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!
