Stretching, ducking and diving it

It has been several days now since we left Yokohama where we made
another stop to take in water and more fuel. Our watermaker does not
work and with 4500 miles of no land ahead of us it is important not to
get too thirsty. I was a bit nervous leaving port with a wobbly mast
limited water supplies and limited fuel supplies whilst knowing that the
fleet has been battered by storms. The toll was one medevac (skipper
with broken leg),one dismating after being rolled by a wave and a
companionway hatch ripped off the deck, steering wheel bent and two
people dangling over the side on the lifelines after a massive wave hit
the boat.
Our approach to the crossing is one of control, not pushing anything and
just getting across swiftly but safely and in time for the next start.
The winds we have had so far have been strong enough to stretch the

steel cables that hold up our mast and we have been tightening it on a
regular basis watching the movement of the mast in all conditions see if
it bends in the right place. The rigging was so stretched at some point
that the mast inverted when we were going downwind quite a spectacle
but not very reassuring: it did make the boat fly though. Hopefully it
is now stretched enough and we have it set correctly for the rest of
the journey.
The other attention lately has been going out to the weather and the
gruesome depressions that have been developing near us. We spent the
last few days monitoring and eventually ducking a massive low that
is creeping up from behind us. In order not to end up on the wrong side
we had to divert nearly 220 miles to the south east. The low now passes
behind us and we are experiencing strong winds from behind us instead
of a hammering 50 knots on the nose. Next challenge is a high pressure
area which follows this low and will be with us in a few days time.
Shall we try and jump this one or duck it or just let it take us over?
 
We have seen beautifull dolphins playing around the boat despite the
rough weather and we have been in the pooring rain most of the time
since we left Japan. Our generator  kicked the bucket last night (it
switched itself off and on restarting a smoke plume developed (hmmm...)
so a good place to dry my socks has vanished. Maybe on the engine block
instead if that's not too hot.
 
The repair I developed for our torn mainsail seems to be holding up
really well and I am now considering a career in sewing. It is actually
very satifying work. Not the needle pointing stuff but the sewing that
involves hammers and drills and plyers ;-)
 
To a soggy bunk now...

Eindelijk vertrokken

Zie ook www.sailreport.nl: 

Eindelijk zijn we vertrokken met onze nieuwe mast. Twee weken en 4 uur later dan de rest van de vloot en het wachten op de mast duurde een eeuwigheid. Het voelt onwerkelijk om na bijna drie weken weer op zee te zitten. Bovendien het is erg jammer dat we niet kunnen racen.

De mast arriveerde vrijdagochtend en werd maandagochtend geplaatst. Het is nu woensdagochtend heel vroeg en we varen zo'n 80 mijl ten zuiden van Qingdao. Het vertrek was strak geregisseerd met een afscheidsbanket Chinese stijl met veel sterke drank, "gambei" (in een keer je glas leeg drinken) en gespeech over vriendschap. We werden uitgezwaaid door een drumband en TV camera's op de steiger. Alle Clipper Race versieringen werden vandaag naar beneden gehaald en het TV scherm wat twee weken lang non-stop hetzelfde korte filmpje van de race heeft uitgezonden, was eindelijk afgezet. Wij waren Qingdao zat en ik denk dat Qingdao ook genoeg van Team Finland heeft gezien.

Lange kluslijstDe boot verkeert in uiterst schone en opgeruimde toestand, echter de tuigage en mast verdienen nog veel aandacht. Ons gedwongen vertrek was prima want we zijn eindelijk los van de kant en op weg naar San Francisco, maar de lijst met klussen aan de mast en tuigage is eigenlijk nog te lang om alles op zee te doen. Voorlopig varen we op de motor en met gereefd grootzeil om de vaart er in te houden. We kunnen witte zeilen voeren, maar spinakers zijn voorlopig niet mogelijk want de splitpennen moeten nog weggewerkt worden.

AfzienWe hebben nu 20 knopen wind op de neus en de temperaturen zijn aan de lage kant. Zonder verwarming aan boord en na drie weken in hotels te hebben geslapen valt de koude wel een beetje tegen en dan moeten we nog verder naar het noorden... Veel kopjes thee dan maar en hard denken aan onze volgende bestemming. Inmiddels hebben we bevestigd gekregen dat de start voor de volgende race uitgesteld wordt. Met een reisschema van 28 dagen, ofwel 1500 mijl per week, moeten we het kunnen halen. Hierin ligt ook meteen de uitdaging voor de komende maand.

Ps. Hans en Dirk hebben ons verlaten en Hans komt in New York weer aan boord. Hij heeft een bruiloft van zijn dochter en de overdracht van zijn huis te regelen. Door ons late vertrek kon hij helaas niet meer mee naar San Francisco. Op dit moment zijn er drie Nederlanders aan boord: Frank, ik en Caroline Slootweg.

Weather changes

At last we have managed to put enough tension on the rig to actually put
a sail up in stronger winds. The result has been more stretch in the steel wires that keep the mast uop so more tensioning has been
carried out. Also our mainsail has unfortunately ripped at the place
where it had been repaired after it tore when the mast came down. The
result is that we can only sail with 2 reefs or more. In order to keep
our target pace to make sure we cover 1500 miles per week we need lots
of wind. And that came and that went and it came back and went again
and nowe it is back BIG TIME. I don't think we have seen this much
breeze since we were heading towards the gate south of Taiwan and that
seems ages ago. The funny changes started last night as we were trying
to round the tip of the southern most big island of Japan. We had a
perfect breeze and were doing 8 knots (target speed) straight to the
cape then the wind died and we had to drop sail and start the engine.
After 40 minutes the wind came back: sails back uop, engine off and away
we were until after one hour when the same pattern occurred with exactly
the same times, wind speeds and wind directions and thius repeated
itself once more: eerie! When I went off watch they had funnily enough
only sailed under engine in no winds. I come back on watch and the same
wind changes happen again, twice! The weather between the spells has
been great though: I sailed in shorts and bra for 2 hours! The last time
the wind picked back up it finally aligned with what the grib files
calculated and we are now doing a nice conservative 10-11 knots of
speed in to  30-40 knots of wind on our tail. With the poled out
yankee three and doubled reefed main I managed to drive us down the
waves with 15 and sometimes 16 knots: sailing is great!!!! Now we
have the storm jib up and double reefed main and still manage to
achieve 11 knots. All very good for our progress towards
California. However lack of a working watermaker will slow us down
and send us into a japanese port for a few hours. Bummer but akso a good
opportunity to take on more fuel so we can catch up.
I am loving being back at seas and have celebrated with several trips
to the top of the mast and the end of the boom. Halleluja. Now time for
some food!

On the road again

We are now 48 hours at sea and I am finally beginning to realise that we
are actually sailing again since we broke our mast more than a month
ago. We are steaming along under yankee 3 and double reefed main just 80
miles South of Korea and 180 miles West of Japan. I realised we are
sailing again when I took the helm. 25 knots of wind just aft of the
beam, gusting to 30 occasionally. I hit a nice wave and off we went: 13
knots! That short moment made up for all the waiting and the hard work
put in in Qindao and for the cold and for all the engine action just
after our departure.
The new rig has caused us some headache and concern.As the weather was
not very helpfull when we set off the stretch in the stainless wires
that hold up the rig occurred much quicker than you'd normally expect.
we now have a small S in the top of the mast but after a couple of
rounds of tightening the rig the mast makes a much firmer impression.
Up to 25 knots apparent wind we are fine anything above that would
require us to minimise sail area (drop the yankee 3). Our brand new
staysail has been showing off on deck. It is too new to go up in 25
knots of breeze. We'll wait for that until later when things are
lighter. Spinakers are currently out of the question: all the splitpens
in the top of the mast need to be taped so they don't rip our kites.
unfortunately we have torn our main sail just above our first reef so
we are bound to sail with two reefs until weather conditions turn really
light and we can take the sail down on deck to evaluate and repair (?).
I just spend half the watch in the masty and on our boom hanging over
the water to sort out bits and pieces. Great fun except when I was
catapulted off the top of the mast as the boat got tipped by a wave.
Yihaaa! I felt like superman but without the cape. I was wearing red
bottoms and blue and red boots ;-) Anyway the new mast climbs like a
dream... Just wanted to say that I am so happy to be sailing again.