Update Day 19?

Yesterday we lost 3 hours on our arrival time when we re set the ship’s clock from Hawaii time to PDT. The watch schedule got another bunch of notes scribbled all over it, totally confusing a few crew members to the point where they have no idea why they get breakfast for lunch and stand watches totally out of order.

 

The last 24 hour saw the wind build into the high 20’s for most of the late afternoon and evening. Bashing along for a while at 8+ knots into a rapidly building sea way, we kept reducing sails until we only had a scrap of jib out with the double reefed main and also bore away for a more comfortable ride. Most of the night we sailed at a fairly comfortable 6 knots with only the occasional wave breaking over the boat every ½ hour or so. Did I mention the showers that kept things wet as well? Nobody has been sea sick or fallen down moving around the boat, which has been challenging recently with all the bashing and rolling.

 

Anyway, everything is holding together well, except the mirror door in the bathroom that broke open and scattered glass all over the head when we fell sideways of a roller a couple of hours before midnight. Good think we have a professional ‘Furniture Medic’ on the vessel!  The leech line for the main parted sometime overnight, so we have a little extra flutter adding to the noise of crashing waves.

 

Suffice to say that the gourmet galley shut down operations for a little while. Fortunately everyone seems happy with the meals consisting of the last ‘frozen’ Lasagna served in a dog bowl, cups of soup, oatmeal and our endless supply of power bars.

 

Winds have now moderated to the high teens and we expect them to further reduce this evening. When they do there will be mandatory showers ( we have a good supply of fresh water left ) and change of clothes for everyone. Some of the dirty laundry may have to go in the garbage locker aft, joining a pair of particular oppressive smelling sneakers that got relocated from the interior of the boat yesterday with all hazmat precautions in place.

 

We are currently 690 NM from the Gate and can’t seem to get Tiki to do much more than 140 NM per 24 hours made good, so we are probably now looking at a Tuesday arrival.

 

Bligh