Current Position: 16 05.916’N 121 22.503’W; Course: 254; SOG: 6.1 kt; TWS: 17.8 kt; TWD: 035; TWA: 142; Distance to waypoint (Hiva Oa): 1875 nm;
Comments: Nature played an April Fool’s joke on me. Since I had just got cleaned up, I decided to wear something clean to sleep last night. When I went to the hanging locker, I found everything was soaked … my summer and winter clothes, clean bedding, towels, shoes … everything. A quick taste proved it was salt water. One of the latches for a porthole behind the door, one I cannot normally see and don’t use, was loose, and gallons of seawater must have come through it over the past week or so (I wired the dog ears of the hatch down so it cannot happen again). It is lucky I found out, or everything would have mildewed. In any case, the whole boat has been turned into a clothesline. Everything with zippers had to be rinsed in fresh water (so much for the water I made yesterday). It’s hard enough to keep things dry, now the inside of the boat is like a sauna. The clothes I washed this yesterday morning and were hanging all day outside were still not dry, so it is going to take days to get the things dry enough to store. And, I won’t be able to use the hanging locker because it’s going to take even longer to dry it out. Ironically, I also used the locker to store my extra-absorbent paper towels, which were of course a soggy mess. I am going to dry things in batches and store them in on top of the stuff in the V-berth until I get to the Marquesas, where hopefully I can find a laundry. Since I have turned the cockpit into clotheslines, I cannot even see the wind vane, so I set up the TillerPilot for the night. I was passed by no fewer than ten ships during the night, none closer than 10 nm (this must be a shipping lane from Asia to the Panama Canal). I had sustained winds of 25 kt for long periods (30-60m). Since the sails were unreefed, I adjusted my course to be 250 to reduce the speed, but still surfed 8 kt at times. Also, there was a tendency for the boat to want to round up during the particularly strong gusts, sometimes even 280, but the boat never felt overpowered. I can hear if water is coming across the leeward toe rail, and in general it was not. The forecast is for stronger winds at I travel W. I will reef tomorrow before dusk. My average speed overnight (beginning at 22:00) was 7.3 kt. At times, the boat was surfing almost 9 kt. Despite the fact that I had the course set for 255, the actual course was due west due to the boat rounding up in the gusts, which sometimes hit 30 kt. The forecast is for stronger winds as I travel W. I will reef tomorrow before dusk. Right now, it looks like Thursday morning I will gib and start heading S. My 9:00 progress check shows I have made good 96 nm towards the waypoint. Which is remarkable as I traveled almost due W the whole time. I am without doubt clear of the developing dead zone to the SE of me as it is blowing 25 kt steady. I notice that three sailboats that chose to travel S earlier than me are moving slower. One of them Bandit, who left a day and a half before me from Cabo, was 240 nm closer to the Marquesas, and now it is 200 nm, so I gained 40 miles on it despite the fact it is a larger/faster boat. I spent all day doing a preliminary drying of the clothes, bedding, shoes, etc. … developing a system. It was all made more difficult because the boat was rolling severely, anything hung anywhere outside except right under the hard dodger was just going to get more wet, there was no sun today, and I couldn’t open any of the portholes to get air in the cabin because periodic waves were crashing onto the deck. Nonetheless, by the end of the day, most of the stuff was at least partially dried. It was impossible to coke at the stove today. I ate some crackers and cheese, an apple, half a red bell pepper, and a hard boiled egg. In the afternoon the sea had settled down a bit after the blow last night, so I decided to shorten the sails to prepare for what I anticipate will be a bigger blow tonight. I sheeted the boom and the jib and headed downwind to take some of the load off the sails. I tried to partially furl the jib , but it would not budge. I could see the furling line was wrapped around the outside of the drum, something that happens sometimes when I sail downwind donating periods I went forward to clear the line and noticed a weld in one of the stanchions had failed under the load of a preventer line. I temporarily secured the stanchion, rerouted the preventer, cleared the furler line, and put a reef in the main. I’m going to have to find a welder in the Marquesas. It’s been a busy 24h.
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