So, anyway, today was eventful. We woke with a woman talking on the VHF to another boat. She's from an Aussie cat with 2 kids onboard, a 16 and 11-year old. A rare find to find a teenage boat!! It was a one sided conversation, she was talking to Moana Roa, but we couldn't hear them, only her. From what we gathered, they left Panama on the 9th and sailed past the Galapagos, but did not stop. They were travelling at 9.5 knots while we are at 6.5 knots in most of the fleet here. So, officially they were buzzing us! So unfair!! But Courage offered that if we didn't have spare sheets, ate only what we caught, brought only 2 sets of clothes, no water each, etc, and also upsized our rigging for $30,000, then we too could go that fast. We've (I) opted for slower passage and creature comforts.
The other boats on the net have caught us. 2 of them were about 15 miles north of us, directly. Moana Roa broke a sail, so only has out their Genoa and main, and said they are reefing at night to stop the pounding so it's more comfortable for the people sleeping (and better for the boat). With that plan, we may still be able to hang even with them!
The kids re-enacted Easter egg hunts all morning on the bow, staging them for each other. I think they enjoyed that yesterday. This ended with Valiant and Vitality mangling one all over the cockpit floor. This was less ideal.
So we were sailing well, but at about noon the winds died down, we were going at 4-5 knots, and we decided to get bold and do a sail change. The winds were coming from mostly behind us, so we thought if we put up the spinnaker we could get another knot or two of speed. From a sailing book we have: "Spinnaker - An extremely large, lightweight, balloon-shaped piece of sailcloth frequently trailed in the water off the bow in a big bundle to slow the boat down." Fortunately, this was not our case. Courage was hoisting the halyard, Cassidy pulling it in tight, I was lifting the sail up, trying to keep it from hitting the main, keep it bundled so it doesn't fill until it's up, and lift it so they can hoist it. Well, it was 3/4 up and the wind caught it. I let go so that I wouldn't go flying with it. When it launched, it went straight over to our Genoa, which was coiled and stowed. It wrapped itself around it. We began to pull to free it, but the wind continued to wrap it around and around. We stood in awe. Pulling ropes did us no good, it was too taught. We couldn't unfurl the Genoa because the ropes were all wrapped up in the spinnaker. Fortunately, I took a moment to get my camera and snap a picture or two while we mulled over our options. We tried to turn to backwind it and undo what the wind had done. This was unsuccessful. Fortunately the winds were relatively light or this could have been worse. Finally we untied the bottom ropes, passed it many times around the Genoa until the bottom was released. We then took the sail, spun it around many times until it was coiled up and couldn't take air, and then passed the long coil over the Genoa many times until the top was released. We laid it on the bow, uncoiled it, tied up the sides, and launched it again, this time flawlessly!! We were doing well for an hour or two, then it was back-winding and we were having to aim north again, etc. so we took it down, raised the main and Genoa again. It was light for a few hours, and then picked up again in the evening.
If you follow our satellite trail, you can probably see where we stopped, went backward, and turned a circle or two, then finally headed forward again. I was mostly busy, but a couple of pictures to come. We are thinking that in general, this did not increase our speed by 1-2 knots; rather, we may have lost some time. Since we are not a finely tuned machine at changing sails, we think we should leave well enough alone??
About a 900 foot ship was coming perpendicular to our course this evening. We were watching him, and about 30 miles north of us they took a significant course change. We think they picked up on the other boats' AIS signals that are north of us and redirected. We were not on a collision course (our AIS tells us the expected time to the closest point of contact with the vessel and the closest expected distance based on speeds and directions, it's pretty cool), but it works out nice for us that he completely deterred to miss everyone.
This evening we did our "French for Gummies" with the kids. They get gummy treats if they pay attention and practice their French. It's slow, but it's coming. Vitality is getting the gummy part. She's now asking, "I want to do French." She repeats, but doesn't spontaneously recall any of the words. But she sure is enthusiastic and really likes the gummies. Since Valiant only says "fish," he's not an active participant in the French class. He is an active participant in the gummies though. Vitality got herself an extra pack by voluntarily cleaning up the entire living room floor. Not sure where that came from, but sure hope it happens again!! Definitely willing to encourage that!!
Hydro-generator was out of the water all day today. Courage felt a shaking yesterday, so we managed to pull it out of the water at 7 knots. This is not an easy task since the faster we go, the faster and harder this rope with a propeller on the end is spinning. There was amazing force on the rope. Courage pulled it up; I pulled the rope that he pulled up inward and tried to stop the spinning from back there. It didn't stop the vibration, but we left it up all day. He's not convinced it's working. I think it was working beautifully. We had nice sun today, but the solar panels were mostly in the shade of the main. We are fine for power anyway, but I like the bonus of the hydro-generator. We will have to run a test and see if it's working. Its bearings are getting a bit louder, but I maintain that it's being targeted as a scapegoat for vibrations, etc. and that it's working well. It's called a drogue, so it's also being blamed for us losing the race. Again, I'm calling scapegoat.
Got a couple pictures of a gorgeous sunset this evening. Weather was mostly sun with some clouds today, overall beautiful day.
While we were sitting watching an evening movie, a wave pounded us. Courage and I are up on the sleigh beds, the table in the middle cockpit totally jumped and vibrated visibly! Courage pointed out that we are epoxy, which gives. If we were resin, it could have cracked. That was a doozy. It's just because we're 90 degrees to the waves, and some crash between the hulls. These waves aren't wild or gigantic. Just the occasional timing on one gives us a good wake up.
Shannon
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