By noon of day two we had gone 100 miles and still had the engine on. There was still one more area of reefs to pass but the seas have changed to deep ocean swells. At 3:00 we finally turned the engine off and put up the rest of the sails. Then we called Chris. He had not gotten any of our emails and was totally unprepared to be our security contact and was on Vacation at Bryce Canyon but eventually we got things sorted out and set up a schedule to call.
With the engine off, our speed has dropped to 2 knots and we are headed too far north and not enough east. It is stormier tonight and at one point Alan tacked south to avoid a large storm cloud full of lightning. By the time I came back for the midnight watch we were headed north east again and the sky had mostly cleared. I could use Orion to steer again. Just at dawn the crescent moon rose. Huge and beautiful with the shape of the dark moon clearly visible in the arms of the crescent. We won’t see the moon again for several days and then it will be setting at dusk.
With the sky so clear during the day we were in serious danger of sunburn and heatstroke so I dug out a piece of shade cloth that I had picked up in Mexico and rigged an awning over the cockpit. Not elegant but it does the job, at least on this tack. We discovered later that on a downwind run it blocks the view of the sail. When the wind got down to 7 knots we took the sails down and turned the engine on and headed east for several hours. With the engine on we use the Raymarine auto pilot. We usually don’t use it under sail because it uses so much battery power. With the sails up we use the Monitor wind vane which has it own problems.
Finally, on day 5, the wind shifted and we were able to head mostly east and a good speed. At one point we actually got up to 7 knots. Unfortunately it did not last and by midnight we were once again battling NE winds with gusts to 20k and short choppy seas. So on we slogged, getting closer but still way too far north and not enough east. Our preferred course takes us along the southern edge of the island and through a fairly narrow pass which looks to have a lot of shallow spots. Then it is a run down the north side to the harbor at Apia. The weather forecast shows a fairly strong blow coming in 2-3 days we needed to be in the harbor at Apia by then. We are within 100 miles so we decide to turn on the engine and make a run for it.
Unfortunately at this point everything started to go wrong. The wind had build to 15-20 knots directly on the nose with accompanying swells. Shortly after I came on watch at midnight, the autopilot went completely off course and when I put it on standby so that I could hand steer I still could not hold the course. It was like something was wrapped around the rudder or under the keel pulling us north. Alan had just gotten to sleep but he came back up to see what was going on. We disconnected the autopilot completely and checked everything we could think of to see if something was caught or dragging. I even took the boat hook and prodded along the rudder to see if I could feel anything. As far as we could tell, everything was fine. Eventually whatever it was seemed to let go and I could once more hand steer. Poor Alan had once more just settled down to sleep when I realized that the jib sail had come loose from where it was tied down to the bowsprit and was dragging in the water. Alan took the tiller while I went forward to drag it back on board. Luckily it was the light weight Genoa and not the heavy mizzen and also very luckily the sheets were still secured to the winches so they helped to hold the sail down and also did not themselves flip into the water and wrap around the prop. No sooner was the sail secured than I realized that the anchor was starting to come loose. Once more Alan got up and staggered forward to secure it.
Shortly after dawn, we gave up and hove to. We are too tired. We still have 100 miles to go and are only making 1-2 knots headway against the wind, even with the engine on. The weather forecast still shows a strong front coming through just about the time we will hit the narrow pass and we are likely to run out of fuel at this rate. On top of everything else I seem to have caught a cold just as we left Savusavu which is making me more tired than usual. We got several hours sleep, ate breakfast, discussed the situation and decided to give it up and head for Wallis, directly west. We are so close but we are not going to make it. We called Chris and turned around.
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