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LOG ENTRY DATE: November 30, 2003 The weather continues to be an enigma. . . last night the forecast called for winds to be light (10 knots or less) southeasterlies starting last night, and going into Tuesday, December 2nd. Reason: a low pressure "trough" that extends from the mid Atlantic down to the Windward Islands, apparently sucking the trade winds away from the Caribbean. Instead, though, we currently have good southwesterlies (?!), blowing at 12 to 18 knots. . .. go figure. So, in the meantime, we take it while we have it, and are rushing along on a beam reach. Prior to last night, though, the wind had been consistently light for several days. . . generally east or southeast, at speeds of 8-10 knots. Of the 15 days we've been at sea, my log shows that only four of them have good, consistent winds. Not really what we expected when we envisioned a romp through the trade winds! Still, the light winds have taught us some things. Most important has been the use of our large cruising chute, or "gennaker". Chase's chute is an old symmetrical spinnaker that was cut down to be asymmetrical—meaning that instead of flying the way a traditional spinnaker does (i.e. with one end tied to a sheet, and the other poled out to windward), this sail is "tacked down" to the front of the boat, meaning no pole is necessary. Our first foray with the sail produced the same disappointing results I'd experienced the other two times I'd used it: it would not stay full or hold it's shape downwind. We figured out (much to my embarrassment), that we probably had the wrong ends in use—that the end that should be tied to the deck was being used for a sheet! Ahhhhhhh. . . . . . . . . much better when we end-for-ended it! Suddenly, we had a big sail that would move around with the following wind, keeping itself full, and keeping the boat moving in light air. And, since it raises and lowers in a big "sock", it's easy to control when the wind builds too much. I think I can safely say that without that sail—which we fly alone with no other sails—we would be much further behind where we are now, and would be suffering from the accompanying madness that comes from the slatting main and genoa as you try to push them downwind in light air. Another advantage of the light winds seems to be the general weather: the sun has been shining, and the temperatures in the 90's. We've had to take care not to get too exposed to the sun, and to keep hydrated. . . one is continually sweating even when sitting quietly in the cockpit. We do get the occasional squall, but not enough to warrant collecting any more water, unfortunately. One thing the squalls do bring (besides the maddening effect of taking away all winds once they pass) are the beautiful rainbows. Like sunsets, rainbows don't mean much unless you are there looking at them, but we did see one the other day that took the cake: both ends were clearly visible, with one ending right on top of the boat! Further, it was the most vivid one I've ever seen: there were more bands of color visible than on your "standard" rainbow, including vivid purples and greens, and it was much wider. Our guess was that it was formed by a curtain of rain that started just to our starboard side, no more than 1/2 mile away; the effect was as if it was hung from the sky right next to the boat, for us to examine close-up. Like all good Americans, we celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday. Unfortunately, there wasn't room for a 20 pound frozen Butterball in our fridge, so we pulled off a close second: turkey from a can, stuffing from a box, gravy from a bag, and cranberry sauce from a jar. How much better could fresh be, anyway? We mixed the gravy and turkey together (which is what you end up doing on your plate at home, really), and poured the gravy over the whole ensemble. Tasted great. Canned corn and fresh brownies (yes, freshly baked, compliments of the skipper) rounded out the meal. All accompanied by a couple of bottles of famously inexpensive Spanish Rioja. Speaking of food, we had a dry spell on fishing, due to our inability to fix the reel on our fishing rod. When hauling in a good sized dorado, the ratchet stopped working, meaning one had to keep the line from pulling out of the reel by keeping pressure on the hand crank alone. This resulted in the user receiving bruised fingers from the flailing crank, and thus reduced the popularity of sport fishing on the boat. Despite the best efforts of two doctors (Ed and myself), the patient continually fell into a relapse soon after exiting the operating theater. Fortunately, I remembered the Jack had left a rod and reel on board, which we put into use as a transplant donor—only to find out that it had the same damn problem! So, this time the entire hospital staff turned out for the dual operation, in which both patients were not only saved, but put back into the robust health they had previously enjoyed. To prove it, the next morning Ed hauled in the catch of the trip—a large skipjack—which we steaked and ate both poached, and pan-blackened. We do have a real medical issue on board, though, as Nat has a toe that is prone to some sort of internal infection. He suffered from this earlier this spring, when it was eventually knocked down by antibiotics. Now, it's resurfaced and while it's not debilitating, it's enough to worry us given our distance from shore. As a result, we've contacted the ship's doctor (and partner), John O'Meara for advice. We are following his suggestion on a regimen of antibiotics (Nat brought some with him, and John supplied the boat's medical kit amply with pharmaceuticals as well), and keeping in touch with him twice daily. We are hoping to spare Nat the indignity of having his toe removed by a crew that can hardly put a fishing reel back together properly. We're currently 950 miles from Antigua, and but arrival date is still in question. Certainly, if we keep the speed we have now (7.5 knots), it won't take long—only 5.5 days! But, more realistic (given the forecasts) are speeds of 5 or 5.5, which means an arrival date of 8 days or so from now. We're looking forward to landfall! |
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