I do a second watch today, the 4 am to 7am. We have a full main and genoa out and are flying along about 80 miles off the north coast of Venezuela in winds that gust to 35 knots but the sea is smooth and Jeannius is in her element. So am I. When it’s like this it is absolutely beautiful. A crescent moon is already up when I come on watch so visibility is good.
Mike wakes up from his sleeping position in the salon just as I think it might be getting a little too lively weather-wise. He comes out looks at the displays and I get a mild ticking off for not waking him. I had checked the radar and could see there was no nasty weather system that was sending the gusts, no reason to suppose that the gusts would stay constant, and the sky was clear, but if the wind had continued instead of being a gust, with the amount of sail we had up I could have had difficulties with my rather limited knowledge of the ‘raggy bits’! Lesson learned.
A beautiful sunrise shows that we have more suicide victims on the trampolines. Another four flying fish have landed during the night. Why can’t a nice tuna do the same!!
Photos: A beautiful day dawns
Mike notices that the pin in the shackle at the bottom of the genoa has started to become unscrewed and with his lifejacket on he crab walks down to the bow to sort it out.
Photo: Mike fixing something while the boat heaves and pitches
When Mike e-mails our positions (we still have no luck with the SSB radio and no one is within reach for the VHF). He also sends an e-mail to my sister with a little speech from me to wish her well at her retirement party tonight. We send the blog updates too.
Photo: Some bigger waves today
At 2 pm Mike decides to put two reefs in the main and gives Jim and I our instructions. This is the first time we have done this with the new rigging while sailing and it worked very well. All we need to do now is mark the reefing lines at the point where they go through the jammers so we know exactly when they are in the right position without having to stick our heads out of the cockpit and look at the lines going through the boom. It works very well and we don’t even lose any speed as more wind is now getting to the genoa. After this we have a smoother sail although we are still going too fast to fish.
Late in the afternoon the sea turns really lumpy and uncomfortable and as there is no dinner to prepare (thank god for yesterday’s leftover bolognaise) I take to my bed for a nice sleep, not waking up until around 5 pm, just in time to find Mike fixing something else, but this time without his life jacket. He gets a ticking off!
Photo: Caught you!!!
I grab my sudoku book, determined to finish the last one in the book. It’s one that I haven’t been able to complete even though I have gone back to it many times. I won’t allow myself to start the next book until this one is complete. Jim sits and looks at it too and fresh eyes eventually find the elusive number. As a reward, (and as I feel distinctly seasick now from looking down) I let Jim finish it.
Photo: Two heads are better than one when finding that elusive Sudoku number!
Feeling queasy doesn’t stop me eating my dinner though, nor having seconds. Well, if you are going to be sick, it’s better to bring something up than dry heave all the time!
Photos: Jeannius at dusk
I have a shower and wash my hair and it’s amazing that I am able to stand upright in the bathroom as we are all over the place but I have to give up down below and not dry my hair otherwise I would have had to put my head down the toilet, so it’s poodle head for the next couple of days and definitely no photos. When I go to bed, sleep eludes me (I wonder why) for some time. I can afford to lie and wait though as I only have one watch, 1 am to 4 am.
By the way, if you have put any comments on the blog recently, we have not been able to publish them but will when we get internet connection in Panama.
Our midday position is: 13 deg 40 min N, 69 deg 19 min W
Distance so far: 488 nautical miles
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