Being a methotrexate day for Elaine, which she’d taken at the end of her last watch in order to try and alleviate the nausea side effect, which would undoubtedly be more pronounced as Paw Paw moved around in the choppy sea, she’d woken up feeling absolutely exhausted. It was, however, Justine’s antics with her lifejacket, that had us both rolling around with laughter and that had reenergised Elaine, but, when Justine announced, in total exasperation, after eventually getting her lifejacket on to sit up at the helmstation safely by being tethered, that she’d forgotten to put on her warm jacket underneath her lifejacket, Elaine thought she was going to wet herself with laughter. With that, Justine gave up, removed her lifejacket and settled down to listen to her next audiobook in the warmth of the saloon instead, while munching wine gums.
It was another very dark night after the moon set, given the overcast skies; there wasn’t a star to be seen anywhere, but Paw Paw trundled along regardless.
By 0600 Elaine had to furl the genoa a little, since the wind had dropped even further to around 5 Kts and veered to the south-southeast, slowing our SOG (Speed Over Ground) too. Reluctant to increase the RPM on the engine, she decided that would have to suffice until daybreak when we could hopefully hoist the mainsail again and beat, if necessary. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, but, by that stage, Elaine was too tired to be bothered and headed straight to bed at the end of her watch, with Justine following suit.
That left Roy and Paul to decide what to do and, inevitably, they decided just to leave the headsail as it was. Nothing changed when the girls came back on watch either; it was clearly stacking up to be a very slow day, under partly sunny skies and flat seas.
However, when the wind shifted to the west, with Roy taking a nap, Paul assisted Elaine in jibing Paw Paw, which included switching to the port barberhauler, allowing us to continue to motor-sail. Justine, on the other hand, tried her hand at doing the midday SSB/HF radio net for Paw Paw.
By the time Roy resurfaced, Elaine had hit the wall and really needed her nap, although Justine and Paul seemed fine. Regardless, the Captain decided it was the perfect weather to raise our chicken chute, given that this hadn’t been done since we were in Thailand.
So, with all the rigging in place, the chute was raised without too much fuss and Elaine headed to bed. She’d barely lay down, though, when Roy came to tell her we needed to take it down; the wind had completely disappeared. What a carry-on. This has to be the flukiest weather we’ve ever seen. It truly is all over the board.
So, once the chute was safely down, Elaine really didn’t care what happened next on deck, she was heading to bed and nothing was going to stop her. By the time she surfaced an hour or so later, the boys had caught a fish within minutes of putting the line in the water, much to Paul’s delight, turning our vegetable curry into a fish curry, which Justine prepared for us. It had certainly been an action-packed day!
After dinner and before Elaine and Justine headed to bed, Paul helped Elaine and Roy jibe Paw Paw once more to put us on a more southerly rather than westerly course, in the hopes of picking up the trades as we approach 20N. We have, however, passed over the Tropic of Cancer and tonight under a waxing gibbous, we’re enjoying a peaceful sail.
