Day 14 - Pacific Crossing - 5th April

5th April: 15.20 (Add 7 for UTC)
Course needed: 263
Course steered: 255-275
Speed: average 5.1 knots
Miles sailed: 1593
Miles to go: 1440
Lat: 7° 37'S
Long: 115° 1'W
Wind: 9-15 apparent, 150 true?
Plan: Sail direct for Hiva Oa


Oh dear. Another problematic day. We sailed hard through the night with the usual staysail/main setup. The angle was good with wind more from the South, few waves, 10-14 knots of breeze. But. Lots of adverse current so we were only making 4.5 knots SOG.

So this morning we decided it was just about OK to fly the parasail. Good decision? Probably not as it turned out. We made a bit of a pig's ear getting it up but there it was. Then with 14 knots apparent almost on a beam reach we couldn't get it set so we decided to bring it in again. The annoying blue rope (you know the one Peter) got caught up and whilst we were sorting that the port sheet went overboard. Luckily it wasn't caught in the prop and we recovered it. However a fishing line did get caught in the prop and is giving a nasty noise at low revs. We need to decide what to do. If it's calm enough Gilly (by far the better swimmer) might go overboard for an inspection before we decide on further action (yikes I hear you say!).

Meanwhile we are sailing beautifully back with the white sails that we took in and then re flew. The big parasail is hard work and it took over an hour to get back to where we started.

And then one of the mast partners dropped out. Mehalah has a weird system. The mast is keel stepped so it goes through the deck down to the bottom of the boat. Instead of being fixed permanently at deck level there were four compressible high density spacers that aligned the mast as it passed through the deck. As the mast flexes they take up the slack. Today one of those spacers dropped out and I think looking at it we might already have been one short as we had noticed some movement earlier in the passage [John, Mariel - do you remember on the Atlantic crossing we thought the mast was moving too much?]. So now it moved more as the stresses on the rig varied. How to solve? Well we found some pieces of old fender, cut some pieces out and, as the mast flexed backwards we were able to force them into position. It's not pretty and cable ties were also involved but actually the mast is now moving less than I can remember. Another job to add to the Hiva Oa list of repairs required.

And yes, we are now officially over halfway with a belated 'party' at lunchtime. Tasty wraps, a not quite gone off grapefruit and date, almond and coconut balls. All washed down with rum (with an offering too for Neptune).

It really is a lovely trade wind sailing day today with an arrival time of 11-12 days currently predicted. We shall see!

Still no ships or sailing boats though we hear that several of our friends are not all that far away. Most, I think are sailing faster than us.

One interesting fact is that with all the sail and parasail hoisting I am getting stronger! Usually the main has a nasty habit of getting a batten caught in the lazyjacks just as I reach the limit of my manual hauling. But now I can get the sail past this tricky point before needing to resort to the winch. Good news.

Update: Just seen a beautiful Regal Tern, very chunky more like a gull.


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