Catch~up with Jeff's Log ~ Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

Sunday, August 3, 2008 350 miles SSW of Dutch Harbor, Alaska

We are now cruising under spinnaker at nine knots. The anemometer broke, so we now have no accurate wind speed. Shortly after lunch, we noticed the barometer rise and the wind freshened and went forward of the beam. The temperature dropped a bit, and we all scurried to get the spinnaker up and drawing, As soon as it filled, the boat accelerated and began driving through the sea as she is meant to do. There is a certain feeling of awe that happens every time I hear a spinnaker go “whomp” as it fills. They make an enormous amount of power, and the burst of acceleration happens smoothly and gracefully.

At this speed, the chart plotter shows us reaching Dutch Harbor tomorrow evening. The weather report says the wind won’t last. I hope that they are wrong this time. I must say that Commander’s Weather has been giving very accurate weather thus far, and I certainly do want to thank them for that. They steered us around the bad weather that we would have run directly into, without their guidance. The water temperature is now a chilly 55 degrees, so the nights on watch are very cool and damp. My windward lens of my glasses routinely gets covered in mist and I sometimes wish I had a wiper on that lens. I am getting a lot of use out of my foul weather gear and boots. When I look up at our tri-color light at the top of the mast, in the dark, the mist can be seen blowing around it. All of this mist condenses on the mast and rigging, and runs down to the fittings at the base of the mast. Another leak appeared, and drips right on Scott’s pillow area at the head of his bunk. I studied what was happening and made a shield to deflect the water from the lid of a plastic margarine tub, which I secured to the boom vang hydraulic line. The fitting for the hydraulics is not sealed to the deck plate any longer. I will fix that while in port, as I do not want to risk a hardware failure for which repairs would be impossible at sea. Scott reported that things were drying out since. That’s the price of having the big cabin up forward.

I sure do miss communication with Clara. This has been the longest time since leaving Florida that we have not communicated, and I am concerned, because she is going through a lot right now, and I cannot help her in any way. All I can do is pray and hope that all is well. I have my U.S. phone all charged up so that I can call her at the first opportunity. When the wind speed device stopped working, I checked the connections and so forth in the boat, and then we sent Neil up the mast to remove the outside part for a check over. He brought the wind wand down with him, and we cleaned and lubed it, but that did not help. On his return trip up the mast, I sent a can of lube along, and he sprayed the sheaves and windex, so that is another little bit of maintenance that is now done.