|
|
|
HomePeter's LogsPhotographsThe BoatThe Crew |
|
LOG ENTRY DATE: June 13, 2003 The promised good weather is upon us... sunny, hot (85F), and clear. No wind to speak of, either. Decent wind last night, but due to navigation error in which in which true and magnetic were confused (the skipper's fault, as everything on board is—just ask the captain of the Stark, whose destroyer got hit by an Exocet missile... he lost his command, even though he was in the head at the time...). So, 95M got "corrected" to 103M, and we were on our way.... south! Figured out the problem this morning, just in time to increase speed to 7 knots—for one hour before the calm set in. Well, at least we got some easting in! Now motorsailing at 5.8 knots at low r.p.m.'s to conserve fuel. Finally out of a counter-current that plagued us for almost 36 hours... since we were 50 miles south of the Gulf Stream, I can only guess that it was some sort of eddy. Problem is, that it must have been an warm eddy in a place where only cold eddys should be, as it had a gyre that was clearly east to west. What GSophiles call an "anomaly". Regardless, it gave us a head-current of up to 2 knots for some time, finally lessening to .5 knots yesterday afternoon. Gooseneck continues to be a problem. The machine screws that hold it to the mast loosen and strip as the boom moves. We've fashioned a several "clamps" around it, including one made of stainless cable sail pennants, drawn tight with a bolt. The others are large hose clamps. Hopefully, we can keep it settled enough to avoid it's coming loose enough to move around. The autopilot failed yesterday, but that turned out to be fairly simple: the hydraulic ram came unscrewed from the joint where it connects to the rudder post. Only problems is that the Landing School must have installed that thing either while the boat was gutted, or by hiring pygmies... the space is so confined that it's difficult to have two hands in it, let alone see what it is you are handling. Nonetheless, it got put back together, and is happily back at gulping down amphours at a rate that puts all of our other equipment—combined—to shame. We're about to cross the 45th meridian, which means two important things: a time change (one hour ahead), and a bottle of wine from Charlie Woodworth, who has designated one for each 15 degrees we cross. To add incentive, the bottles increase with quality as we head east. For the Azores, we have a bottle of champagne provided by my good friends at the health club Mike, Seb, Peter, and Ron. So, we're in pretty good shape for goals and how to celebrate them. Forecast calls for light winds today (Thursday) through tomorrow morning, then picking up through Friday night, when we could see gale force winds from a low that's moving east from the Maritimes. Saturday and Sunday promise wind as well, so we are fairly comfortable with our decision to run the engine for a part of the day today. Jack has been enthusiastic in his hunt for fish, but has come up empty handed so far. This despite three rods and a bag full of lures and accessories that certainly look lethal enough. Since we are now out of casseroles, and into things like spaghetti, we're looking forward to a little sushi... we even have the wasabi and soy sauce. |
|
|
home | complete logbook | boat | crew | cruisemaine.com |
|
|
|
