, I don't mean to be getting in the middle of your one night stands, but I thought I'd remind you that this is MY boat, and that I can choose to have any guest I want and I kinda likes that white bird. I am sure that it can manufacture shit just as fast as you do, but it's no reason to deny it a spot on the solar panel.'
The rest of the night is spent flying. At some point I sense fatigue catching up with me and I start singing to keep awake. Works great. Only lasts for an hour or so. I should really be getting down below and figure out if I need to gybe, or head up, to optimize my approach toward the islands. I figure that I am only 50 miles away now given how fast I have been going.
However, since my hand held GPS is now completely kaput, I would have to go down below which meant leaving the helm, which meant dropping the kite which meant slowing down. I couldn't bring myself to doing it. I wasn't sailing away from the island but at that point even 2 degrees North of South can mean more miles at the end. However, with 10-15 knots boat speed and bang in the middle of a mini storm, I decide to stay put.
This reminds me of the fabulous downwind off Point Conception during Coastal Cup. Same type of fun. I wish this would never end...even though it feels at times like I will just collapse in the arms of the welcome committee because I will be too tired to stand.
Tomorrow will be arrival day.
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