Sailing Day 4

There are large squalls in front and beside us. We rode a nice squall this morning for a little over an hour. It was great and we caught about 20 gallons of water. In addition Shannon had time to clean the decks and grab a nice shower!

To make power while we sail we tow a propeller hooked up to a generator. Well that is all fine and dandy as long as you don't back over it. So last night when one of the squalls hit, the first thing it did was nearly reverse the wind direction. Hence the boat started sailing backwards, the autopilot alarm went off, and the sails started to flap loudly. After pressing pause on the movie (The Gods Must Be Crazy), we walked outside and said "hey! a squall!". 'Course since it was quite dark outside, and our eyes were used to looking at the bright TV we were pretty much blind. So I am not really sure how everyone decided it was a squall.

As my eyes adjusted, I noticed the rope to the propeller generator went right to the prop/rudder area. With the help of Shannon and the boat hook (Loyal did not come to help even though I called) we had it cleared, and soon we were off sailing on some jaunty course that worked for the wind/sail combination.

For night shift I take watch until around 11pm at which time Cassidy wakes up and takes it to around 2:30. And then she goes off to bed and Loyal is supposed to take the remaining watch until sunrise.  Not to cause problems, but Loyal doesn't even adjust the course or the sails, even if they are flapping like mad! I even have to close his hatches when it rains!

More adventures to come including the story of the "saltwater banana bread" involving Valiant!!!

Courage