Hello
Everyone,
Doing
much better today. Couple of good meals
and a broad reach and an escape from the worst counter current you can imagine
and life is good again.
Had
a period yesterday when I wasn't sure there would be two of us on the boat when
we got back to the dock. Fortunately Dad
and I have been through these types of things before...but nothing like feeling
like you are 16 years old again!
Anyway,
I wanted to be sure to assure all those out there named Mark that Grandpa was
in no way implying anything even slightly negative about the use of the name
Mark for his new chair. He would never
do that!
Yesterday
afternoon the furling line for the genoa chafed through again. That didn't help the moral either. I can't begin to describe the tensions that
this boat must endure to get us across this water. Anything that isn't run perfectly smooth is
doomed.
Anyway,
it calmed way down and the sea flattened last evening. We were able to set the genoa and main full
and sail close hauled on flat seas. It
was glorious. Grandpa slept like the
dead and I actually made him a hot meal.
I touched on this yesterday but the most difficult part of this voyage
is getting good nutrition. I am making a
conscious effort to battle this. Anyway,
I woke Gandpa up for his evening watch with a couple of hot salami melts with
fresh baked cookies for dessert. He was
barely awake when he ate them but I think they helped him a lot. I cleaned up and hopped in bed and of course
just then the wind completely died. So
it was back on deck in my underwear. We
dropped the genoa off its furler so we could do repairs in the morning and
started the engine and steered back on the rhumb line for the Azores. We used the radar to skirt around some thunderstorms
that we chased throughout the night. We
also saw evidence of boats on both our port and starboard but never saw any
lights or marks on AIS...seemed suspicious!
This
morning we woke to lots of sunshine and continued motoring. We had a big breakfast of bacon, eggs and
toast and two cups of coffee and an orange and then had a visit by a pod of 5
dolphins (we never tire of these things).
We also passed a buoy and a high flyer (radar stick) for a long line. So it was fisherman out sneaking around last night.
Then we went to work on our furler(we are real tired of the furler). We
tried a different approach to the furler mechanism and put a bigger diameter
rope on which should be easier for Kim to pull.
We ran the genoa back up through the foil on the furler and just then
the wind came up out of the south and off went the engine. We have been sailing a perfect broad reach
all afternoon of 12-15 kt winds and at this moment life couldn't get much
better. I am able to type on the
computer and everything is flat as it should be. Most days I have to keep my feet on the wall
to stay wedged in to the navigation desk.
According
to the weather file I downloaded yesterday I should be in calm winds and
motoring so we feel blessed by the wind god today. I transferred 10 gallons of diesel down into
the tanks which gets some weight off the deck.
Grandpa has started to study how to splice these new braided ropes I
think both of us would have as much luck trying to solve the rubik's cube. Ah, as I am writing this the wind piped up to
17 kts., bet we will be reefing down tonight as we are expecting the winds to
freshen.
All
for now,
Dad
and Grandpa
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