Justine and Paul had settled in nicely to life at sea, so much so that they’ve both been doing watches on their own these past few nights, although Elaine and Roy are still sitting along side them to answer any questions. From tonight, however, we’re changing the watch schedule a little to mix things up a bit; Justine and Paul will each get an hour overlap with Elaine and Roy’s watches to give them a different perspective on doing a watch; Paul will start his watch on Roy’s third hour, then overlap on Elaine’s first hour, then Justine will start on Elaine’s third hour and overlap on Roy’s first hour. This will allow both Roy and Elaine to fully establish a comfort level with both Justine and Paul before considering the move to the next stage. This will have the additional benefit of plugging any knowledge gaps Justine and Paul may have on doing a watch.
On Elaine and Justine’s early morning watch this morning , though, besides the wind being rather flaky, the radar picked up a few “orphan cigars”, which allowed Justine to experience this situation and what to do. We also continued to have S/Y Newbee for company, giving her the experience of dealing with a yacht in very close proximity.
However, with the wind getting more flaky with each passing minute, the decision was taken to bring the headsail over to the port side and continue on a broad reach rather than wing-on-wing.
So, after elaine altered our course, with Justine’s help, we brought the headsail over to the port side. There was just one incy wincy problem; the starboard barberhauler needed to be replaced with the port one. Since Elaine never leaves the cockpit or helmstation under any circumstances, she was about to furl the headsail and set it without the need for the barberhauler when Roy popped his head out of the saloon door wanting to know if the ladies needed his help. Jumping at the opportunity, the barberhaulers were positioned and off we trundled.
Unfortunately that configuration change had placed all the running rigging ie the preventers and the barberhauler on the port side, together with all the associated squeaks, within earshot of the port aft cabin, where Roy was attempting to sleep. Armed with lubricant to find the squeaks, then readjusting the preventers, he appeared on deck for the second time before eventually retiring to bed.
Elaine and Justine’s efforts, however, were rewarded with a stunning moonset as the day broke in the east, followed by a beautiful sunrise. Definitely one for the books to reminisce on in our old age; watching a moonset in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean together. We’ve done some crazy things over the years as friends, but this definitely takes the cake.
Shortly thereafter Roy woke up early to make us breakfast; freshly baked English muffins with bacon, which went down like a treat, although Justine skipped the bacon.
After breakfast the girls were off watch, so Elaine headed to bed. When she woke at around 1230 she was instructed by the Captain to return to bed, since she was still off duty; she’d forgotten we were moving the watch schedule by an hour to coincide with the sunrise and sunset.
However, she’d barely dosed off, when she was woken by Roy; he needed her help on deck after a shackle had come undone on the mainsheet, something that has never happened before and everything was inspected before we left Las Palmas, including replacing the cable ties with ceasing wire to be sure, to be sure. So much for that bright idea! The ceasing wire had actually broken and the bolt had unscrewed itself. That, of course, meant almost a repeat of what we’d done during the night last night; remove the barberhauler, furl the headsail, remove both preventers, centre the traveller of the mainsail, sheet in the mainsail, turn into the wind, drop the mainsail, repair the shackle, raise the mainsail, turn back on course, slide the traveller back to the port side, sheet out the mainsail, reattach both preventers, unfurl the headsail, reattach the barberhauler and, voila! Who said sailing across an ocean was easy!
By then it was just past lunchtime, so once Roy and Paul were fed and watered they scuttled off to their respective cabins; Roy to nap and Paul to examine the inside of his eyeballs.
By 1500, we were enjoying a SOG (Speed Over Ground) of anything up to 8.9 Kts in 11-14 Kts of wind out of the northeast, putting us on a COG (Course Over Ground) of 265T; we were heading west at last!
After dinner; jambalaya, complements of Roy, we implemented the new watch schedule, allowing Elaine and Paul to be off watch initially. Unfortunately, Elaine was unable to sleep with the cacophony going on below deck, not surprising when she heard our SOG was 10 Kts. Paul didn’t sleep either, given that he had had a really good sleep this afternoon, so good, in fact, Justine had to wake him for dinner.
A few minutes into Elaine’s watch, with Paul having been on watch with Roy for an hour already, he spotted ominous looking dark clouds to our stern. An initial look at the radar didn’t reveal anything, but a few minutes after that, the isolated squalls popped up. Towards the end of Paul’s watch with Elaine he headed to bed, while she waited on Justine to come on watch a little later, bringing a fabulous day of sailing to a close.
