After saying our “goodnights” for the second time tonight to Roy and Paul, the girls settled into their routine; a nice cup of tea, accompanied by some or other snack. This morning was ginger biscuits for Justine and a slice of toast with honey for Elaine, throwing in a ginger biscuit for good measure. Our late night watch usually involves a chocolate of sorts with a cup of tea, but since the supply of chocolate is somewhat limited, the early morning watch requires us to be a bit more restrained.
With Justine taking charge of the watch, Elaine relaxed next to her and was on hand for any queries. Before we knew it, the first hour was over. It certainly helped, though, that the waxing gibbous was still hung in the sky to light our way, although we had to forgo our stargazing as a result. The morning star, however, couldn’t be mistaken as it shone brightly above the eastern horizon.
During Roy and Paul’s watch we passed the 1/4-way mark, much to everyone’s delight and, during breakfast, we had a friendly call from S/Y Newbee, which was a lovely surprise. While we have had twice daily interactions with other yachts via the SSB/HF radio net, those without an SSB radio hadn’t seen or spoken to another yacht in days, as confirmed by S/Y Newbee; we were happy to oblige.
Just before noon Elaine surfaced to find Justine had already surfaced from her morning nap, while Roy and Paul were on watch. With Elaine up, the boys could go off watch, following which Roy headed to bed and Paul headed off for some quiet time to watch a movie.
By 1300 Justine had completed the SSB/HF radio net, we’d just passed south of 19N and the trade winds seemed steady at 10-15 Kts, although a cross swell had developed and increased to 1.5-2 metres, all of which, nonetheless, allowed us to continue in a southwesterly direction, enjoying a SOG (Speed Over Ground) in excess of 6 Kts, at times reaching 8 Kts; with every knot over 5 Kts we were happy.
The ARC 2023 update had indicated a few yachts were diverting to Cabo Cape Verde for repairs or to refuel, while others who had intended to divert didn’t have the need anymore. The majority of yachts, though, based on the daily position report, like ourselves, were trundling along in the general direction of the Caribbean.
This evening it was Paul’s turn to cook again; this time making a very tasty stir-fried pasta with cream sauce, following which the girls set off to bed. However, given how uncomfortable the sea state had become, particularly the horrible side swell that kept knocking Paw Paw on the starboard side causing her to tip to port, Elaine couldn’t sleep and by 0830, she was back up in the saloon discussing options with the Captain.
With that, Elaine, Roy and Paul donned lifejackets, tethered themselves and started the task of changing course by removing the barberhauler, furling the headsail, removing both preventers, centring the traveller of the mainsail, sheeting in the mainsail, turning into the wind, adding a first reef to the mainsail, turning Paw Paw onto our new course, sliding the traveller to the port side, sheeting out the mainsail, reattaching both preventers, unfurling the headsail, reattaching the barberhauler and, voila, we’d solved the problem; Paw Paw was sailing along smoothly again now that she was sitting in a much better groove to the swell, but as Roy said to Paul: “now you know why we have to be ahead of any weather in this configuration; everything is tied down”, summing up the situation perfectly. It’s fair to say, though, while Elaine and Roy were a tad exasperated at having to do all this in the dark, although the moon was shining brightly which helped, Paul thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
It was close to 2100 before Elaine got back to bed, leaving her with just an hour to sleep before her watch. Thankfully the boys offered to give her an extra hour by staying on watch until 2300. Unfortunately we assumed Justine had slept through all the commotion, resulting in her not getting the memo that she had an extra hour to sleep. Given that her body clock was now in the rhythm, she was up and dressed ready for her watch at 2200, only to be told to go back to bed. Regardless, we were both grateful for the extra hour we’d been compensated, bringing our day to a close a short hour later, while sailing under a beautiful waxing gibbous to light our way and with S/Y Newbee for company, who were about a nautical mile to our starboard side.
