Blog 4.2 Tue.
STATUS REPORT:
Latitude: 9.3 deg S, 127.3 deg W (S. Vancouver Is)
2,300 miles from Galapagos, 3,289 mi from Panama Canal start, 659 mi to Fatu Hiva, Marquesas.
Sunny, warm, beautiful, 16-18 kt. winds from SSE, sailing a broad reach under full mainsail and full jib through 8 - 10' waves from SE. Less hot & sultry.
Only sail change in 48 hours has been to take down the pole holding out the jib as it's not needed with our better wind angle. Still too much wind for our big spinnaker so no 'chute'.
THIS IS WHAT WE CAME FOR
We have had beautiful trade wind conditions for the past three days and hardly have changed the sails! The only negative has been a .3-.4kt current against us which has changed in the last two hours and is now pushing us. Clear skies with bright stars at night and a few small cumulus clouds here and there. Our first night at sea Jan wondered where the Southern Cross was that everybody sings about. She couldn't make it out until i told her it is the shape of a Kappa Alpha Theta kite. She spotted it right away. No rain for days. And now we have under four days to go to reach Fatu Hiva, so the end of this long stretch at sea is in sight.
We are all feeling pretty adjusted to 24 hour sailing while the boat rocks and rolls. Sleeping has gotten easier because our bodies are used to the motion, and we're still probably sleep deprived.
A nice benefit of sailing on a boat of this tonnage (32 tons or three times heavier than our Mystique) is that the boat's motion through the water is more solid and less bumpy. At 56', Quester is a nice size for long-distance cruising because of the tonnage, crew capacity and stowage capacity for all the mechanical equipment and spares, and the $3,000 of food put aboard for our trip.
There is plenty of Scrabble, reading and conversation. As the distance gets shorter, the days seem to get longer. We're getting anxious!
CONSTANT MOTION
There is no break from the motion of the boat caused by the waves and wind. For the first few days it was very irritating. As the body gets used to the motion you have to think about compensating for it less and less. Because most of the motion is side to side (it's hard to accelerate this tonnage forward and backward) you learn to place your feet across the boat rather than fore and aft. This is critical for everything from putting on your shirt to taking a shower to walking across the salon floor. (Imagine what it is like to pee standing up) It is said that it takes most people three days for the body to adjust to sailing at sea. That seems about right. But we do have our share of bruises from bumping into everything.
SLEEPING
Our bunk is somewhere between a twin and double bed in size, so space is tight for two of us. It lies so our feet face forward and heads face aft. So the rolling of the boat means that our bodies roll back and forth, side to side. And the boat is usually heeled so one side of the bed is lower than the other. To get any sleep we use two techniques. One is a lee cloth on the inboard side of the bed (Jan's side) which is a stout piece of sailcloth, rectangular is shape and about one foot high. It is anchored to the bed frame and is held vertically by nylon line run through grommets on the top corners and pulled very tight. This is the lower side of the bed for our trip as we're always on port tack and the bed is on the port side of the boat.
So Jan can roll into the lee cloth and it acts as a bit of a hammock, keeping her from rolling out of bed. I had to find a way to keep from rolling into Jan (remember, it's hot and sticky enough here without touching bodies together!). I found that a thick cotton beach towel we brought with us works to keep me from rolling if I roll it up and wedge myself between it and the hull. So after a few days at sea we got our sleeping system down. If the weather is not too rough and the rolling of the boat is kept to a minimum at night by slowing the boat down, we actually can get some pretty good sleep. When one of us is on watch, or up during the day, the other has the bunk all to themselves and can spread out and really get some sleep.
GETTING EXCITED
We've got three more days at sea before arriving sometime Saturday at our remote anchorage at Fatu Hiva. So it's exciting to think about stopping the boat and exploring this anchorage which is reportedly one of the most beautiful in the South Pacific. Then it will be a daysail to our next anchorage on Hiva-Oa where we might get our first glimpse of civilization, then an overnight sail to Nuku Hiva where there is a town, a restaurant, laundry and wifi - the whole works! We will stay there almost a week and enjoy an Oyster party with all the other boats on this rally - surely some tall sea-tales will be told.
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